Why i’m writing all this? Because i think it is important to think about that from time to time. That it is important to also get the other sides. From journalists you often hear that they are searching for the truth. And they might find this, but in many news stories it is about the state of emergency and not about what is existing beside or in that. One part of the truth is that we follow each other, that we are influenced by eachother. I was writing recently about redundancy in the coverage from Haiti. This is part of the story. Maybe it is important to step beside the obvious path from time to time. To get off the beaten track and search for something different than what you are used to. Find the stories beside the stereotypes we are seeing and reactivating on and on again. Why that is important, beside treating the people you photograph with the sensibility and respect they deserve? It is also important for all the people in Europe or the US that might be interested in that and see it. Just because it is important for the understanding of situations. In my mind, part of the job is also to educate people in the way, that you deliver knowledge and impressions. And when we want to step out of the stereotype way, tell stories differently, we have to find the other stories, to bring a deeper and brighter understanding of situations. That there is life, normal life, that a slum for instance is not a unorganized space of lawlessness, but that the people there are organized as well, that they organize their lifes, that there are structures and daily routines, that the informal sector is making it possible, that they sell drinks or fruits in a slum as well, that there are shops. That it is not a lost space, but actually a place where a lot of energy of many big cities in Africa is coming from. They might not have running water or electricity, what makes the situation hard and also brings many problems and dangers for their lifes, criminality might be a problem, but it is only one part of it. The biggest part is still the normal life, the daily routines and all that. And it is important to bring the other sides to attention, because we can’t understand to a situation as long as we can’t relate to it. The horror is the thing what brings up our attention for a short period of time, but in the moment something becomes more diverse, it also has the chance to get more interesting. And i really think that this should be the starting point for most coverage, no matter if it’s in Europe, Afganisthan, Thailand or the DRC, to make people interested beyond the point of sensationalism. Only then we bring something the attention it needs to make a long-term difference. Not in the way to help people, but first to understand them a little bit better and bring them closer.

Sometimes this stories do not have to be far away from the classic story. Sometimes it is enough to change the perspective a little bit. For instance many people have to live in IDP camps in DR Congo. We know that because we see all the pictures of people fleeing or standing in long rows waiting for food. But is that daily life in a refugee camp? Maybe not. Who knows how a refugee camp is organized or what the daily habits in of the people living there are? To be honest, many of this situations are quite different to what we have experienced ourselves and hopefully will never experience. But it is about perspective. And about respect. At least to try to understand it.

]]> http://www.simonsticker.com/2010/03/11/eating-cakes-in-congo/feed/ 0 http://www.simonsticker.com/2010/03/08/shifting-livelihood/ http://www.simonsticker.com/2010/03/08/shifting-livelihood/#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:15:59 +0000 admin http://www.simonsticker.com/?p=1986

For more about the effects of Climate Change in Kenya watch also last years documentary here.

This is the third part of a series about prostitution in Rwanda. The second part can be seen here, part one and four will be online soon.

Clotide is waiting for us down at the main road, waving as soon as she can see us coming. With her jeans jacket and pant and a big smile all over her face she is not looking like someone who was living a very different life than nowadays. She invites us into her house, brings in some chairs and we sit down to talk.

Clotide is a former prostitude and stopped in 2008. For 18 years, since her 20th birthday, she worked as a prostitude for soldiers, students and other people. She got HIV beside other disaeses in the first year of doing it, got pregnant three times from men who never became part of the family. She got beaten and pushed out by her family that had adoped her as a child. Her voice is low while she is talking about all this and her eyes look sad and painful. It was never the life she chose to live but it felt like the only option. With living in a very poor family that never accepted her as their real child. With the hope for a bit more than what she was living in. It were hard years, raising up her childs without a father, she says. But then there is this glimmer in her eyes, this happiness to now have the chance for a different life.

