HP Village Photographer Program Updated

Hewlett Packard Village Photographer program

Introduction
The Village photographer program was a flagship initiative of the erstwhile Emerging Market
Solutions (EMS) group of HP, a group chartered to create self –sustaining solutions which are
scalable, that provide local communities with economic growth and HP with new opportunities
and business model innovation for these markets.
The Village photographer program matched HP’s existing capability in low cost photo printing,
with a requirement in rural areas i.e. a need for a low cost solution that delivers photographs in a
timely manner.
Need analysis
The current available solution for photography the “mini lab” is a capital intensive equipment costs
over 20 Lakh Rupees and is available only in cities , both of which imposes several limitations on
rural consumers. Firstly it takes both time and effort for the prints to reach a consumer in the
village and also requires the entire film roll of 36 exposures to be used up before it can be given
for processing, an issue for the rural consumer as he may require only 1 or 2 photographs and
not a whole roll. Because of these reasons only need based photographs like passports and very
important occasions like marriages are captured on film and a large no. of other photo occasions
in villages are largely ignored.
HP Digital photography solution
HP has introduced photography in Rural India in two formats
a) The Village Women photographers - This solution has
been piloted in the Kuppam HP i-community. Here the HP
Digital photography solution consists of a HP Digital camera,
a portable photo-printer and a solar power-pack, each
component of the solution leading to an economical portable
photography solution for villages and small towns of India
and other similar emerging market countries.
The HP 145 photosmart printer that is used in Kuppam has
the advantage of printing directly from a camera and
removes the need to invest in an expensive computer for
interfacing with the printer. The options in the printer allow it
to print sizes ranging from
passport size to 4” X 6”
maxi size pictures. The
quality of pictures printed
on the HP 145 compares
favourably with pictures
printed in “photo labs” that
are 100 times more expensive.

It is no secret that most villages suffer from irregular power and

even in electrified villages there are areas like a temple or a school
where grid power may not be available. The Solar power pack
developed by the HP EMS team not only enables photo printing in
places where grid power is unavailable but also saves wastage of
material incase of a sudden power shut down during photo printing
process.
Both the lightweight small size photo printer and the solar power
pack has the advantage of printing photographs at the place where the photos are required – a
tourist location, a wedding party and offers door delivery of photographs to the rural consumer, a
service not possible with the existing conventional solution.
An important aspect of the Village women photographer program is that the Village women
photographers of Kuppam are members of the Self Help Group Movement and this aspect of the
program has helped in several ways. Their membership of the Self Help groups has trained them
to work as a team and they help each other by sharing tips and business insights. Membership of
the self help group movement also enables them to draw upon support from the local district
administration and access funds specifically allocated to support the Self Help group movement
in the country.
Initially HP hypothesized that photo id printing would be the most popular application however the
results from the field indicate that the photographs taken have covered the whole gamut of village
life including marriages, family occasions, photographs of children, festivals etc.
b) The HP Digital photo kiosk
In this format the digital photography equipment including a digital camera and a HP color inkjet
printer is added to the existing Village internet kiosk. In the Kuppam Community Information
Centres (CIC) the CIC operators prefer to use an all in one (Printer cum Scanner) machine
because besides photography job orders they also receive many requests for scanning,
modifying and enhancing old photographs. In other kiosks run by other operators like n-Logue
and Drishtee the printers have ranged from rudimentary color inkjet printers to sophisticated hi-
volume business inkjet printers.
In most kiosks (n-Logue and Drishtee) a large proportion of photographs have been passport ids.
HP has created a revolution in rural India by introducing the digital photo

studio. For Drishtee, it has become a good source of revenue generation
for its kiosk operators who operate at the village level. The highlight of
this digital-studio is the instant and good quality of photograph at an
affordable price. This invention has also saved time and money of rural
people who used to travel to the nearest photo-studio located at the
nearest town. - Satyan Mishra CEO Drishtee
Key Insights from the rural digital photography program
Some of the key insights that HP has gained from this program are that while it was known that
there existed a demand for passport photographs but a latent need for capturing events, festivals,
family occasions etc was discovered through this program. Also it was noticed that quality
demanded by the rural community is stringent and digital photographs are constantly compared
to photos obtained from analogue photo labs. Taken together it demonstrates that good quality
equipment i.e. High resolution Digital cameras and photo quality inkjet printers are essential for
carrying out a successful digital photography business in rural India. Contrary to the Kuppam
experience one of the reasons for the low proportion of 4” X 6” photos in other kiosks may be the
fact that in these kiosks high quality equipment may not be have been used.
Another insight HP got from the program is that while training the village women and kiosk
operators on use of equipment is easy and this training does not take up more than a day,
continuous monitoring and motivating the photographers is important for the success of the
program.
However the most important learning from the Village photographer program pilots is the need for
an entrepreneurial instinct in the photographer. Some of the more entrepreneurially inclined
photographers have delivered results that are twice the average. A good example of this would
be Ishwari, a photographer in V. Kota of Kuppam. She earns about 700- 1000 Rs. a month trough
photography and even though she is barely literate she is learning the Adobe Photoshop program
as she feels that this can help her earn more revenues. Similarly another CIC operator in V. Kota
promoted the start of photography services in his CIC by announcements though autorikshaw’s
and use of the village youth clubs.
Conclusion
The Village photographer program has been a success on many fronts across both the formats
i.e. both the individual women village photographers and the internet kiosk formats. The program
in Kuppam was initially started in the Gudipalle Mandal with 4 women and thereafter has
expanded to 12 women in V. Kota Mandal. Besides helping the women increase their family
incomes substantially, it has also helped in increasing their self confidence and social standing in
the villages they reside. They became more mobile, interacted with multiple people, were able to
speak out for themselves and gained the support of their families. This is a commendable
achievement all the more because most of the women in the group were barely literate and had
never worked in a technology driven business before.
Photography services have also been added to many kiosks of both Drishtee and n-Logue and it
is reported that this service is crucial for the kiosks in achieving financial sustainability. As a result
of this both Drishtee and n-Logue have added photography services as part of their core offerings
and have replicated them across their network.
In the two years of the photography program HP has gained key insights in promoting digital
photography in villages and the various components that go to making such a program a success
like the equipment configuration, selection and training of entrepreneurs, program management,
promotion strategies etc. and feels confident that such a program if implemented in scale can
both fulfill a need in rural India and also be a substantial source of earning for the rural
entrepreneurs in India and other emerging market countries.
Even in 2008, two years after the withdrawal of HP from the program, the Kuppam village women
photographers are still in business and earning Rs. 1500/- to Rs. 2000/- per month.

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Hewlett Packard Village Photographer program

It is no secret that most villages suffer from irregular power and

HP has created a revolution in rural India by introducing the digital photo

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