When I first stumbled upon this multimedia story by Maisie Crow about the survivors of the Chernobyl disaster and the workers still dismantling the plant, I was quite sure from the start that I would be an interesting watch and a great piece of work on the craft of multimedia. Maisie Crow had been doing internships at Mediastorm, but more importantly had been doing some very nice multimedia pieces in the past. After watching the film, I must say, it reached all my expectations, why I now share it with you here.

When watching it, one of the first things you realize is that Maisie’s approach to the story comes from a photographic view on things. Her background in photojournalism is obvious. For me it felt as if the video sequences more focus on moments instead of moving situations that lead the viewer to something or bringing the story to a different point. Also when she introduces characters, she does that often with video, but in a fashion I’ve seen a couple of times now, with sort of a video portrait that uses an aesthetic of a still image.

When you watch the piece, one thing that you can find here executed very well, is the use of still and video. The stills are used extensively in moments where the story needs the viewer to slow down a bit and link the story to his own thoughts before approaching the next part of the story. While video is easier to consume, the stills let the viewer explore the picture more actively but also allows to slow down.

I’m a big fan of subtitles. There are always lots of problems coming along with it, but for me, hearing the voice of the persons in the story is always something that I think should have major importance. Even when you can’t understand the language, it gives you so much depth and feel for the person, something that I think should not be left out as a tool to tell the story. This is also what you find here. The problem of course is the distraction from the visuals, so it’s always a fine line.

Same counts for the use of music. Music is extremely powerful, what makes the use always critical. It has the ability to create atmospheres that otherwise would maybe not be there. In the film, music is only used in a very puristic way at important points of the story and helps to link different parts. But at the same time, most interview sequences come without any  music what allows us to feel an atmosphere that is created by what the people say instead of an atmosphere that was created by the music.

An interesting observation I made, was the extensive use of still images to the end. While at the beginning video is used way more than stills, the stills take over to the end. That could of course always have reasons coming from the production material, but it works well, because instead of speeding up and filling up the viewer with the story, the films slows down and gives more space to let the story sink.

But now enough of analyzing the structure and technical details of the film, the most important is the story and this is brilliant. Watch it!

Ok, ok, it’s already the 10th, but better late than never. Some might have recognized it that it was very calm here in the blog in the last weeks. That does by no means mean that we were unactive. There are a few big changes coming in the next weeks and months, like making the whole archive available for licence, print and so on. Beside that I put it as my main task for the next months to learn the language of my home since last year, Denmark before we will spent the rest of the year more or less in Africa as it seems right now. It is a big project we are planning right now that will focus on the variety of this continent and it’s people, but I’ll tell you more about it in an extra post in the next weeks. This project needs a good amount of planning too. So I hope to stay in Denmark for the next months to get all those things planned and executed, some small detours from time to time included of course. But enough about the state of myself and my projects.

To start the new year here in the blog I want to leave you with some proper inspiration that crossed my path in the last weeks in form of some interviews and talks with great photographers. I don’t want to leave much comments about it, but be sure you will learn something or find some true inspiration in it.

Alex Soth – on a life of approaching strangers

Sebastiao Salgado – The photographer as activist

Matt Stuart – “My super-power would be to be invisible”

Jeff Johnson – About Travel Photography

The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. - Chimamanda Adichie

Watch this, i have nothing to add. I promise, next time you go out to cover a story you will think differently about it. An amazing talk of an extraordinary woman.

Today i would like to bring your attention to multimedia producer Benjamin Chesterton of Duckrabbit. I came across is work from two directions. The first contact with his work was through Condition Critical, a project from Eastern Congo by MSF i wrote a couple of times in the blog before. Later we came in contact through the project ‘A developing story’ what Ben put up with a couple of other people and where i contribute to from time to time. A great project you should check out for sure. The purpose of the project is sharing multimedia from and about the developing world, but at the same time is a forum for discussions about how we picture the developing world and what could be done better or different. So if you are keen on working in that field, this is a place to get some inspiration.

