The first time I saw this interview with Stephen Mayes, director of the VII agency, he hit quite some spots inside of me where i have been thinking about for a while. It is more or less an interview about the future of photojournalism and the ways how VII is approaching it and how the whole economy changed.

The very first thing he says is that one of the biggest traps of photojournalism is to think about it as a format. By doing so, we limit ourselves, how far we push it, i guess, so it is good to think outside the box. One of the reasons i define myself very seldom by the media format i use to tell the stories.

VII started an online magazine a while ago and one for me very interesting aspect of it is that it is not selling something directly, but that he says, it is creating value in the way that it is allowing the photographers to tell their stories more deeply and in that way showing the photographers voice. In the same way Panos agency for instance is using multimedia to promote the work of the photographers on their site.

He is also talking about the magazines and one of the important sentences for me is that they are not important as clients anymore, but still important as a distribution partner. A major shift that also shows that there are thousands of different formats today as well to distribute and also make money out of it. Thinking of transmedia, where he is also talking about in the interview.

He also sees a role change for the photographers from suppliers to publishers, what is also really important to think about. How can we reach a dedicated audience with the stories? How can we develop new models out of that. A classic example where this role changed is music industry or also DVDs where the digital downloads are taking away the middle part, the shop, but instead have a direct communication/ selling from producer to user at least as a possibility.

At the end he is talking about what he thinks is needed nowadays to work as a photographer and interesting enough he is not talking about taking good pictures (what is still an important part, i guess…), but about how important it is to have something to say, having a brand and good imagination how to tell it. He believes that taking pictures to make money as your first goal is nothing what will bring you success. Earlier he defines the product he sells with VII also not as the photographs, but the credibility of the photographers.

At the end, we all want to tell stories i guess and we want to do that in the best way, so i wonder why do we limit our selves to one form of media and not explore what is possible?

Anyway, make sure to listen to this interview below (what is part of a great series you can find here).