“Memphis Poverty: What Obama Didn’t See” by Alan Spearman and The Commercial Appeal has won Best Use Of Multimedia in NPPA’s Best Of Photojournalism contest, judges at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication announced today. The judges also relea
Judges Nancy Andrews, Zach Wise, and Jonathan Quilter said “Memphis Poverty masterfully tells an important American story in a non-traditional way, bypassing the literal translation of poverty to strike the soul. The artful blend of documentary moments, poetry, music, cinematic shooting and editing craftsmanship moves our art of storytelling forward in a dramatic way. It was the best use of multimedia in the completion and helps establish a tone for how we might approach complex stories in the future.”
Chris returned to the streets of South Memphis with filmmaker and Commercial Appeal photographer Alan Spearman, walking on foot for eight weeks to develop a series of observations that became the script of “AS I AM,” the short film below. With Chris as our guide, we float through this extraordinary young man’s landscape and encounter the characters who have helped shape his worldview.
