Hey Poul,  first, please introduce yourself and your work.

Ok. My name is Poul Madsen I am a classic photojournalist with a degree in in photojournalism from the Danish School of Media and Journalism. During my internship in 2005 I had the opportunity to work as a photographer in Mumbai, India. There I started to work with film documentary and basic multimedia. One year later I founded the Bombay Flying Club.

What was your motivation to get into photojournalism?

I never thought about becoming a photographer. It was very co-incidental. My brother was studying to become a journalist and I met some of his photographer friends. I saw their images and got immediately inspired to do something creative. Then I bought a camera, traveled around Indonesia for some time and I realized that being a photographer was the very right thing for me. I was 24 years old when I started out. When I started at the journalism school I knew I had chosen the right thing. The school in Denmark is awesome and I learned SO much there.

How did it went from there? Did you worked for a newspaper? Or just freelanced afterwards?

Once I graduated in 2006 there was an economic boom in Denmark. Most of the photojournalists from my class immediately got work. I was hired as staff PJ on a new daily called Nyhedsavisen. The daily was supposed to compete with 24timer and MetroExpress (free daily danish newspapers). I spent two years there .. and hated it. Fortunately I had time during my work to do some multimedia too. The paper closed down in 2008 due to the economic crisis and I went freelance. Since that time I have spent most of my effort and energy on multimedia. When the 5D Mark II came out, it changed everything.

Was there a story that changed the game for you? That had a bigger impact on the way you work?

Yeah. During my time on the paper I got the chance to go to Romania to shoot a story about street children. Immediately upon return I started to experiment with some flash scripts and I came up with a solution that could display images dynamically in full screen. This happened before the full screen flash player came out and I think that particular story opened up a lot of doors for me internationally. I spent 2 months on the programming in between assignments, during the evening and nights.

Great! It’s all about dedication to reach somewhere new!

One of the discussions in photojournalism is the question how far we can/ should push the work in cases of aesthetic and postproduction. Most recently the discussion about Damon Winter’s iPhone pictures from Afghanistan, what Henrik also stated on your blog as the end of photojournalism, when work like this could win awards. What is your take on that?

I think we have different opinions on a lot of things. I don’t see Damon Winter’s photos as a big problem. But the question is huge and it has a lot to do with the way that we see the world. I mean… black and white photography has always been  a “fake” take on the world too. My main objection goes especially towards to excessive use of photoshop. And I think we have a huge credibility problem in Danish photography. I am not the one to mention any names… but there are well renowned photographers who are taking things too far.

But I also don’t think photojournalism can be objective. We have seen some very bad examples recently. Some of the winning images in POY are just too much. But who is to say what is right and wrong ? I am not for sure…

I think it’s getting difficult when a certain aesthetic is overlaying the actual story of the picture or even changing it… How do you see this discussion in multimedia. There are people that say the use of music is also influencing the story way too much for example.

I say sure. I mean, when you do a multimedia story or a film documentary you use certain elements to enhance a story or a message. And I think it is perfectly alright. It just shouldn’t be overdone. If it helps your story, if it helps to bring out the message you want then you should use it. Most film documentary is staged anyway. We have the possibility to give a voice to those who don’t have one and we should use the tools with great respect.

But just as images cannot be objective, the same goes for multimedia. But I don’t like rules. If you don’t like the story or if you don’t trust it – don’t watch it. And for instance our own story about asylum seekers is highly political.

Ya, and I think, as you said, no one is objective and most stories are stories because they tell it from a certain direction. Let’s do a small step back. You were talking about your first experiments with multimedia before. How did it come finally to the dedicated move to multimedia & the foundation of Bombay FC?

We did a story in 2004 or 2005 about a spade of suciedes in Northern Ireland. We won an NPPA award I think and we saw that we could produce storytelling on a professional level. We saw a huge interest in new media – especially from the US – and we were very much inspired by what Flash could do. We spent a semester learning Flash and we just knew that it was the right thing for us (Henrik and me). We enjoyed working with different types of medias and tools and we saw it as a big challenge to work together on stories too. It was  huge advantage to work together as photojournalists. Also very few photographers at that time knew anything about multimedia so we saw it as advantage to be part of a “new school”.

Where you you see the biggest differences and possibilities of multimedia storytelling compared to the “classic” ways we are used to?

There are new platforms now such as the iPad where multimedia really has not explored the possibilities yet. I think we have to adapt to a completely new way of communicating and that is very exciting. But as technology moves forward at a very fast pace – storytelling doesn’t. So we have not seen the full potential yet. It is a slow going process but thankfully there are a lot creative individuals out there who are inspired and who work out of passion. The passion part is very important. I enjoy to see some of the stuff produced by the NFB but sometimes I am not sure of they are doing the right thing. Nevertheless I really applaud their creativity and the fact that the put a lot of money into experimental storytelling.

