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When people are dying, speed is everything, so Médecins Sans Frontières shares images worldwide using Picdar’s Media Mogul.
Médecins Sans Frontières uses Picdar’s Media Mogul to manage images of its humanitarian work around the world. “When we use photos, it helps us to get better returns.”

Bruno De Cock, Photo Projects Manager, MSF (Belgium).

Darfur in Sudan, Somalia, Columbia, Haiti, Angola, and Sierra Leone are just a few of the world’s regions where human life is threatened, either by disease, or, increasingly, by the hand of man. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international humanitarian aid organisation that provides emergency medical assistance to populations in danger.

It is active in more than 70 countries, many of which the world’s media never comment on. When a crisis breaks, MSF uses images of the situation to raise awareness, and to raise funds so that it can continue its work.

Speed can make a huge difference to the number of lives saved, and so it is vital that MSF can manage its image bank as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Picdar, the ideal solution

“Media Mogul means we can respond quicker to a journalist’s request for photographs.”
Picdar’s Media Mogul is now enjoying its fifth anniversary with MSF. The award winning system allows MSF to manage its growing base of 30,000 images online, and therefore, around the world in real-time. Accessed via a secure password protected web site, MSF’s staff can manage and use images around the world.

The global nature of MSF’s work is perfectly illustrated by the international span of photographers and staff supplying pictures; for example Espen Rasmussen, Paolo Pellegrin, Jean-Pierre Amigo, Juan Carlos Tomasi, Karsten Bidstrup, Roger Job, Paco Arevalo, Dominick Tyler, Sebastiao Salgado, whose arresting images have been used in MSF’s fund raising literature.

Bruno De Cock, MSF’s Photo Projects Manager based in Belgium says; “We have offices in more than 19 countries and essentially we wanted to be able to share images among the offices. Media Mogul has allowed us to act quickly and efficiently as a press office. For example, if there is a press release on a current crisis, all our offices can see the photos that are attributed to that press release. Media Mogul means we can respond quicker to a journalist's requests for photographs.”

Pictures speak every language

In carrying out humanitarian assistance, MSF seeks also to raise awareness of crisis situations. MSF acts as a witness and will speak, either in private or in public about the plight of populations in danger for whom MSF works.

Basic medical aid is an international humanitarian concern and photographic images break through the difficulty of language, getting straight to the point.



Bruno illustrates the reality of MSF’s challenges; “We could just write about it, but for a mediatised conflict like Lebanon, or where we are the only independent NGO, it is important to show our presence. We raise awareness among the public with photo exhibitions and through fund raising. When we use photos, it helps us to get better returns. If you want to get a story out that is not very interesting to the media, or because it is a small country, but is still important to us, it helps to have a good photo. The photo might convince the media to run the story, or move a story further to the front.”

Responding to digital images

Adding to the work that MSF has always been providing in regions of natural disaster, there is also more conflict in the world. Along with the high speed electronic changes in media management, MSF has had to respond to changing environments in all parts of its operation. “Ever since MSF started in the early 70’s our work has been covered by photojournalists. But things are different now because of the wires. Photos are available on the spot. One of the first things that pop into our minds is to have pictures as soon as possible.”

Managing images ‘on the wire’ is something that Media Mogul was designed to do. Developed originally to meet the needs of an increasingly digitised and aggressively competitive national newspaper industry, Picdar is the leader in the digital asset management (DAM) market in the UK. Turning its attributes from poacher to game keeper is straightforward, and Picdar is now used by the leading picture agencies as well as the leading publishers.

“Picdar’s system is very flexible and we found a lot of ways to adapt it to our specific needs. …Picdar has a very strong solution that is head and shoulders above the rest.”
Bruno explains how Picdar works for MSF. “Picdar is hosting the images on a server, and publishing them online with a search engine. Picdar’s system is very flexible and we found a lot of ways to adapt it to our specific needs. We had tried off-theshelf digital asset software, but they all had implications and problems for our IT. Picdar has a very strong solution that is head and shoulders above the rest. We have a fault-resilient configuration which Picdar host for us, making it extremely reliable. The only down time we have is scheduled maintenance, and even then for only a few minutes. As we are operating from more than 19 offices in different time zones, this constant availability is important. People expect it to be reliable and to work fast.”

Staying up front on the web

Keeping its web site current, MSF use the flexibility inherent in Picdar’s system to allow users around the world to show what is happening locally, to a global audience. “It is very important to present recent images on the home page. One of the things we needed was user input on the galleries, so stories can be brought forward. This also allows us to pick up on what people in other offices are doing,” confirms Bruno.

Managing photographic rights

MSF doesn’t always own its images, but with Picdar, Bruno can quickly identify the photographer and any rights issues associated with an image. “We get a lot of requests, which is a bit tricky, because we are rarely the owner of the copyright. This doesn't mean we don’t help other media to use photos. Because of the way images are managed as assets with Media Mogul, we can always find the right information and get them in touch with the photographer.

“Because of the way images are managed as assets with Media Mogul, we can always find the right information and get them in touch with the photographer.”
Sometimes, photographers are working with us pro bono, so we try to give back to photographers where we can. If it’s a big crisis, or it’s important to get published, we would ask photographers for 3-5 images we can use for other media. Any information or agreement we have with photographers is stored along with the image.” Because the rights and licensing details are associated with the image, managing photographs provided by staff, alongside those from professional photographers, is very easy with Media Mogul.



Simplifying administration

“Picdar’s ease of use is ideal because it’s not possible for small offices to take the time for complex training”.
In the past, administration of so many images, says Bruno, “used to be tedious.” Not so anymore. With Picdar, Bruno and his team can batch edit images. “We get more and more photos, currently around 30,000 images, and its growing at a faster pace. We need a system that is easy to manage. Picdar’s ease of use is ideal because it’s not possible for small offices to take the time for complex training”.

The main development this year is making the administration side easier, building some extra functions for faster, easier work. “People can be lazy,” says Bruno. “Searching for ‘AIDS’ shows up thousands of images, and I’m trying to encourage people to refine their search from the start. Now they can search on two levels, a general search, and then if they see they are getting, say 700 images, they can click for a more refined search.”





Making a difference

“Media Mogul helps us speed up the process of showing other charities, pictorially, what is going on in different parts of the world”
Administration aside, Picdar’s Media Mogul makes it possible for MSF to concentrate on its core activities. Bruno summarises; “Media Mogul helps us to speed up the process of showing other charities, pictorially, what is going on in different parts of the world. Everything that we do needs to add to the speed of our work. Media Mogul is also part of our memory bank, a visual history of MSF that allows us to share the past. This is important because then we can learn and improve what we do, and pass that on to people in training for new projects.”
The benefits of Media Mogul for Médecins Sans Frontières:
  • Able to manage images globally
  • Can protect licensing rights simply
  • It increases the charity’s ‘global community’
  • Staff can use images easily from around the world
  • Pictures are always available, 24 by 7
  • Can provide pictures to the press very quickly, to support fundraising