She stopped prostitution after 18 years, moved to another area, another house, started to work in a brig factory five days a week. She became part of the Medsar project SPAC (Stop Prostitution Around Campus) and helped develop it. They founded a association for the women and she became the president. They now produce baskets and plant a field beside their normal work. When she is talking about it, she is smiling, reliefed and happy. “My situation is not bad”, she says. Her children can go to school, she finds support in the community and she gets no longer stigmatized. She has some goats and rabbits now. When the situation got better, she adopted another child, a older boy. But he stole all the rabbits beside one and went away. Shortly after she adopted Ignace, another boy, who is now part of the family.

Clotide is waving again with a big smile as we leave her again. She seems confident and happy with her life, proud on what she has achieved. And she is telling us a little lesson in what is possible when you do not stop believing in yourself.

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]]> http://www.simonsticker.com/2010/03/04/the-private-life-of-clotide/feed/ 0 http://www.simonsticker.com/2010/03/01/the-photoessay/ http://www.simonsticker.com/2010/03/01/the-photoessay/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:10:20 +0000 admin http://www.simonsticker.com/?p=1943 Today i wanna give you a short introduction on how to do a photoessay, based on my experiences, so as always there might be better or more compelling ways. So feel free to add those in the comments. The photoessay is also, when it comes to multimedia productions, the body of it as it tries to tell a story, so it is interesting to get a bit into that. Here are some ideas to think about.

1. Topic: At first and before any further thoughts what pictures you might need, you should think about the topic. What is the story? What do you wanna tell with the pictures? I always try to make that as clear as possible to myself to be sure what i need.

2. Research: If we start looking at it even before the shoot, do your research to get to know as much as possible about the story. It gives you the freedom to move and react more while you shoot. Normally, as long as you do documentary photography, it is not possible and also not the best way to start with a clear idea in your head, so that you just shoot what you thought before. That leads to stereotypes or at least single perspectives. I always try to be as open for everything what happens. I once was shooting a story on monks in Laos. I had this pictures in my head of them being so puristic, sleeping on the hard ground, eating once a day, praying and so on. And this was true in one way, but there were many more stories. That Phra, one of the monks, had a computer and a english dictionary in his room. And while i was shooting suddenly a cellphone rang –  of one of the monks. They started taking pictures of me as well with their phones. And at the end they gave me their mail adresses to sent them the pictures. Not really what i was thinking of before. But it was good to do the reasearch as it allowed me to see that in perspective and react on that.

3. Angle: Now you have done your shoot and it is time to think about what you will need for this story. What are the major parts you want to tell? Where should it lead the attention to? Do you have a starting point and an end? Are there different angles to tell the story? Think outside the box. Try new stuff, new point of views (not only in the pictures).

4. Length: A photoessay, especially when presented in the web should normally not be longer than 15 pictures is my experience so far. We are used to a big amount of speed and it is hard to keep the attention, even when you have great pictures. A photoessay with ten really good pictures that combine all important aspects will do a far better story than when you put in your 30 best pictures, but they repeat the same aspects. Really try to think again: What tells the story? What is important for the story? It is about the story, your pictures are the tool to tell it. I have tons of good pictures that might never get published as they do not fitted in the story they were shot for.

5. Parts: Think about the essay as a story. Every good story has a starting point, a body and a conclusion. In the classic photoessay this is shaped with a couple of different shots you include.

The establishing shot gives you an introduction and shows you where the story is taking place. Most of the times is is a wide-angle shot.

The medium shot is leading into the subject. It tells you more about it and how it belongs to the enviroment.

The close-up is a classic detail shot, giving you important single parts of the story.

The portrait is bringing the subject close and personal.

The moment is giving you special moments of the story. It could tell a little story in itself or be part of the bigger picture.

The closer is the shot that sums up the essay and leaves you with a thought or a conclusion.

This different parts don’t have to be in every photoessay in general. They are more giving you a direction what might help to tell the story, even when most photoessays at least have a establishing shot and a conclusion. Talking about the speed of consum in the internet, it is important to catch the attention of the viewer directly. So maybe try switching the parts. Make your first shot not the establishing shot, but something like a ‘hook shot‘ that pulls the viewer directly in the story. As always experiment with that.

