Posts Tagged ‘photography’
31
Aug
2010
Fault Line Living
Geysers, mud pots, and what Barba Papa has to do with the benefits of geothermal energy.
Fault lines are cracks in Earth’s crusts where tectonic plates converge. As you’d expect, these areas have an extraordinarily propensity for earthquakes due to the constant geodesic activity going on beneath. And yet millions of people around the world live on and around fault lines, in a constant state of alertness, with the sound of the earthquake drill alarm growing more familiar than the doorbell.
Faul Line Living is a 15,000-mile expedition from Iceland to Iran documenting the lives of people who live along the world’s most notorious fault lines. The multi-media project explores the human stories that populate these high-risk natural environments, working with school students, seismologists and citizens of each country along the way to better understand how different communities adapt to the challenges of life in fault zones.
Broken jug, damaged in the 1976 earthquake at Kopaska, belonging to Jon Halldorsson
The Blue Lagoon – despite the wind and rain, the warm waters of the Blue Lagoon provide a fillip to tourists and locals alike
Faul Line Living won the 2010 Go Beyond bursary from the UK’s Royal Geographical Society and Land Rover, a £10,000 award encouraging winners to push past their own limits as a way of promoting a wider understanding and appreciation of geography.
Fun after the rain
Steaming mud pots at Namafjall
On July 31, the UK-based team — Tamsin Davies, Serena Davies and Adam Whitaker — embarked upon their journey into these collision zones of nature and humanity. For 12 weeks, they will drive across the UK, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Syria and Lebanon, learning to use a seismometer and delving into the social anthropology of fault line living through photography, interviews and real-time mapping.
Honeycomb basalt formations at Dimmuborgir
Barba Papa house at Seysdisfjordur
Explore the project’s breathtaking gallery and follow along vicariously on Twitter. Meanwhile, keep yourself grounded by appreciating the geological stability of your own locale.
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24
Aug
2010
News21: Next-Gen Storytelling for the Multimedia Age
From frontlines to bylines, or what the future of journalism has to do with a countryside ranch.
A few weeks ago, Neil Burgess, former head of Magnum Photos, caused quite a stir by declaring photojournalism dead. While his argument had a handful of strong points reagarding the economics of photographic storytelling, it was held together by a rather narrow and traditional definition of photojournalism as a genre within print and news media. Today, we look at an inspired project that holds promise for the future of photojournalism in a way that makes Burgess’ argument crumble.
News21 is national education initiative pushing for new forms of investigative reporting and multimedia storytelling. Led by a dozen of America’s leading research universities and backed by the Carnegie-Knight Task Force, the project aims to approach journalism education from all angles — curriculum, policymaking, hands-on experience, cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Since 2006, News21 has been initiating annual projects grouped under umbrella themes that change every year — Liberty vs. Security in 2006, Faces of Faith in America in 2007, What’s at Stake around the 2008 Election and Changing America in 2009. This year, the project tackles a complex, multifaceted and highly controversial issue: War.
In late May, 10 journalism students spanning the entire spectrum of print-online, broadcast, graphics and photography staked out in a bunkhouse ranch in northeastern Washington state, where for six weeks they tasked themselves with getting to know the area’s thriving community of war veterans. The team set out to explore the consequences of war — from PTSD, to divorce to criminal activity to suicide — through the rich human stories of the veterans.
From an infographic map of veteran population to an interactive gallery bespeaking the diversity of a group so often addressed as a lump-sum monolith, the results are brimming with beautifully crafted photojournalism, meticulously edited multimedia storytelling, and thoughtful art direction.
One hidden yet priceless piece of the project we’d like to point you to is the Innovation Lessons section, culled from News21’s experience-gleaned insights. From the dynamics of team reporting to the importance of visual thinking to the intricacies of non-linear storytelling, the section is a deluge of invaluable practical guidance applicable to any loosely defined journalist, from the professional magazine editor to the blogger to the photojournalist.
Follow @news21 on Twitter for updates on the project and an altogether excellent feed of next-gen journalism.
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