Microcredit opens doors for Dutch photographer

RNW, 9 November 2010 - 7:46pm | By Belinda van Steijn

Shitu Lama (Photo: Raymond Rutting)

Shitu Lama works as a tailor in Ethiopia and Lhadj Becaye Saur is a fisherman in Senegal. They are proud of the businesses they’ve set up with microcredit loans. Dutch photographer Raymond Rutting has spent the last year and a half taking portraits of people running successful small businesses in three African countries.

“I was given the freedom to make my kind of pictures about microcredit,” explains Mr Rutting. “I chose to make penetrating portraits, which also show something about the surroundings.” His photographs include some commissioned by Terrafina Microfinance, a Dutch microcredit organisation.

For the community

Mr Rutting says most people are pleased to co-operate. “They know the money is coming from somewhere, and realise the photos are important for their community. Sometimes, it was a bit more difficult, like in Ethiopia. I was told by one local: ‘You’re standing in my cornfield, taking photos. In days gone by, I would have killed you!’”

Moved

Mr Rutting was moved by some of the talks he had with the small-time entrepreneurs. He has a story about a woman selling mangos: “Her husband had died. She was able to afford to send her kids to school by selling mangos in the market.”

One thing really struck him during his talks with people. “A good farmer cannot earn enough to get a loan from an ordinary bank to extend the business, but earns too much to be eligible for new microcredit. That can’t be right.”

Small fortune

Raymond Rutting’s photographs can be seen until 2 January 2011 in the exhibition Klein Geluk (Small Fortune) in the Geldmuseum (Money Museum) in Utrecht. Afterwards, the photos will be auctioned, with the profits going to The Art of News Foundation, which has been set up by Mr Rutting to support development projects.

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