Bogotá, Colombia-based photographer Jorge Oviedo was recently commissioned by Ogilvy & Mather Colombia to photograph a campaign for the Coca-Cola Company. It’s a real tearjerker, to say the least (happy tears though, don’t worry.)
The campaign centers around the residents of Lloró, an impoverished town located in the Colombian state of Choco. With an average annual rainfall of 510 in., Lloró is one of the rainiest towns on Earth. To put this in perspective, Seattle receives only about 37.41 in. of rain on average per year. In Spanish, the town’s name roughly translates to “I cry.”
The residents of Lloró often struggle to find clean drinking water due to a lack of economic resources.
Coca-Cola and Ogilvy & Mather Colombia teamed up to bring clean water to the people of Lloró through their campaign “Rain for Sale.” The people of Lloró place recycled glass bottles outside to collect and bottle the rainwater that is so plentiful to them each year. They then decorate the sealed bottles before selling the rain at an event to top executives and celebrities, as well as online. The money raised was used to install the first water purifying plant in Lloró, and, as a result, the residents of the town now have clean and safe drinking water readily available.
Jorge’s photos accompanied the campaign to document the town and the process of “bottling the rain.”
The people at Ogilvy & Mather contacted me for this project because in my personal work I have a lot of documentary portraiture— I really enjoy photographing real people in their environments. This was right up my alley because the task was to document the sad situation of a small town in Colombia, and how a great idea behind a brand can bring something very positive to our society.
The biggest problem Jorge faced while photographing a town where it’s always raining? Keeping camera equipment dry and functional to get the shots he needed:
The main challenge was that in this town it rains an average of 280 days a year, which is the irony of the whole project. Being able to light the people under the rain and document how they live was very tricky. In order to make sure that my gear was protected all the time, I covered my camera with a special water proof cover and my strobes with plastic sandwich bags.
I think that my work as a photographer was to tag along with a great concept. The story is very ironic and moves a lot of people. I was lucky enough to be a witness to this situation, and illustrate a specific problem to the world through my images. When people look at the images and learn about the story, they become kind of emotional. For me it is a great memory and another opportunity to collaborate with a great agency and a great team of creatives. Not to mention that now the people in the small town of Lloró are very proud of their own water plant.
See more of Jorge’s work on his website.
Further Reading
Read more about Jorge on our Published blog.
Let us help you Find Photographers, source Stock Photography,
and Produce Your Shoot — or just reach out to hear more!