Photography Mentoring
Group & Individual Workshops
Technical & Creative Consulting
JASON HOUSTON
Photographer and filmmaker Jason Houston has worked in over 30 countries producing photojournalism, personal documentary, multimedia art, and short films. His work—often including various socially engaged approaches—brings to life authentic narratives that recognize agency, authorship, and sovereignty for those in front of the camera while informing broader truths toward social and environmental justice. His work has been recognized, published, exhibited, premiered, and presented online, in print, and at venues worldwide.
Jason believes that a vibrant, healthy industry is good for all of us and that exclusion and competition only stifle creativity and opportunity. He has always openly helped other creatives and is now stepping up his offerings of consulting, individual and group mentorships, and workshops drawing on his broad range of experience working on all sides of the industry.
Learning & Support
Drawing on over 3 decades working with cameras and photography, including as an award-winning international assignment photojournalist, magazine photo editor, cinematographer, and frequent mentor, workshop leader, and presenter on purpose-driven photography, Jason Houston is now offering a full menu of learning opportunities and personalized support for your creative pursuits.
Click the arrows to the right to expand the menu below and explore some of the ways Jason can support you in your creative process:
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Story & Project Development: Assistance with concept and planning for new projects.
Pitches & Grant Applications: Developing editorial story pitches and photo edits for grants, fellowship applications, and awards submissions.
Photo Editing: Everything from navigating large shoots and selecting your best images to creating visual narratives in traditional formats and new, creative ways.
Camera Skills & Equipment: Basic and advanced coaching for confidently understanding your gear and using digital and analog understanding to realize your equipment’s fullest potential.
Digital Workflow & Adobe Lightroom: Jason has been using Adobe Lightroom since 2007 when the application was officially introduced, and can help develop editing workflows that are efficient, reliable, and support the type of work you are making and how you’re making it.
Transitioning to Cinematography: It’s a reality of the current overlap in skills and equipment that many photographers are working in film and many filmmakers are learning still photography. Jason has been balancing the two successfully for over a decade and has refined his approach in effective and efficient ways.
Business Strategy & Development: Strategies for keeping up with the rapidly evolving world of photography.
Impact Planning: Making an impact while making a living making work that matters!
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Socially Engaged / Participatory Photography Programs: Jason and his life+creative partner, Dewi Sungai, have facilitated workshops with partner organizations including World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Rare, Working Assumptions Foundation, and USAID, in the Philippines, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, Madagascar, Peru, Canada, the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations, and the United States. The Story Collaborative process is specifically based on established participatory or socially engaged media methodology, but focused on and customized for the dynamics between our partners and the communities they work within.
Freelance Photo Editing & Creative Direction: Jason has worked with organizations ranging from big NGOs like The Nature Conservancy and WWF as well as small organizations like MarAlliance to help conceive visually-driven projects and photo edit for those, including annual reports, websites, and advocacy campaigns.
Assignment Management: Jason has stepped in on a freelance basis to help conceive and coordinate editorial and advocacy assignments, including working remotely with local photographers in project locations around the world.
Digital Asset Management & Workflow: Jason has helped organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, WWF, MarAlliance, and Rare develop digital asset management (DAM) systems and media content workflows, both using high-end purpose-built applications and creatively adapting existing consumer software with customized processes and procedures.
Building In-House Capacity: Jason has developed in-person and remote workshops as well as asynchronous resources to help develop the photo and video capacity of program staff working at all levels of familiarity with media production.
Group Workshops (Thematic & Skills-Based): The creative processes behind photography and filmmaking can help connect staff and partners to the work they do.
Keynotes & Presentations: The goal of media, art, and communications is to engage your audience, and one common gig Jason is hired for is speaking on his cause-driven photography projects for thematic conferences or annual fundraisers.
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For over a decade, Jason has also been working in film, primarily as a cinematographer, and since 2020 has been actively making films as eight16 creative with his life+creative partner Dewi Sungai. Dewi also has extensive experience in mentoring and leading workshops, and together they offer both individual and group workshops and mentorship focused on story and project development, filming and camerawork, editing and post-production, and ethical nonfiction storytelling. Some of the advising and consulting they’ve done includes:
Story Consulting: Dewi is a master weaver of narrative and has consulted on story development and editing for many filmmakers, including recently bringing an Indigenous worldview to an award-winning production for Pro Publica.
Gearing Up for Stills to Motion: One philosophy behind eight16 creative is to maintain a light footprint and keep gear out of the way of the creative process—an approach that can help inform still photographers looking to include motion and multimedia.
Production Planning: As a small, independent production company, we do most everything ourselves. And we’re happy to share what we’ve learned about being efficient and effective.
Testimonials
More Information & Lots of Examples
Click on the buttons below to view more information about Jason’s (and Dewi’s) work, including many examples of current and past projects, skills and capacity, awards, and accolades. Take your time. And please follow up with any questions that come up. Picking a mentor is an important step and we want to make sure we’re all a good fit!
P.S. — Buttons will open links in new tabs to make it easier to dive in.
Main Websites:
Presentations, Interviews & Articles
Fun Examples & Other Deep Cuts:
All the Dirt, In Detail:
Pricing
I don’t do one-size-fits-all set fees. Every photographer and all of the various organizations I’ve worked with have had different starting points, different needs, and different access to resources. That said, I know it’s helpful to have a range and understand how we might structure the relationship and what sort of scale of expenses you’ll be taking on if you work with me.
