N E W S L E T T E R

Sat, 20.06.
Digital Storytelling – How Photographers are Reaching a New Audience Online

Video series, drone shots, Instagram stories, interactive web documentaries and virtual reality – visual journalism has never been so multifaceted. Journalists who work multimedially have certain clear advantages in vying for the attention of internet users. But what exactly are the latest developments in digital storytelling? Which formats can be used to create depth? And which stories are well-received by the audience?

To find answers to these questions, our special topic devoted to digital storytelling will take a look outside the box . A Netflix director, a media innovation manager and the founding team behind a virtual-reality start-up will tell us how to find a new audience online and which technologies have the greatest potential.

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Live Talk Jessica Dimmock in Conversation with Ed Kashi – What Photographers Can Learn from Filmmakers

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.

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Video Interview Virtual Reality Start-Up NowHere Media

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.

Felix Gaedtke und Gayatri Parameswaran
Podcast Kay Meseberg, Head of Mission Innovation at Arte

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.

Lumix Digital Storytelling Award Popular Formats

At the Lumix Festival, digital storytelling has become a tradition: for ten years, we have been awarding prizes not only to the best photo series, but also to the most outstanding online multimedia projects. The 18 projects nominated for the 2020 Digital Storytelling Award can roughly be divided into three categories.

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1. Short documentary films made in a photographic style

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.

»To tell a good story – whether it is shown on a stage, at the cinema or on a smartphone display – it is essential to take the viewer by the hand.«

Kay Meseberg
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"Rising Water" by Michele Spatari

»With his clear perspective, Spatari brings the complex topic of a housing shortage down to something as inconsequential as a public shower. This makes it accessible to us.«

Jury member Marie-Louise Timcke on “Rising Water”
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2. Interactive longreads to scroll, click or swipe

Scroll stories have established themselves as a popular way to tell complex, image-rich stories online with the necessary depth. Text, images, videos and interactive graphics are combined, allowing readers to experience a “flow”. Unlike with videos, it is users themselves who determine the pace by scrolling down in the browser window.

An example of this form is the multiple-prize-winning project “Organspende: Die letzte Gabe eines Menschen” by Patrick Junker and Dominik Stawski. It takes more than an hour to read and look at everything, but in the end, viewers have learnt a lot about the topic of organ donation; moreover, the subjects’ fates are unforgettable. This project offers excellent orientation for people deciding whether they should fill out their organ donor cards.

The project “The Homeless” by Cecilie S. Andersen and Maria Knopf Vigsnæs seems more playful. Nonetheless, the topic is no less serious: because Oslo has a shortage of space in its two emergency shelters, the homeless have to draw lots every evening. Those who draw green are allowed in. However, those who draw red must go away and sleep rough. The authors have developed an interactive element from their observation of this lottery. Users draw virtual lots and, depending on the colour they draw, get to read different stories.

»If you draw a green token, you get a bed. A red token means spending the night outdoors.«

Cecilie S. Andersen and Maria Knopf Vigsnæs, "The Homeless"
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3. Immersive Experiences

Does virtual reality mean the end of storytelling, as author Stephanie Riggs writes in her latest book? This question is bound to occupy digital journalists for several years to come. However, experts do agree that augmented, mixed and virtual reality are about enabling immersive experiences. The following three projects show how this can succeed. There is one small drawback: true immersion requires a VR headset, which is why we can only show trailers on our website.

Florian Manz, Julius Schrank and Lucas Wahl flew a homemade 360-degree camera drone over the lignite-mining area in the Rhineland. The resulting shots illustrate the extent that lignite mining has encroached on human living space.

In the 360-degree documentary film “The Wings of Mosul”, Chloé Rochereuil and Hugo Clément accompany a group of paragliders who, after years of war, terrorism and oppression by the so-called Islamic State in the Iraqi city of Mosul, are again pursuing their passion.

“Home After War” also examines the consequences of ISIS terror in Iraq. Felix Gaedtke and Gayatri Parameswaran travelled to Fallujah, where they took thousands of photos and 360-degree shots to produce a virtual, walkable film that draws viewers’ attention to the danger of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which were occasionally disguised to look like everyday objects. A video interview with Felix and Gayatri is available farther up on this page.

»The feeling of immersion that conveys Virtual Reality brings something new and powerful to the field of visual journalism.«

Chloé Rochereuil, "The Wings of Mosul"
Stephanie Riggs describes new narrative techniques for immersive media in her book