Sustainable Journalism

Before my massive defection from the world of Architecture they always used to harp on with an age old maxim; or dreadful cliché, ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’. And in my postgrad I hear that immortal phrase once more, care of this weeks guest lecturer Daniel Meadows. Thats all well and good, but now I’ve started working with moving images we’re talking some serious numbers. 25 frames per second, so thats 25,000 words per second… right? I reckon thats almost an entire newspaper.

We all know the world of journalism is changing, and there have never been so many ways to tell a story, embedding them all in the one place, a blog or internet site. We all know we need to be able to do everything, but to be a master of nothing. And time is of the essence. If it can’t be blogged about/online mapped/tweeted now then whats the point?

If only for the luxury and affordability of time. This Daniel Meadows seemingly had in abundance in the 70′s when he finished art school. He set out on a quest to document the world (well okay the UK) and its people from a double decker bus.  The ‘Free Photographic Omnibus’ toured our towns between 1973-74 and contained a free portrait studio with self contained dark room on board to capture the nation as he saw it.

Sounds like stuff of complete fantasy nowadays, I’d give my hind leg to go on  a jolly on a double decker bus for ‘documentary’ purposes. Fortunately the bus itself was spared the scrapheap; I only care as I was warmed to learn that it’s a good old Barton Bus originating from my home town of Nottingham. Its no longer a photography studio though and is instead at some west midlands transport museum if thats your kind of thing.

Check out the checked shirts on these dapper lads, way ahead of their time

And these little scroats have captured Geordie Racer

Anyway I digress. To travel 10,000 miles round the country taking photos of people seems like a pretty convoluted and romantic way of telling a story. You wouldn’t be able to get away with it now with everyone’s gluttonous urgency for information.

In the 70′s his subjects were anonymous nameless faces from all walks of life. In 2001 he sought to try and find his subjects 25 odd years later by publishing his pictures in local newspapers.  to try and track them down and see how they were getting on. Had time been cruel?

After speaking of his nostalgic jaunt on the double decker he outlined the interim 25 years, which has seen him winning a BAFTA for his multimedia documentary work for BBC Wales and very much keeping on top of the digital revolution – a world away from where he started on that trusty Barton Bus. He is now heralded as one of the greatest digital story tellers of our times. Whats important for us to take away with us today then? To learn the ability to use the photographic medium to bring our copy to life. Alternative story telling is possible merely through pictures. Using slide shows and stills it was demonstrated to us that much can be implied through pictures alone to illustrate our journalism. So it seems having a digital camera handy at all times is a prerequisite and then straight back messing about on Photoshop to get them up online.

I’d much prefer to grow a fro, chuck on some flares, and buy myself a vintage double decker in all honesty.