6. Captions: The captions are another important part of the photoessay most of the times. I always try to have captions that do not tell what we already see in the picture. Let the captions add what your picture might not tell, like the names of people, their background or important information that could not be photographed. The captions allow you to give the story the last precision.

7. Experiment: All what i wrote before should be seen as a starting point. As there are thousand approaches to tell a story, if classic linear or non-linear, you have also all freedoms in your photoessay. Maybe you want to start with a certain moment and tell the story from there with what happend before and where it leads to. Or  you mix different perspectives. Try it out. At the end it is important what tells the story best.

As a little inspiration to the end i would like to lead you to the photoessays of my students of the ‘Withourowneyes’ project in Rwanda. Most of them had never before even photographed seriously and most pictures were taken with cellphones. In small groups they had to shot a story in three days and compile the pictures to a short photoessay. Here you can see their results.

The first story is done by the Open Society Institute about the issue of stateless persons, persons without any ID-card, no recognition as citizens of any state. Some of them life at a place all their life, but they could not get registered, what brings a lot of problems like no social security, no jobs, and so on. What you can see below is just the introduction. The Open Society Institute has a full multimedia feature with stories from different places what you can find here.

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The second story i would like to direct your attention to today is done by danish photojournalist Jan Garup as part of the project ‘Consequences’, what covers the effects of Climate Change. I wrote about that project before here, but this particular story was not featured on the main website with insteed having a story of Jan Garup about the civil war in Darfur (what is also close related to the effects of Climate Change, resulting in land shortages for use for agriculture or cattle). This story is about refugees that come from Somalia to Kenya and Yemen, partly because of the civil war, but also because of the changes in the climate that makes it impossible for them to live where they lived before. The story was featured in the famous NY Times Lens blog with a short interview of Jan Garup. Click on the picture or here to get to it.

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The third story is done by photojournalist Ron Haviv of the famous agency VII and covers the aftermath of the Haiti Earthquake. Haviv was in Haiti the day after the earthquake and is one of those guys you would call ‘old combat photographers’ having covered more or less all wars and disasters of the last decade. The multimedia piece below was done for the telegraph 21, a video magazine. There was a lot written about the media coverage of Haiti, about sensationalism and all that, about photography without permission, voyeurism and so on. This piece for sure pictures the worst, the dead bodies, the desperate people, all of what you thought after some days that it might be not the only story from Haiti. And i really get the feeling of shame in the last scene when the woman is lifting her hand to the photographer as it feels exactly that to me: voyeuristic. Even when the rest of the piece is good and important. But you can dicide yourself. What do you think?

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Before i left to get back to Germany in order to pack my stuff for going back to Copenhagen on Saturday, we found some time to sit down and Jean-Marie gave me a short interview about Haiti’s history, geographical influences, Port au Prince, problems and possible ways to build a sustainable future. I think it is really important for all future concepts that intend to help Haiti for a sustainable future to get as much understanding for the country as possible with it’s history, culture, social and geographical structure. So Jean-Marie Theodat might be a good start to listen to someone who knows about all that. Here is the Interview:

Part I: Introduction…..Part II: History…..Part III: Port-au-Prince…..Part IV: The Problem of Brain Drain…..Part V: The Earthquake…..Part VI: A Path for the Future

(click on the links to get to the films)

…….Bokassa’s Fridge……….Bouldering World Championships……….Microcosmos……….Unearthed

                          (click on the links to get to the films)

But beside that it is a powerful story presented in a good way, Human Rights Watch is also going a step further on the technical side. It allows to embed the full feature in your website or blog as i did below, what really turns the attention to the story, making it really easy to access for anyone. You do not have to do the next click to get to the website of the NGO, but you can just watch it where you spot it. It is good for consumers. Maybe as an NGO which needs to get donations, they might think it is better to get the people first to their websites. But maybe that way could be more powerful as you first create an interest for the story and the work. And it is more easy to get the story wander around in the web, what gives it a bigger audience. For sure it is more attractive to embed something like that than to just put a link to it. So this might be the way to use flash for NGOs as you could even make it possible to bring in the possibility to donate and all that if you like, but without having some fullscreen flashsites that are beautiful to present the stories, but maybe not effective when it comes to spreading the word.

