Stills Photography and Video

Over the last few months I've been advised by several people that video is the way to go for stills photography.... strange as it seems combining a sequence of images into a slideshow or video along with some commentary and music adds interest and dynamism to a website or presentation.

Although I've made some slideshows of my work and I'm preparing a couple more, I find this trend slightly unsettling for a couple of reasons....

Firstly, what does it say about stills photography that to make it hold people attention we need to add movement and commentary?

Secondly, I'm dismayed by the editorial and technical quality of some of the pieces I've seen. When you add extra elements such as music or interviews and you begin to sequence images with movements or transitions, you're no longer producing photography but television. I've spent well over 15 years learning to make TV - to plan, shoot and edit a meaningful piece takes significant resources and a high level of skill in several different fields. So high in fact that these jobs are usually done by separate people.

Part of this drive is technological: DSLRs can shoot "HD" video - although try and convince a TV engineer that a 5DII shoots true HD.. and it must be tempting to knock off a few seconds of video while you're shooting stills. Great perhaps for spot news or a blog but much less satisfying for a longer form documentary.

It's interesting that it's stills photographers who are simultaneously predicting the demise of photojournalism and moving away from their main skill set into a different medium.

Have a look at the following pieces and see what you think.

The first is by noted photographer Anthony Suau. I've admired and followed his work since 1999 when he published Beyond the Wall. He's a Pulitzer and Capa Prize winning photographer.

The second is from an organisation called DuckRabbit. They bring together the skills of a photographer with a radio journalist: their pieces are planned and conceived as what they call photofilms.

ANTONY SUAU


DUCKRABBIT


I think that the DuckRabbit piece is a more satisfying combination of sound and image and represents a carefully thought out use of media. The sounds and interview added another layer to the images without striping them of their power. It makes no use of video and it was also satisfyingly short.

Peter Ackroyd and Dark Waters - a photovideo slideshow

Some of the inspiration for the Dark Waters project came from Peter Ackroyd's books - London: the Biography and Thames: Sacred River.  I came across some audio of him talking about the river, its light and the origin of its name (darkwaters.org) so I've appropriated it and pulled it into a slideshow with music and pictures. I'm trying to track down Peter Ackroyd and secure his permission...

This approach - using video and slideshows not pinching audio from other people - has been suggested to me by Gina Glover from Photofusion Gallery and Lorna-Mary Webb from RhubarbRhubarb: they both encouraged me to make use of my TV skills to add interest and value to my site....

I'm due to interview Gina about her work and the gallery that she co-founded: video here shortly.

In the meantime here are the two 90 second videos.