Kevin Connolly has been getting such stares all his life. That’s because he was born without legs.
Connolly was used to drawing double takes in his hometown of Helena, Mont., but when he went to Europe and turned heads there, too, he decided he’d had enough. Connolly got out his camera in Vienna, Austria, and turned it on the people who were staring at him.
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The Raw File Workshop will give you 6 Days on Independent Media Production, Social Justice, and Activism.
Join Brenda Ann Kenneally and guest documentarians as well as prominent forces who work in multimedia production, social justice & activism, media ecology and visual anthropology for seminars covering funding, collaboration, multimedia production, publishing, and distribution of independent social documentary projects.
The workshop will be limited to 15 full-time participants.
Check it out here.
The MediaStorm Multimedia Workshops are intensive, hands-on educational experiences in advanced multimedia storytelling. The Workshops are designed to address three areas:
Original Multimedia Reporting
Post-Production
Multimedia Training
Check it out here.
I think it’s time to take a constructive look at audio slideshows and review ways to make them better. One of the raps on audio slideshows is that they can be boring and predictable. I agree. I’ve watched hundreds of audio slideshows and it can be painful at times
Check it out here.
Japanese photographer Masao Yamamoto has intrigued me since I first held several of his tiny energy-charged photos in my hands at a photography festival in California in 2003, and I could not leave without taking three of these precious objects home with me (at a price I could barely afford at the time). Six years later, those same photos float on the wall in my home where I can see them every day, in all kinds of light, and they still exert that same emotional pull on me every time I stop to look at them.
Check it out here.
Back in the PCP days of the 1970’s, James Brown hosted his own television show. Future Shock was filmed in the pre TBS studios of WTCG in Atlanta. It could have been lost forever, but a few episodes managed to slip out of the vaults.
Check it out here.
Photos by Rob Finch
“Stories are in search of tellers. And when a story grabs onto you, that’s the one you should be telling.” – Storyteller Alton Takiyama-Chung recites one of his favorite quotes.
Check it out here.
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We are still not sure when photog John Harrington sleeps. Between last night and this morning, he managed to shoot John McCain’s victory speech in Virginia, interview other photogs about how they shoot and transmit their pix on the campaign trail, and turn that footage into an insightful seven-minute video.
Check it out here.
Jeff Mermelstein walks around New York with his Leica taking pictures. Great commentary on his style and process including his work on 9/11 below.
Check it out here.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I’ve decided the time has come for me to make some kind of statement about it. You may not like what I have to say.
I have had enough of slide shows accompanied by music. In fact, I’m pretty sick of them.
The turning point came a couple of weeks ago, when I went to see a presentation by three very talented photojournalists. I’m not going to name names: The point here is that these photographers were doing what every photographer seems to do now. Each began his show by very briefly uttering a hello to the audience, then letting the computer take over. First came the fancy title, accompanied by music. With photojournalists it’s invariably world music—a sure sign of the international and cultural dimensions of the work. (Fashion images usually are set to rock.)
Check it out here.
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A special report looking at the provision of education in an area of Mali has won the inaugural Journalism.co.uk multimedia reporting competition.
Judges praised the combined use of voiceover, stills and video footage within a series of slideshows, that made up the Learning Lessons in Africa report, calling it a ‘compelling story’ and a ‘seamless piece of journalism’ that set it apart from other more technically adventurous projects.
Photographer Ami Vitale and videographer Dan Chung complied footage in Mali for the report (pictured above), which was then produced by Elliot Smith with interactive design by Paddy Allen and published online by the Guardian.
Check it out here.
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When does photographer/blogger John Harrington sleep? We are not sure. Sometime between last night (when he covered the State of the Union address) and this afternoon, he produced an extremely informative 12-minute video about how photographers cover the president’s annual applause-fest. (Take note of Dennis Brack’s spot-on prediction that the Obama-Clinton cold shoulder would be the most important photo of the night.)
Check it out here.
Why can’t you make it through the checkout line without flipping through page after page of pregnant celebs in Us magazine? Alison Jackson knows why. In her work, she photographs the people you think you recognize doing what you really want to see. And in the process, she’s questioning our shared desire to get personal with celebrity culture. Funny and sometimes shocking, Jackson’s work contains some graphic images. (Recorded July 2005 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 17:36.)
Check it out here.
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Potentially, the worst television show ever. I love it! The Christian disclaimer at the start is fascinating, and after watching the program, it seems ridiculous to hold on to the concept that this pair must stay together. I mean, really, who wants to be with a guy who wishes he were Red Skelton!?
Check it out here.
Remembering Ray: “Ray Farkas, one of the visionaries of video storytelling passed away recently.
Known more as a producer than photographer, Ray’s legend is in large part due to the ‘Farkas look’ of his video stories. After placing wireless mics on his subjects, he made sure the camera was far away from them and often out of sight. Then he would present a question and withdraw so the subjects could have an ordinary conversation as they answered the question Ray offered. People just went about being themselves with the intimidating camera out of the way.
The results were fascinating. It was some of the best storytelling on television. “
(Via SportsShooter.)
MediaStorm: Rape of a Nation by Marcus Bleasdale: “The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is home to the deadliest war in the world today. An estimated 5.4 million people have died since 1998, the largest death toll since the Second World War, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
IRC reports that as many as 45,000 people die each month in the Congo. Most deaths are due to easily preventable and curable conditions, such as malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia, malnutrition, and neonatal problems and are byproducts of a collapsed healthcare system and a devastated economy.
The people living in the mining towns of eastern Congo are among the worst off. Militia groups and government forces battle on a daily basis for control of the mineral-rich areas where they can exploit gold, coltan, cassiterite and diamonds.
After successive waves of fighting and ten years of war, there are no hospitals, few roads and limited NGO and UN presence because it is too dangerous to work in many of these regions. The West’s desire for minerals and gems has contributed to a fundamental breakdown in the social structure.”
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