Ben and i are brothers in mind in two major opinions. The one is about the picture of the developing world, the stereotypes, the never ending stories of war, famine and rape, the problems of b/w photography in this context and the single stories of Africa, that most of the time tell only one small part of the truth, seperating the viewer from the story instead of connecting him with it. We here, they are there – two worlds, not connected, only through our donations to charities. There is a big need to think about different approaches. The second opinion we share is the thought about giving a voice. We both believe to connect with stories it is about perspective and you change the perspective when only the journalist or photographer is telling the stories instead of letting the people tell their stories. And i believe it is also a form of respect for the people whos stories we tell.

Interesting enough Ben is coming from a different direction than i as he was working for the BBC doing radio. It is interesting to see how he approches audio totally differently as this is where he comes from, now adding the visual part. I’m coming from the visual side and now learn to use audio to support my visual storytelling. Quite interesting, at least for me, and a good place to learn more about the use of audio.

I want to leave you with a couple of articles and multimedia by Benjamin to the end that are worth watching or reading. First check out the story of Mishoka that won just two days ago 3rd prize for Feature Audio Slideshow for Best of Photojournalism 2010. An interesting must read is for sure ‘The blindfolded photographer’ raising some important questions. Comments are welcome!

Last but not least check out his full body of work here, check the blog for thoughts and inspiration here, connect on Twitter here and for sure check out ‘A developing story’ here. Below you can find a speech Ben gave a couple of days ago at the ‘Digital Storytelling 10′ conference, what gives a good insight in his work and thoughts about it.

Marcus Bleasdale is in many ways an inspiration. Not only because of his photographs that brought him multiple awards and a membership in the famous VII agency, but also because of the way he made in life. Marcus started as a banker, an investment banker to be precise. He was paid half a million pound a year to sit at a desk with a bunch of computers and even more phones around him. He owned houses and a Porsche. Nowadays his life couldn’t be different. He is a photojournalist, covering conflicts like DR Congo or Darfur since years. He left the safety of his office into an enviroment everything but safe. He travelled with armed rebel groups for weeks, saw some of the most brutal breaks of human rights. How does someone change his life so rapidly?

It was a slow process as it seems. Slowly changing the life situation and saving money for a re-education. At that time he also found is passion in the just moved out ex-girlfriends wardrobe – a camera. He started taking classes in the evening.

At one point he came to the office in the morning, it was the time of the Balkans conflict, and with the reactions of his collegues on what was going on there it became clear to him that he didn’t wanted to be a banker anymore. He went to the Balkans without a real idea, but he loved it. ‚Just waking up, jumping in a car to go and take pictures in a refugee camp – I loved the freedom, the energy, the rawness of it.’ From there he made his way into photojournalism. He also thinks that is former career as a banker helped him to develop important qualities that are needed as a photojournalist. Being the best photographer means nothing if no one is seeing your pictures and you are not selling them. Being a businessman before might have helped him a lot for his job.

One of the interesting ideas he is thinking about is the backgrounds of war. I once heardt a speech of Bleasdale, where said that every conflict has economic reasons. That this is the most important reason behind every conflict he knows. And i think he is right with that. Darfur – conflict about land, DR Congo – conflict about resources, and so on. There are many more to name, and even when it is seldom that easy, the economic interests are often the most powerful reason.

Here is a short take from Congo. For more you can watch his speech at the University of California here and his speech about Congo at the Frontline Club here. And for his latest story, check out ‘Love in times of TB’.

When there was one person who’s work influenced me in what i do, than it was James Nachtwey. It started after my trip to Northern India that i stumbled across the film ‚Warphotographer’ that was covering Nachtwey and his work . The film irritated me to an extend that left me confused for some days as i found my own thoughts, my own ways of how i work and think about all this in his words. And i started asking myself if that is a direction where my passion is, to cover the stories of the unheard, even conflicts and war. So maybe this film was not the starting point of what i do, but this film about Nachtwey made it clear to me.

Nachtwey made it not the easy way. He worked on ships in Southern America, drove trucks in the night while reading photobooks of his masters and emerging his passion for telling stories at daytime. He was influenced by the pictures that came from Vietnam and this made clear to him that this was what he wanted to do with life. He worked for a small newspaper in New Mexico for some years, slowly emerging before coming to New York, sleeping on the floor of a friend for months, trying to get work, talking to agencies. The starting point in what he really wanted to do was his assignment in Ireland at the clashes in 1981. He never looked back afterwards.