But enough of technical thoughts. Here is the feature of a very important issue.

Let’s have a short look in what was offered, before further thinking. The start was made by Andy Levin, who offered a ‚Photo Aid’ workshop in Haiti (which is running right now.). They not only want to teach a small group of students but also bring supplies. The second workshop was offered by Zoriah, bringing four students to cover the aftermath of the disaster with subjects like „working in disaster zones and other difficult and dangerous situations, survival and logistics in difficult environments, photograph people, working with NGO’s (Non Governmental Organizations) and aid organizations, editing and digital darkroom technique and marketing and making your stories available for the world to see.“ The whole thing was offered for 4000 $.

The idea to make a workshop in an enviroment where the last thing right now is to have more photographers in the country, especially unexperienced ones who might never have exposed themselves to an enviroment close to that before, might be hilarious in itself, but my thoughts go in different directions. The discussions were most of the time focusing on the aspect that they want to do money out of the disaster, using the tragedy of people to make money out of it. Especially Zoriah’s 4000$ was often criticized, even to the point that he is not worth the money and all that. The reply was often that all the other media was doing money out of it too. And that is right to some point. The question is in my mind is not if it is alright to make money with it. This discussion is existing as long as journalism exists. The big difference is that the media is bringing their work out to a big audience as the people in the workshop are doing it for their own sake without even seeing something published. Obviously that is nothing new as workshops are in first hand for a learning experience. And that brings me to my main concern. In my mind it is not really important if they do money with their workshops, it is also not a question if 4000$ is worth it or not for what is offered. This is just a thing if you are willing to pay that and when you pay that it is fine. It might feel shameless to do money in an area like that, totally destroyed with hundreds of thousands of people suffering. It really puts this ‚making money with the suffereing of others’ to a new level, but from an inside perspective they offer something where they want to get paid for. The question is for me way more if they bring something in what really helps the people, something more than the chance for the students to have some ‚disaster porn’ in their portfolios afterwards. Haiti right now needs all help that it could get to help the people build up their houses again, get the infrastructure running again, get oportunities to get education, jobs, all that. And for sure it also needs people who document that. It needs long-term projects that show that, keep the attention up for it. But offering a workshop for some guys that leave after a week again with some crazy stuff in mind and on their memory cards, is that in any way helping and sustainable? Why for instance not offer that workshops also to local journalists (for free!) to join the group and in that way maybe create the chance to let them tell the stories with new learned abbilities?

Isn’t the main question right now, if what you do in Haiti helps the people? And when you can’t answer this question with ‚Yes, it helps them’, isn’t it then maybe a better way to find other ways to support them? Like doing workshops somewhere else, but still donating money to the people (what Zoriah changed after some time from his original post, now donating 2000$ of each student). Does it need to be in Haiti, where the destruction is so big? Where the media coverage is so big? And where you might be in the way or more disturbing than anything else?

I would like to end with a short film produced by Cine Institute. They support young Haitian students with education in filming, postproduction and so on. I think that programs like that could be a way for developing countries to get a voice with using the internet and the alternatives that cheap decent cameras offer nowadays. Like we also did with our ‚With our own eyes’ workshop in Rwanda. To do a step away from the outside perspective of foreign journalists, but giving the voice to the ones that did not had the chance to speak out in that way before. These film was produced by Haitians directly after the earthquake, documenting their country, their losses and their suffering. Raw and unfiltered. Something we could learn from.

„I have a mission. It is to grab my camera and record the people’s suffering, all their sufferings, all their miseries and show it to other people in order for them to see and live what they had lived themselves.“

You can find more films on their Vimeo account here.