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Hi my name is D J Clark I'm a
multimedia journalist and educator based in Beijing
and in this session we are gonna talk about photography technique
and with me I have Cedric Gerbehaye from Belgium
Can I just start with asking to introduce yourself tell us a little bit about you
and what you're doing right now? So I'm a documentary photographer and a member
of agency VU. During the last years I've been
many working in Africa and in the middle east
focusing on personal projects. I started working 2007
in the Democratic Republic of Congo till the
fiftieth anniversary of its independence, sorry,
in June 2010 and then I switched on
to South Sudan and the moment that leads to the independence of South Sudan.
And when you doing a photography project,
to you what are the things that you're looking for in terms of setting up that
project? what makes
a great photography story? Well
first there should be an interest
if you're not interested in the story you want to tell, it won't work.
I personally
have to feel engaged and concerned about the story
or the situation I want to document which means
gathering as
maximum information as possible
on that specific subject. But what is important as well is
also trying to find new ways of
expressing that specific issue
it could be by using
very traditional way of telling a story which
I prefer to do, which is spending a long time on that story
or finding ways to pitch that story who is going to help me to tell that
story
if for instance, your working for a specific your newspaper or magazines
or if you prefer to prepare a
whole body of work and prepare an exhibition and a book.
And on this workshop you've been stressing
to the participants here the important of the research beforehand,
when you do an average project maybe you want to use one as an example
how long do you take before you actually take your photograph in terms of
thinking about the project, researching the project
and how long do you take after you finish photographing
in editing and putting the final piece together? Well I would say that
seventy percent of the work of a documentary photographer of a photojournalist
is nowadays
is preparing a subjects
trying to find the fundings, writing proposals
funding ground and but also doing all the researchers
which means spending a lot of time on internet
but also trying to meet the people I i prefer to meet people in person
having meetings with them trying to discuss about what the issues are
but also what is situation logistically is
there in the field. It's also
a lot of editing at the end when you come back preparing
and as soon as you arrive there you notice that half of your preparation is not
good enough
and you have to prepare yourself again while you're right there
and we are here at a World Press Photo Workshop
but it's not photography we are teaching our participants multimedia journalism
where photography is part of that and it's something that World Press Photo is
investing a lot in these days, now you as a photojournalist
have done some of your own
personal multimedia projects and I wonder why
do you think it's important for you as a photojournalist to be entering into
this space?
Well I'm always trying to
to reach a broader audience with the story
I started working in Israel and Palestine which is a place full
of journalists it's very mediatized it was very present in the news
during
the last decade. I started working in 2002
and I always try to find a way to tell stories so that people would be
interested about the story. I was telling mostly about the daily
life for the people I was working with. When I was working in
Israel/Palestine for instance 75 00:04:30,690 --> 00:04:33,960 I wanted to tell the story of the conflict in a different way
then I started working in sub-saharan
Africa in DRC (Democratic Repblic of the Congo) and
I felt that it was not enough present in the news
so after my second trip there
in mostly eastern DRC, in north Kivu,
I thought about how am I going to tell that story
if nobody is taking care or looking
at such a story within the print news.
I can give the example of when I was a little kid, my grandmother
when she was preparing soup she asked me to bring
magazines just to take the filling of to the vegetables
and the magazine with the news stories would end in the bin.
this is what happened to the press nowadays, it doesn't
live for a long period of time what is print
in the magazine or in the newspaper won't stay
for a long period of time. What is interesting
with the multimedia is that you can always go back to it, you can always
show it,
you can use it as a way of telling a story. Could be a new story
could be a deeper story but it's also a tool that you can use
in schools for instance when I go to schools and make some presentation
I always have these multimedia with me to explain
and tell the situation the story of the people.
And the last question is that we always ask: if you were to give
multimedia journalist one tip on photography,
what would that be when there are thinking about doing a project and they are
thinking about including stills in their multimedia project,
what one tip would you give them? Be patient, be patient
it takes a long time, the entire preparation
the time of shooting take as much time as you can't
to be with the people to get into a relation with them, trying to develop
intimate moments so that you will have
a broader
place with them, a broader and a better sense
of what the story is.
CŽdric thank you very much, I know you have to get back to the participants to the finish
of this workshop, thank you.
Thank you