In the following years he covered more or less every conflict, from the genocide in Rwanda, the famine in Somalia and Sudan, the Balkan conflict, Afganisthan and many more. When there was a place where it was hot, Nachtwey was there for sure, covering the conflicts in an intimate way, always being in the first line. Later he focused more and more also on the not direct war-related aspects like poverty or his campain to create awarness for Tubercolosis.

What make Nachtweys pictures so impressive is that they are showing the most horrifying things in a way that is some kind of aesthetic. He was critisized for that quite often as people say this aesthetic is making the pictures not showing the reality of war. For me that was always what made his pictures so amazing as they are telling so much in one frame and this beauty, if you could call it like that, made people actually look at it, where many would look away normally, horrified in what they see. But many of Nachtwey’s pictures get you fascinated and make you think about what you see. Exactly what you wanna do with your pictures, i guess. Nachtwey most of the time shoots in black and white, what might be a bit old-fashioned for some in a world where bright colours are everywhere. And it might also show the dark and conflict based picture, what we are thinking when seeing b/w pictures from Africa for example. At the same time b/w is so much focusing on the basics, the structures, the elements, to say it short, the main aspects you wanna tell. Nothing what disturbs your eye. That’s what i like about it.

In the last days there was an on-going big discussion about an intership, Nachtwey was offering in his studio. The main issue was that it is unpaid. A huge discussion erupted and i felt a bit ashamed on what people wrote, personally attacking Nachtwey. They compared that offer with modern slavery and things even worse, calling Nachtwey a freak and stuff. Gimme a break. You might not get a direct value in money but you get this opportunity to learn from one of the greatest masters of modern photojournalism. The internship is three days a week, so there is time to work on the other days. Think of Nachtwey’s beginnings. And i guess people would pay Nachtwey for having a look in how he works. Beside the fact that it is not looking bad in your CV. It’s craziness what people are expecting. You can discuss if Nachtwey should know about the struggles of modern photojournalism, how hard it is to find work that actually pays your bills, that he, who is fighting for the rights of people all around the world could be more generous. But what does this offer mean at the end? It brings the intern to fight for it, to really want it, to be hungry to learn. At the end one of the hungy ones will be in Nachtweys studio, sucking in every little bit what could help him at his career. If i would have the time, beside some other reasons, i would apply for it directly. Is there something better than learing from someone who is one of the greatest in his field?

To bring the focus back on the amazing work Nachtwey did in the last 28 years, here is a slideshow from his rescent assignment in Afganisthan.

Chase Jarvis is advertising photographer and as being that not 100% someone who you might think as a direct inspiration for my work. What makes Chase work so interesting is not only the high quality of his work, mostly shoot on location, but also his approach to share i knowledge and his work in his blog. Sometimes it feels a bit like as if there are always as many guys with video cameras around him that film him while working, what might not be anyones thing, but i creates a lot of interesting content over that for anyone who is interested in a professional insight in photography. And even when his way to work with photography is quite different to the one of a documentary photographer it is a good inspiration to me, also to look at things differnently from time to time. For the whole behind the scenes stuff, check out his blog www.chasejarvis.com/blog. You can subscribe to his podcast there, follow him on twitter, facebook, and so on. The whole social media blast. You will learn something about photography out of that, i promise.

One of the best things about Chase photography is that it seems like he never left the playing kid behind himself. His portfolio starts with iphone pictures, taking in daily life situations, and the short sentence: The best camera is the one that’s with you. What i can underline only even more. To create emotional pictures you can do this even with your little cellphone camera or what ever device can do that. Especially the photography scene is sometimes so overloaded with technical discussions about what is the best camera and so on. Totally boring…

Even when Chase is doing mostly fancy high class pictures with Hasselblad and a big team, it only shows that you should never restrict yourself in your creativity by thinking in only one way about stuff. So check out his website chasejarvis.com for some inspiration.

The video below is a little example for his stuff from the blog and gives you a little insight in his work.