Eveline, mostly known as Effie, therefore, the Instagram username is A Girl Called Effie, is a portrait photographer based in Amsterdam.
Effie studied Media Communications, and in 2008 she moved to Shanghai for 4 months. There, on the electronic market, she bought her first Nikon
mirror camera.
She took her first courses in photography at her university. However, she sees herself more as a self-taught photographer.
After a career in video productions, she decided it was time to discover the world through the lens of her camera. Now, she works with international nonprofits in Africa and Asia.
Inspiration in The World
"I capture images of some of the most beautiful projects around the world that share love for each individual in need."
Besides working for nonprofits she travels the world as an independent photographer to click street portraits of locals. Storytelling is what she loves the most.
"Taking portraits of people that inspire me is for me a way to inspire or educate others. This world is full of interesting stories!
“I wana make a change, a shift in the way of thinking, especially for non-profit organizations.”
Effie says that to give money to an NGO is not something you are obliged to do, it’s something you want to do.
A Volunteer Photographer
Social media is now based on story-telling and images…”organizations have wonderful images to tell but the just lack the knowledge on how to spread that.”
Especially nowadays where you can find social media everywhere and everyone uses it; so NGOs can use it as part of their marketing strategy.
For her, as a portrait photographer and volunteer, she likes to capture images of their positive projects, not negative ones such as pictures of children crying.
It’s much more inspirational if the NGOs show people the good things that they’re doing, even in bad times. With social media you can do so much, knowing that it’s a free marketing tool.
Using hashtags can really help you in spreading your work; since it helps you reach a large number of people. Thus your hashtags should be connected to the topic in your photo, in order to reach the right people.
So stick with hashtags that you feel work. Also, you can connect with pages that repost and share other accounts’ work and images. That is a great way to promote your work, so easily.
As a portrait photographer and volunteer, Effie has a lot of vision for improving the world, one click at a time.
“Doing volunteer work is really good for your mindset, and for whom you are as a person. It really expands your horizon, and it gives you an outlook on life. I would always recommend people to do so.”
For more tips on how to grow your NGO, your work, profit from digital media, and how to be more in touch with your audience, check out this podcast https://open.spotify.com/episode/5mV5ystCKY1eEFPQuiXc7w
Photo by Eveline Gerritsen on Scopio
Written by Angela Zoghbi
Content Creator
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