Here are some thoughts (click to expand):
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Depending on what makes the most sense for what you need, we can use hourly, day rate, retainer, or flat fee billing structures. Some photographers just need an hour to look over a contract and debate the terms, some organizations want to have someone on-call for when media comes in from their program staff, and many times, and especially with workshops, getting it all well-scoped and making sure expectations are clear and aligned makes coming up with a flat project fee make the most sense.
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I’ve been there. Everyone in the creative industries has AND we’re all on the same team. Yes, I make a living making photography and film and mentoring others to do the same, but I also do this because I love it. I can’t help myself. And because more of us making more good work is essential to healthy community, a vibrant industry, and overall positive futures. So, my goal with my pricing is for all of us to benefit fairly.
Here are some benchmark examples:
Asynchronous review of a contract for a new photographer with simple questions on licensing terms and rates: $50
A one-hour live remote session riffing on a new project idea: $100
Quick one-round review of fellowship application portfolio edit: $100
In-person coffee meeting across town to discuss a career shift or other business strategies: $150 (+coffee!)
Three-hour in-person Adobe Lightroom basic workflow workshop for camera club members: $150/person
Guest lecture at a university seminar class, followed by a meeting with select students: $250
Two-week on-call retainer to help coach a magazine photojournalism assignment: $500
Multiple sessions to plan and edit a grant or award portfolio: $750
On-going consulting as needed for a small, all-volunteer not-for-profit to gear up a multi-camera green screen studio for live remote medical trainings: $75/hr
Three-month mentorship with bi-weekly calls (and some homework for me) focused on launching a new long-term personal documentary project: $1,500
Year-long on-call mentorship with vetted up-and-coming photographers as part of supporting capacity and development in a larger advocacy effort: Volunteer!
Reorganizing a hard drive containing all of an organizations media content and creating a plan to maintain it through Adobe Lightroom: $2,500
Keynote presentation on cause-driven photography for a small organization’s annual fundraising dinner: $2,500
Rough cut story consulting for a short film, including Dewi reviewing raw interviews and verité options: $4,500
Basic photography field guide and curriculum for capacity building in technical skills and fundamentals of cause-driven storytelling for international program staff of a large organization: $5,000
Part-time consultation on designing and implementing a new digital asset management (DAM) system for a large organization: $5,000/month for four months
One-week hybrid live/remote socially engaged photography workshop with a local university class studying environmental communication: $10,000
Two-week socially engaged photography workshop in a remote international location, including a short behind-the-scenes film and all expenses: $57,000
Still have questions? The point of the long list above is because (1) if we’re going to do this, I believe strongly in transparency and clear expectations and (2) it’s not about me. I’m happy to inventory my skills and consider however they might be most helpful to you and your creative work. This should be a collaboration—so let’s collaborate!
Photography Experience
For over 30 years, Jason Houston has worked in all roles with a camera, from his main focus as an international photojournalist doing magazine and other long-form assignments, to producing large commercial shoots, to contributing to non-profit communications and other cause-driven campaigns, to independent and grant-funded documentary work, to cinematography, to photographing high-end weddings.
Jason is a grateful alumnus of the Missouri Photo Workshop, a Senior Fellow in the International League of Conservation Photographers, a Fellow at Wake Forest University’s Sabin Center for Environment and Sustainability, and the 2022 Environmental Peacemaking (EnPAx) Arts Fellow. His work has been published, exhibited, premiered, and presented around the world in outlets and venues ranging from The New York Times, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Science Magazine, WWF, and The Nature Conservancy, to Mountainfilm, SxSW, Harvard, Yale, Duke, the New Mexico Museum of Art, UNESCO, San Francisco Art Institute, and USAID.
See some of Jason’s photography on his portfolio site, www.jasonhouston.com
In addition to his still photography, Jason runs eight16 creative with his life and creative partner Dewi Sungai, where they produce values-driven films, media, and art on racial justice, Indigenous-centered voices, and the decolonization of humanity’s relationships with Earth and each other.
Industry Experience
In addition to working as a photographer and filmmaker, Jason Houston has also worked as a photo editor, educator, organizer, and general advocate for Concerned Photography. For about a decade in the early 2000s, Jason worked as a photo editor for Orion magazine, freelance for other publishers and non-profit organizations, and for 8 years as Director of Education for LensCulture, launching and overseeing the growth of the Submission Review program featuring over 200 reviewers and more than 100,000 online portfolio reviews.
Some of his work experience includes as a juror, curator, and portfolio reviewer for numerous photography awards, portfolio review events, and festivals, including Fotofest, ICP, PhotoLucida, PhotoAlliance, Center, PhotoNOLA, Atlanta Celebrates Photography, Griffin Museum of Photography, NYCFotoWorks, powerHouse, Telluride Photo Festival, SI Newhouse School of Public Communication, Lishui International Photography Festival, Lucie Awards, The Magenta Foundation, and others.
Jason has served on the selection committee for new applications for fellowship in the International League of Conservation Photographers; as a mentor for Emerging League photographers at International League of Conservation Photographers and the CoalitionWILD Global Mentorship Programme; the Colorado State Facilitator for WRKxFMLY, a socially engaged photography project with Working Assumptions Foundation; as a board member and advisory board member at Blue Earth Alliance (fiscal sponsorship for cause-driven media projects); as a guest faculty at IS183 Art School, Anderson Ranch Workshops, and Wake Forest University; and has presented countless times at universities, for arts organizations, and other venues across the country.