Photo Credit: Media Storm Blog showing MSNBC.com Director of Multimedia Robert Hood talking with Senior Media Producer Meredith Birkett after placing a bid on Storm's online auction for the rights to Ed Kashi "Iraqi Kurdistan" project.
For some photographers and teachers who remember the “old days” working with younger generations of creative and ambitious students can be challenging.
Challenging in the sense that there seems so little appreciation for understanding how the process of making images goes beyond pretty pictures and packaging a product. By process, it should be said that people approached making pictures differently when it required waiting before results could be seen and shared. In photojournalism, even those the old days -- are well old -- there are still some things that were done that right. One of those things that made pre-digital era unique was the thing that frustrated so many -- waiting and being patience for just the right moment to capture an image.
The liminality of the photographic process – the waiting period between the moment of capture and the development of the latent image – created a mindset that required greater attention to detail.
Not to over generalize how people make pictures with digital technology, but clearly antecedent practices such as manually adjusting the aperture and shutter speed, wracking in focus, and waiting for pictures to develop, influenced conditions of knowing and being. With auto everything today we might be gaining immediacy and productivity on the one hand, while losing the art of storytelling on the other hand. Therefore, the question arises, even if technological innovation makes photography cheaper, faster, and easier, are the images demonstrably any better?
Clearly, it is possible to literally point and shoot with remarkably consistent results with digital cameras. Today, even talking about f/stops and focal points with students almost seems moot. Further, more interesting is the fact that this “upstart” crowd is armed with increasingly compact equipment including audio and video capabilities.
In addition to how much the faster, cheaper, and easier photography is becoming, we should also add mobility and multiple platforms to the list. What can’t be photographed with a motor-driven digital single reflex camera and a two-gigabyte card? Instead of telling students to slow down and appreciate the moment when they come into the zone of photographic consciousness, all you can say is “Wow. Where do we go from here?”
New technologies make it possible to tell stories in ways never imagined a few decades ago.
Photojournalists and digital multimedia pioneers such as Brian Storm are on the cutting edge of new trend in creating visual narratives. By joining together of stills, video, and sound this newer form of narrative is creating a market where people are beginning to expect to engage in storytelling that moves beyond the fixed moment of a frame.
Storm’s vision is not just wishful thinking it has become a reality. Last week, Storm’s multimedia company auctioned off the rights to photojournalist Ed Kashi’s story “Iraqi Kurdistan” online.
Media companies from around the world bid on the project during a four-day auction with MSNBC.com placing the highest bid. Not only is the 12-minute piece innovative in and of itself, so to is the way it was marketed to media companies.
You can read more about Brian Storm’s online auction on the American Photo magazine group blog PopPhoto.com or visit MediaStorm online.