paul lowe – Frontline Club

Me-Mo: Pushing the Limits of Visual Storytelling

Frontline Bloggers — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 11:28:01 +0000

By Alexandra Sarabia

The plethora of technology now available to communicate different forms of journalism, across a variety of platforms, has allowed journalists more freedom in their storytelling process. This is the driving force behind Me-Mo, a new multimedia magazine created by award-winning freelance photojournalists, Manu Brabo and Fabio Bucciarelli, in partnership with web-developing group, Libre.

(l-r) Matteo Dispenza, Manu Brabo, Fabio Bucciarelli and Paul Lowe

On Tuesday 17 February, Brabo and Bucciarelli, along with Libre president Matteo Dispenza, convened at the Frontline Club to discuss the genesis of Me-Mo and to share their thoughts on the future of visual storytelling. The two photojournalists also presented their work on the Libyan revolution, which is featured in the magazine’s recently released first issue. The event was chaired by Paul Lowe, course director of the Masters Programme in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.

The difficulties faced by freelancers when looking for viable ways to publish their work was a main source of inspiration for the founders of Me-Mo. This was especially evident during the Libyan War in 2011, when Bucciarelli and Brabo both worked as freelance photographers for various major news outlets. After their return from Libya, the two photojournalists continued to work in conflict areas and began to brainstorm and collaborate with other freelance journalists in order to develop the Me-Mo concept.

Brabo emphasised the necessity of collaboration and solidarity amongst freelancers, saying: “We are out there alone. If we don’t have each other, what do we have? We have nothing. In the end, through this sense of humanity and solidarity, you start to create links and you realise you have the same idea as another guy.”

“We are trying to create a space for all these kinds of people, people that we know, who have been working in Syria, in Libya for too long.”

Bucciarelli and Brabo hope that the magazine will become an innovative platform for freelancers who want to maintain creative control over their material in the commercialised world of news journalism. They want their contributors to fully utilise the capabilities of digital technology and to build a dynamic interaction with their subscribers. Bucciarelli said: “What we are trying to do is use the digital way… not only using picture or video, but also 360 pictures, paralysis effect, 360 video, infographics… A new platform for freelancers using the digital way.”

Each issue of Me-Mo will concentrate on a central theme, the first issue focused on fear, and will be published four times a year. A single issue can be bought for €10, and a year-long subscription is priced at €25. On this subject, Dispenza commented: “We decided to work on quality and not quantity.”

An audience member enquired as to whether Me-Mo would accept submissions exclusively from photojournalists, or if they would be open to stories presented through other journalistic mediums. The panelists agreed that high quality content was Me-Mo’s ultimate goal.

Dispenza said, “It’s more about the ideas and not about one kind of media. Me-Mo is really open to every kind of good idea because we are not a big publisher and we are really free to do the best things we can choose together. It’s really about the ideas.”

Watch and listen back to the event below:

Photo Week 2012 – VII Photo seminar: Making the media work for you

Frontline Staff — Tue, 22 May 2012 09:00:00 +0000

External event held at the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

Join more than 15 photojournalists from the prestigious agency VII Photo for a half-day seminar on photojournalism at the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

The seminar will be split into three panel discussions with opportunities to ask questions and learn more about the work of VII and the state of modern photojournalism.

9:00 Keynote address

Director and Founder of the Frontline Club Vaughan Smith

9:30 The Creation of VII – The role of photojournalism in the 21st century

With Ron Haviv, Christopher Morris, Seamus Murphy and Franco Pagetti. Moderated by Max Houghton.

11:00 Photographic Education: Finding your way

With Ashley Gilbertson, Ron Haviv, Gary Knight and Anastasia Taylor-Lind. Moderated by Paul Lowe.

12:30 The New Economy: How to fund your projects

With Venetia Dearden, Ed Kashi, Tomas van Houtryve, Jon Jones (The Sunday Times), Gary Knight and Donald Weber. Moderated by Stephen Mayes.

14:00 Book signing of Questions Without Answers – The World in Pictures by the Photographers of VII and more.

The seminar will be followed by portfolio reviews with eight VII Photo photographers. More details on how to book a portfolio review are available here.

25 years of Panos Pictures: “It’s about who you’re working with and why”

Frontline Staff — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:17:59 +0000

By Helena Williams

For 25 years photo agency Panos Pictures has been covering stories the mainstream media won’t. The commercial arm of the development NGO the Panos Institute (now Panos London) has had photographers documenting history as it unfolds, with a focus on social and development stories globally.

“We like to poke around in corners other people don’t go,” said Adrian Evans, Director of Panos Pictures.

“Photography is the idea of ‘don’t look over there, look over here’, and we’re not afraid to take a stand.

“We step aside from the main news and can pursue stories when they are not under the media spotlight. We cover stories we think are important.”

The work of Panos photographers Andrew Testa and Chloe Dewe Mathews was showcased at last night’s event and gave an insight into reporting for a unique organisation that operates somewhere in between the profit and the non-profit world.

Testa, who has covered a wide range of topics including the war in Kosovo, explained that staying in an area a little longer than most can sometimes produce the most fulfilling stories.

“In media terms, there is this attitude that once the UN goes in, everything finishes. I think staying longer in a place and covering the aftermath [is important].

"After the war in Kosovo there was an orgy of violence.”

The brutal war saw 5000 Kosovar Albanians go missing. Today, 1800 are still unaccounted for. It is these losses that gave birth to his collection, ‘The Missing’: yellowing photographs of those who disappeared, and portraits of the mothers who are unable to move on.

“It shows the passing of time, and how things are not being resolved in a quick way,” Testa explained.

“In Kosovo everything has moved on, but for these mothers they are frozen. For the soldiers who killed [the missing] it only took a second, for the mothers, time has stopped.”

Mathews initially operated closer to home, with her collections ‘Banger Boys of Britain’ – portraits of young Brits who make up and smash up their cars at the Destruction Derby, and ‘Hasidic Holiday’, which depicts orthodox Jews holidaying in Aberystwyth – before she traveled across Europe and Asia to capture China, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan through a lens.

In Azerbaijan, she documented locals plagued by cirrhosis and rheumatisms bathing in crude oil.

“It felt like the world had gone mad,” she said.

“With ideas of oil companies being corrupt and evil, to see it as a health remedy… well, a photograph can make you reassess your views.”

With budgets tightening and competition becoming increasingly fierce, Evans admitted that Panos are “always looking for funding” and photographers “have to support themselves.”

“Photographers are like little NGOs themselves, they have to be able to write proposals and go out there,” he said, adding that many photographers now look to displaying their work in galleries for a fee.

But the tireless work of Panos was summed up by award-winning photographer, Senior Lecturer in Photography at the University of the Arts and moderator Paul Lowe.

“Nowadays it’s not just about the photographs. It’s about who you’re working with and why.

“We communicate to the world our interest, our passions, our desires. I’d like to think Panos does this.”