PHOTOGRAPHY TEACHER

By Ben Mc

Over 45 years of photography experience is coming to the SFM 2012

The SFM Perth is excited to have Dennis Fahringer speaking on Photography in 2012. Dennis is passionate about seeing people grow in their skills, and has channeled that passion into leading the Schools of Photography 1 & 2 at the Youth With A Mission base in Kona. There, Dennis has taught, influenced, and encouraged many hundreds of students in their skills in photography.

Dennis' involvement in missions and photography goes back to finding a brochure that listed 200 different skills that could be used in missions. He says, “I had always heard about missions but I thought that a missionary had to be a teacher, preacher, doctor, or nurse. I never knew that God could use a photographer.” That awareness has now led Dennis to travel to 48 countries with his camera, and to lead over 30 YWAM training schools in Photography. His primary interests in photography are people, especially candid portraits, photojournalism and travel.

Photography has always been a key part of the School of Frontier Media training, and the staff and students of the SFM are privileged to have a missions photographer of such experience and passion join us on the upcoming school. We are excited to glean all that he has to share with us.

Scroll down for a short biography of Dennis and some examples of his work from China and "the land of the pyramids".

Dennis Fahringer was born in Allentown, PA, in the U.S. His interest in photography began in 1963. His parents thought it would be just a passing fancy; they were wrong. Dennis worked for three years in high school on the student weekly newspaper and yearbook staff. While in college, he also worked another three years for the school’s newspaper and yearbook as a photojournalist.

After college, he started a business for three years as a freelance photographer in Bethlehem, PA. During that time, God called him into a 2.5 year commitment in missions as a photographer with the Christian Service Corps (CSC) at their headquarters in Washington, D.C. After six months there, he married the love of his life, Jo, and they’ve been together in missions ever since.

In 1977, Dennis and Jo moved to the Netherlands to work for the Dilaram House discipleship ministry, based at Heidebeek in Heerde. There, during their School of Evangelism, they discovered that that ministry was actually part of Youth With A Mission (YWAM). Dennis served not only with YWAM in the Netherlands, but also world-wide, plus other Christian organizations in Europe who lacked a photographer of their own.

His invitation to teach in several Schools of Graphic Design in Hurlach, Germany YWAM, led to his pioneering the School of Photography I at Heidebeek. After more than 11 years based at Heidebeek, Dennis, his wife, Jo, his daughter, Jessica, and son, Jeremy, moved to Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, USA. He’s been based there for more than 23 years.