A Dying Subject Has Her Say
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under Uncategorized
Hopefully you’re all familiar with this story Rob Finch and company worked on at The Oregonian.
PDN has a write-up on the story this month.
At the event, Finch shot only still photographs. He explains, “Video would have added this uncomfortable element. It would have been constant eye-recording from the corner. It would have created a barrier around Lovelle, where her family felt they couldn’t go, and I felt I would be affecting the scene too much.”
As I shoot video more and more I’m finding this to be the case more often. With a still camera I’m able to work much more intimately and quietly. With a video camera my presence always seems to be noticed.
“There’s a lot of power in the audio. It’s too hard to concentrate on the audio and the photographs at the same time.”
Renee Byer spoke this weekend at the Atlanta Photoj seminar about her Pulitzer prize winning story. The only problem was when she presented the still images she presented them to a music track. Nothing wrong with that except the track was so distracting that it took away from the power of the images. My mind was constantly fighting to block out the music and in turn diminished the impact of the images.
“We sometimes gear stories to the medium we have to present it. It seems to me that there are more compelling stories out there if we’re willing to adapt form [media] to the story rather than the other way around. Online allows that—maybe not completely—but we’re allowing a whole new form of storytelling.”
Further Reading:
Tags: inspiration, photojournalism, video