Savannah Dodd on Photography Ethics and the Waka Series

The Photography Educator series by Lenscratch highlights Savannah Dodd, a photographer and educator who established the Photography Ethics Centre in 2017. With a master's degree in Anthropology and Sociology of International Development, Dodd emphasizes the significance of ethical practices in photography. She initiated pilot workshops on photography ethics in Thailand and Vietnam in 2016 before relocating to Northern Ireland to create the Centre through a start-up accelerator. The Centre provides workshops on topics such as informed consent, decolonising visual language, and the ethics of AI image generation, collaborating with various institutions. In 2024, Dodd earned the Education Award from the International Visual Literacy Association and presented a TEDx talk in 2023 titled "Changing the world with visual media ethics." She is currently authoring a book on visual media ethics and has produced photographic series like "Waka," which captures homes in Kyotera District, Uganda, and "Herbarium of Photographic Emulsions," featuring anthotype prints from local plants on the Ards Peninsula. Dodd advocates for increased focus on ethics in photography education and encourages students to develop Statements of Ethics.