Groundbreaking photographer

Griffiths will speak tonight in Olympia as part of The Washington Center for the Performing Arts’ National Geographic Live Series. Her talk is called “A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel,” and she’s an author of a book by the same name. For years, her now-grown children traveled everywhere with her as she took photos in all 50 states and about 125 countries.

“I didn’t want to be an absentee mother, so I decided I would make my decisions based on what would make the family happy and what would make the kids happy. My kids were both terrific little travelers,” Griffiths said.

“We’d live in beach houses or apartments, things like that. We never stayed at hotels. I was a very inexpensive photographer.” She laughed. “Back in the old days, when everybody would fly business, I would fly in the back with my children.”

The days of bringing her children along are mostly behind her; her children are 19 and 22, and the baby crying in her Northern Virginia home is her granddaughter. But Griffiths’ travels still are very much ahead of her.

“Between now and June, I’m working in seven different countries,” she said. “That’s kind of unusual, but every once in a while that happens. Now that my kids are grown, I’m freer to go and do the kinds of projects that for little kids would be miserable,” she said.

But Griffiths is still balancing domestic life with exotic travel. “I really cherish the time when I’m back,” she said. “You cherish your home life almost more when you’re a traveler. People used to say to me, ‘Gosh, you don’t really even need a house, do you?’ and I would say, ‘No, I need it more than maybe most people.’ Coming back to that warmth and comfort is what allows you to go out and do your work.”

Even when her children went everywhere with her, Griffiths still worked alone. “I always had a babysitter along to take care of them while I was shooting,” she said. “They didn’t go on shoots with me until they were a lot older. With children, you belong to them; you can’t say, ‘Not right now, Mommy’s working.’ That doesn’t work with little ones.”

She found a balance by requesting assignments where she knew she could find a comfortable place to stay with the children, however exotic the surroundings. And she supervised homework for them while they traveled; they attended public schools at home.

She said being a woman and a mother were advantages for her career. She was less intimidating than a man, and at the time she began working, women’s stories were not being covered as much as men’s. And the love of children is universal.

“It’s very interesting when you’re a Caucasian woman and you’re traveling in a different part of the world, especially a part of the world where women don’t do things on their own. You are an aberration. When you pull out pictures of your kids, there’s a comfort level people have. You’re not just a strange white woman; you’re a mother.”

These days, besides her work for National Geographic, Griffiths is executive director of Ripple Effect Images, a collective of photographers and other journalists raising awareness of and funds for women around the world.

“My current passion is photographing women and girls in developing countries and trying to use that work to promote the programs that empower them,” she said. “It’s all about lifting up women and girls and recognizing that they are really the key to the future.”

Annie Griffiths

What: Griffiths, one of the first female photographers for National Geographic, will offer a talk called “A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel,” about her groundbreaking career and her world travels with two young children in tow. It’s part of the National Geographic Live Series.

When: 7:30 tonight

Where: The Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 512 Washington St. S.E., Olympia

Tickets: $17-$27 adults; $15-$24 seniors, students and military; $8.50-$13.50 youths

More information: 360-753-8586, washingtoncenter.org, anniegriffiths.com.

Also: See Griffiths speak about her career at youtube.com/watch?v= dBJdhjLeKaI. Learn about the nonprofit she runs, Ripple Effect, which raises awareness and money for women in need around the world, at rippleeffect.org.