10 Days
10 Topics

In 2018, photographer Jessica Dimmock co-directed the eight-part documentary series “Flint Town” on Netflix. Dimmock, who is based in New York City, is the best proof that photojournalists who work with cinematic and interactive online formats often reach an entirely new audience without merely scratching the surface of their topics. Our Live Talk was moderated by Ed Kashi, who has been working as a multimedia journalist for over 20 years.

Session was hosted by VII Photo.

The duo comprising Gayatri Parameswaran and Felix Gaedtke of NowHere Media in Berlin are forging a new path in communicating documentary content. They use photogrammetry to measure spaces in order to create virtual-reality experiences. In an Instagram interview and here on the website, the two authors give us a fascinating look into the world of virtual storytelling.

Anyone interested in digital storytelling with respect to new technologies must pay attention to the German-French TV station Arte. No other European media house takes such joy in the experimental; no other station invests more in interactive formats. As Arte’s top innovation manager, Kay Meseberg is responsible for “the television of the future”, as he himself puts it. In our podcast (in German) he will explain how this relates to photography and how to maintain an overview in the jungle of digital formats.

These projects, created at the interface between photography and film, occupy a niche among the digital stories. On the one hand, they are characterised by the use of still images in video. Michele Spatari’s “Rising Water” is an example of the power that can develop from this hybrid format. He employs the subject of public baths in Turin, which often provide the only possibility for homeless people to wash, to tell the stories of those affected.

On the other hand, our selection also includes “pure” films. The aesthetics of their shots – low depth of field, reduced colours, subtle camera angles – recall reportage photographs. This approach can be seen in Sarah Hoffman’s “The Rising”. Hoffman studied Photojournalism in Missouri and Aarhus; she now works primarily as a video producer. Her 25-minute documentary deals with the approaching resettlement of an indigenous village in the state of Washington, where rising sea levels have left residents exposed to an increased risk of tsunamis.

What links Spatari’s and Hoffman’s projects is the photographic view used in filming them, which the authors use to create decelerated narratives by means of images. The visual quality of these images makes a significantly deeper impression than any classic TV documentary.

Etinosa Yvonne takes an unconventional path with her project “It’s All in My Head”. She examines the mechanisms that survivors of terrorism and violent conflict in Nigeria employ to overcome their trauma. Yvonne mounts videos into the heads of her subjects as symbols of the memories they cannot escape. Portrait photos and videos meld into a multimedia whole that illustrates a playful joy in experimenting despite a difficult topic.