Journalism Redefined: The Photographer

A photographer, a graphic novel, and the remarkable story behind the headlines.

As we observe the eighth anniversary of Afghanistan’s latest occupation, the world would do well to reflect on the history that brought us to this most recent impasse. That complex history deserves a fittingly complex treatment, which it gets in the genre-breaking masterwork The Photographer.

First published in 2003 in French, The Photographer was reissued in English this year. Melding a graphic novel, photo essay, and travelogue, it tells the story of photographer Didier Lefèvre’s journey through Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Lefèvre documented the group’s harrowing covert tour in 1986 from Pakistan into a nation gripped by violence in the aftermath of the 1979 Soviet invasion. While a few of his 4,000-plus images were published upon his return to France, years passed before Lefèvre was approached by his friend, graphic novelist Emmanuel Guibert, about collaborating on a book that would finally tell his remarkable story.

The resulting effort, assembled by graphic designer Frédéric Lemercier, is a seamless tour de force of reportage unlike anything else in modern journalism. Through hybrid forms of history, The Photographer tells one tale of what is of course an ongoing narrative in a part of the world we usually hear about in abstract headlines. We were moved by the courage and strength of the Afghani people and the MSF doctors who risk their lives to help them under exceedingly difficult conditions, especially the team’s young, female head of mission. Although we know how this particular piece of the story works out—against long odds Lefèvre makes it back to his native France, and MSF will stay until forced to abandon its operations temporarily in 1990—that does nothing to diminish the book’s suspense.

The Photographer is a true hybrid of artistic approaches. Frames of photos run in succession to provide parallax views of a scene, and Lemercier’s coloration of the drawn panels enhances the immediacy of the experience. (The Persian script in several scenes was even penned by Persepolis artist/author Marjane Satrapi.) Moved along by interwoven panels of photography and illustration, we were completely absorbed by the action and had to be pulled away to tell you about it.

For a singular storytelling experience, let The Photographer take you on a trip through time to a place we still need to understand better.

Kirstin Butler has a Bachelor’s in art & architectural history and a Master’s in public policy from Harvard University. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn as a freelance editor and researcher, where she also spends way too much time on Twitter. For more of her thoughts, check out her videoblog.

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30 Years of Innovation: Happy Birthday, ITP

Mud, paparazzi, and what rodents have to do with the bleeding edge of interactive technology.

A self-decapitating squirrel-as-clock, voice-activated tug-of-war games, and anti-paparazzi fashion aren’t typical student thesis projects, but then the program for which they were created is no typical program. NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) celebrates its 30^th anniversary from October 1^st through 3^rd this year, and belying its ’70s-era name, the ITP is the go-to place for the newest in new media.

A cross between experimental arts studio and R&D technolab, the ITP is a two-year degree program and self-described “center for the recently possible.” The current course catalog reads like some kind of avant-hacker’s dream: Cabinets of Wonder, Design for UNICEF (taught by faculty member Clay Shirky), and Sousveillance Culture are among the many electives available.

ITP’s bi-annual thesis shows have become must-see events for talent recruitment and pure geekdom alike. The artists, designers, engineers, theorists, and technologists that make up the program’s community of alumni/ae, faculty, and students include a current MacArthur Fellow, numerous TED presenters, and Ze Frank — in short, a who’s who of high-minded cool.

With equal emphasis on hardware and software, student projects push the boundaries of new technology but with a distinctly user-centered focus. Some, like Plott by Thomas Chan, have immediate real-world application—as applications (of the iPhone variety). Others, like Tom Gerhard’s Mud Tub, take a more theoretical bent. All draw on life as their laboratory, and we love how they augment our experience of interacting with the world.

As it turns 30, the ITP’s mission—to explore creative applications of communications technologies—is more relevant now than ever. The program’s immersive approach to learning excites us not only because it approaches the classroom as playground, but also because it’s a great example of design within social contexts. (And consistent with this collaborative ethos, ITP has set up a wiki so that its current and past students and faculty can assemble a timeline of the program’s history.)

