Storytelling 101

Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

After enduring more than 20 hours of flights to reach Jakarta, photographer Thatcher Cook and I taught a full day's worth of classes on writing and documentary photography to 15 Indonesian staff at the Mercy Corps office here. Today's presentations and exercises explored issues such as structuring stories, conducting interviews, ethics and photographic composition. The participants — who come from many parts of Indonesia and are writers, field officers, administrative assistants and programme managers — asked plenty of questions, engaged in lively discussion and are eager to put these new techniques to use.

Tomorrow, they'll have the chance: bright and early, we're traveling to one of Jakarta's biggest slums, where Mercy Corps is working to help families emerge from deep poverty. Workshop participants will document these families' stories through creative and considerate use of written and photographic stories.

I am eager to share their work with you.