Storytellers of the future
Meet the storytellers of the future. Image-makers of the future. Filmers, narrators, script-writers, editors and more. All-in-one person.
We are talking about craftsmen like Ron Haviv and Ed Kashi, two honored journalists who are years ahead of their fellow image makers. Their projects give us a clear view on how the profession of photographers will be changed within a decade from now.
Looking at the project of Ron Haviv about e.g. gold mining in Peru (above), we see how, in one movie, Ron shows to be a mean machine of voice-over, camera man, photographer, interviewer, editor, and everything that is needed to produce a thorough investigative project like this. Don’t be mistaken, preparation and production for these kind of projects takes a very, very long time and consumes time like South-American governments consume budgets.
The story has sides from the governments point-of-view, the business and money-earning objectives, natural reserves and has heavy social components. It is very different from the usual single-layered story, that is produced after a week (or a few days) of walking on location, the way most ‘investigative’ stories are made.
The highly sensory form that these men use in their stories include still photography, video, available tv- and stock footage, audio and more, in a very well crafted talent of preparing an extremely tasty looking plate at a haute cuisine restaurant. Without knowing how the story will taste, they optimize the way the story is brought to you with rich ingredients. All is functional to an optimized experience with only one objective: telling the story in a comprehensible way.
They bring new power to the perception of the one-man documentary journalist that used to go out in the field and comes back with either a roll of film or a single written article. Ed Kashi developed this approach alongside his transition into a digital-savvy photographer many years ago, and has become an icon of innovation in image making. By now he is getting 80 percent of his earnings from digital online viewings. In many ways Ron and Ed are modern entrepreneurs in imagery and a role model for wanna-be-storytellers.
These guys know it all, and do it all. They probably won’t get paid like the usual team of six that was booked a decade ago to produce complex stories like this, but let’s hope they are, so they can use the wage to feed their new projects. And our blog posts off course.