With concentrations in design areas such as assistive technology, mobile computing, and sustainability, the program has not only kept pace with the times but seems poised to lead the way into the brave, new, mediated landscape we live in. To see what makes ITP such a cool place, check out a project portfolio and a few additional videos.

Kirstin Butler holds a Bachelor’s in art & architectural history and a Master’s in public policy from Harvard University. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn as a freelance editor and researcher, where she also spends way too much time on Twitter.

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AskNature: The Biomimicry Design Portal

Life lessons from the natural world, or what Galapagos sharks can teach us about healthcare.

Imagine that the solutions to the world’s most intractable problems already exist — right in front of us, just waiting for humanity to take notice. From carbon load to water scarcity, the biggest challenges of the near future are already solved somewhere in nature’s genius.

According to AskNature, the world’s first biomimicry portal, explores this untapped problem-solving treasure chest. Launched in November of 2008, the project is the brainchild of author, science consultant and TEDster Janine Benyus, founder of the Biomimicry Institute. And its mission is nothing short of saving the planet by encouraging designers and engineers to emulate nature, one evolutionarily designed organism at a time.

AskNature arose from the philosophy that the ultimate designer and engineer of life — a 3.8-million-year-old R&D department, as Benyus has called it — is life itself. The sister site to E. O. Wilson’s Encyclopedia of Life, the project provides an interactive open-source platform for the study of natural solutions to innate environmental problems. To date, the site contains a catalog of more than 1200 natural “strategies” for processes like chelation, desalination, and energy production.

Benyus laid out the framework for AskNature in her 2005 TED talk. With a brilliant presentation long in potential but short(er) in practical application, she made a compelling case for biomimicry — designing in the example of nature — as an alternative to unsustainable industries.

But this was only an introduction. When Benyus returned to TED this year, her presentation was replete with real-life entrepreneurial examples of businesses drawing on the natural world to devise sustainable products and technologies.

One such example comes from an engineer at the Japanese train manufacturer JR-West, who studied Kingfisher birds in mid-dive to determine how they avoided any splash upon impact, then applied this to minimizing the noise produced by bullet trains puncturing air pressure vacuums as they exit tunnels. That not only quieted the train, but made it go 10% faster on 15% less electricity.

Diving Kingfisher birds inspire quieter, more efficient trains.

In another instance of biomimetic implementation, aerospace firms Grimshaw Architects and Qinetic researched insects that collect water from fog, replicating these mechanisms in frost-repelling aircraft surfaces and skins for arid climes.

Perhaps the most compelling example is that of AQUAporin, a Danish cleantech company that finds its inspiration for water desalination technology in our very own red blood cells. With water scarcity topping experts’ lists of imminent global crises, AQUAporin’s biologically sourced method of osmosis could be the lifeblood of our collective future.

Human red blood cells provide a reverse osmosis model for water desalination.

These are just a few examples of biomimicry’s incredible, far-reaching potential for application, and yet billions are being spent in R&D labs around the world on reinventing the wheel when nature provides prolific, evolution-tested design and technology solutions. We find it astounding that, given how obvious biomimicry’s solutions seem, academy and industry haven’t been drawing on this latent knowledge all along.

The unique micro-scales on sharks

In 2005, Benyus pointed out the obstacle of disciplinary “silos” — the tendency of engineers, designers, scientists, technologists, and other professionals to work in isolation from each other, missing opportunities to synergize problem-solving. But the success of any biomimetic project depends on this interdisciplinary cross-pollination of ideas. AskNature invites practitioners from diverse fields to explore the library, contribute to it, and draw from each other’s knowledge in a way that yields truly revolutionary solutions.

Go ahead and AskNature how it created the foundation — and the ongoing miracle — of life. You’ll be amazed.

Kirstin Butler is writing an adaptation of Gogol for the Google era called Dead SULs, but when not doing the work spends far, far too much time on  Twitter. She currently lives in Cambridge, MA.

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