We are used to a classic and linear way of thinking and all photogaphers are shooting video now. My ambition is to do a cool nonlinear story this year, but it must not be too complicated to navigate. Internet viewers are still a bit conservative.

Where do you see it going with this whole thing of interactive stories for the web. Do you think that will be the next big step?

I think video is the way to go. Interactive video – and that is what we will be seeing more of! For my own part I will still do tradtional still photography but I will keep pushing the boundaries. I think we will see much more teamwork between individuals with core knowledge. Professional and ground breaking multimedia can only be produced today via team effort. I think the tablet technology will be the thing that will open up new ways of storytelling for a while but only for maybe the 2-3 years. Then after that I think we can expect to see even more advanced communication tools. It is difficult to say what will happen… and impossible to predict. But the most important part of multimedia will never change: Do you have a story?

One of the first multimedia stories you did that got international attention was Wasteland. What made this story so special that it got so much attention at that time in your opinion?

I have no idea. Personally I didn’t think it was that great but I think we managed to do two things. 1.) It came out the right time. At a time where most PJs had not produced any video with the “new” 5D Mark II. 2.) The story itself – the theme – was fascinating. The story was about a place very few people knew it existed. And since we produced the story there has been LOADS of PJs going there

Ya, maybe also, coming back to a question from the beginning, because it is visually highly compelling.

Sure! It was Brent who edited the piece and i would probably have made it in a completely different way. I was never a fan of the ongoing music track. But you know, everytime you do a story you learn something.

Ya, sure. Talking about the 5D. How do you see the move to video? Your last story ‘A matter of decency’ has way more video elements in it than the work you did before. Do you think it is becoming more or will still photography still play an important role in multimedia, also on the long run?

I think still photography will remain strong. Still photography is too important to dismiss. We just wanted to try to work with video and to experiment. I could easily see myself do a lot of still-based stories in the future. It seems like everybody – including me/us – have turned to the use of shallow-depth-5D-mark-II video. It is just a hype right now. For some stories video works well and for others stills are great. I think it depends on the circumstance… the place.. the story … the amount of time available. It is easy to become too fascinated by the new tools – the video, the editing and the post production. But sometimes stories are just told better through video. It also depends on the client! In the Maldives we produced for a classic French TV station and I think they expected us to deliver a lot of video.

Of course. Some of my clients are at least still very conservative. They want both, but then a film and stills for different use… You are often not only doing multimedia stories but also creating whole websites around this stories. As how important do you see this part of the work to tell the story?

Honestly.. I think we could do amazing stuff had we only had the budgets! Most of our stuff is self-financed and I just see it as an opportunity to provide documentation as well. Our story about the asylum seekers is a very complicated story and it carries a lot of extra material. We just wanted to bring in some extra additional key information. If you do a classic linear story it is the story itself that is the most important. Some of our clients just want us to add extra layers.. graphics and stuff. To me it is also about presenting a new story in it’s own environment. This is what we have done with the asylum story although it IS very basic. But we also wanted to give and opportunity to embed it. We have had very few viewers on that story on Vimeo and YouTube but thousands of viewers on the main site.

Multimedia is still a hard business to make money in. You mentioned that a lot of your stories is self-financed. How do you fund your work and make a living with it? And where do you see it heading to in the future?

Some stories are self-financed and some are funded. I will always tell a story that I think is important even if I don’t have the money. This is not only work to me. It is a passion and an obligation that comes with the job. Workshops are funding some of it and then we apply for grants too. So far BFC has been a side project to what we all do for a living – basic photographic and video assignments for various clients. We have never been organized like Mediastorm for two reasons. 1.) We wanted to establish ourselves internationally before investing money and time in a company 2.) We wanted to make sure that we could cater to a market and live off of it before taking the next step. – And so now we are actually preparing to take the next step. At this point we are not sure that there will even be a BFC in a few months time. BFC has been a kindergarden for us and now we a ready to give things a go. Working in teams is essential. The market – especially the corporate one – is highly demanding so it is not possible to deliver high quality work if you work alone. We will see more establishments all over Europe soon.

So that leads perfectly to my last question: What is coming next for Bombay FC and you personally? Any bigger projects or stories on the horizon?

Like I said we are working on something But I cannot say anything about it yet. I always carry a catalog in my head of stories that I want to do. But I am very flexible and relaxed with things. Ever since I got a child I have also realized that I cannot – ever – become a “big name” photojournalist. The family is too important to me so I cannot travel as much as I used to. So I could easily see myself as a producer who could do work for others in the field – people like you. But I am sure that we will be producing and shooting a few stories in 2011. I am opening up for collaboration with anyone who wants to play but let’s see how things evolve.

Great! Thanks for your time, Poul, that was very interesting. Looking forward to see what’s coming in the next months.