POYi Multimedia Reaction
I watched the issue story multimedia session. On a side note, I was surprised by how well the audio and video synced over the webcast. I did not expect that. Anyways, the big issues this year were homelessness, unemployment, poverty, and environmental issues. In the final 8, there were 4 stories about homeless or unemployment or poverty, 2 about coal mining, 1 medical story, and 1 story about coping with molestation. The stories created some interesting discussion amongst the judges. One judge praised photographers as reporters. I think he made a very good point, especially in regards to multimedia. In our multimedia pieces, we want good audio. Not just high quality, but good content from our subjects. To that end, we must act like reporters, asking good questions that solicit engaging and interesting replies from subjects. Sometimes it is hard, but it feels great when we do it right. Simply being curious and honest has helped me. I want to know more about something or someone, so I ask.
As I said, that judge praised the photographer as reporter. He was also aware that the photographer must be able to create good visuals. He felt that the Getty Images story on joblessness had great reporting, but weaker visuals. In his mind, the two should have been closer in quality. This was also an issue with the mountaintop removal story. He wondered if the excellent reporting excused the weaker visuals. He felt it was a story done by a really good editor, not a photographer, and it lacked emotion since it felt very “by-the-books.” Another judge disagreed though. This judge felt that one of the blessings about multimedia is the ability to do things differently, and liked the use of video diptychs in the Getty piece. However, another judge felt they were very reminiscent of broadcast news and did not like them.
One judge wanted to lose both coal stories and the Getty joblessness story. This judge felt that we, as viewers, should not feel the same way at the end of the story as at the beginning. I am inclined to agree. I want a sense of change, for better or worse. For me, the mountaintop story was informative but far too long. I also did not feel a sense of change in those stories. The Getty piece was a one-day story, so I am willing to cut it some slacks. However, the other pieces clearly had time. I simply did not feel a connection to the stories or a change in how I felt at the beginning and at the end. It was kind of like reading Anna Karenina. I just read 800 pages for a suicide?
One judge brought up the issue of music in multimedia. The judges felt that it was not overbearing in most of the pieces except for Lauren Greenfield’s Foreclosure. They felt that the driving music did not fit with what the subjects were saying or the visuals. Music was a very important part of that story, but there was a disconnect between the emotion and the content.
In awarding “A boy’s struggles” first place, the judge praised its ability to show this molested boy’s ordeal with a sense of hope, all while never showing the boy’s face. In this case, the boy was very articulate and the photographer seemed to have a great respect for the subject. “His body a prison” and “Motel Manor” won second and third, respectively. One judge wanted to honor “Mining the Mountains,” the mountaintop removal story. Other judges wondered if there should be an award of excellence, for the sake of there being one. The other judges seemed reluctant to honor it, but eventually did so. I do not agree with this decision. Those were the three strongest stories. This is the Pictures of the Year competition, which means visuals are very important. While it had excellent reporting, the visuals in “Mining the Mountains” were not on par with the other winners, in my mind.
