Here is a piece I wrote a few months ago about AV slideshows, but didn’t use. I’m bringing it to life now because the excellent ladies at the Humanising Photography Network (Jess Crombie and Autograph ABP‘s Emma Boyd) have now launched their sparkling new website complete with a Twitter account.
Jess is quoted in this piece. They’ve done a great job organising the network which aims “to bring together a diverse group of professionals working in the field of lens-based media including NGO workers, academics, activists, photographers, producers, curators and artists to discuss and explore visual politics and the relationship between lens-based image making, human rights, humanitarianism, and communication”.
In the past year, we’ve explored AV slideshows a few times at DFID with some positive results working with Panos and others. It’s a format I hope we can revisit soon. I’m sure it will take some experimenting before we get it right, but we are not alone. A much lighter subject perhaps, but I absolutely adore the one I mention here produced by Simone S Oliver with pictures and audio by Stephanie Diani for the New York Times.
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Jerking – the LA hip hop dance phenomenon taking the United States by storm. Surely the way to cover it online would be an action packed mini documentary in HD. Not so for the New York Times website. They chose the lesser-spotted audiovisual slideshow, and what an inspired decision that was.
A bit like being at a museum with a headset on, you are guided through a set of images of a young dancer and his friends in an understated way to artistic effect.
While much has been made of the importance of video reporting in the digital age, the AV slideshow’s surprising longevity on the web should provide succour to struggling photojournalists who now have to diversify their output to make ends meet.
A growing number of media providers are eschewing pixelated moving pictures for high resolution images set to music or audio interviews of the subject. “You don’t watch a still image, you look at it,” says Benjamin Chesterton, a photojournalist who specialises in the format with his company DuckRabbit. “Your eye explores it by consciously moving around the picture. It’s a more active experience than watching a moving image which tells the viewer exactly where to look.”
AV slideshows are short (less than five minutes) and can leave a lasting impression – the holy grail for digital campaigners, NGOs and any organisation competing for skittish web-scanning eyes.
Chesterton’s latest work for Medecins Sans Frontieres – a set of films telling the harrowing stories of those affected by conflict in Eastern Congo – have been keeping 60% of viewers tuned in till the end. Proof that pics with sound can hold an audience, claims Chesterton.
“We know that audioslideshows can be very popular,” says BBC News website editor Steve Herrmann. “We often include captions, so people who can’t switch on the audio should still get a good experience, and we also sometimes use text and graphics as part of the mix, to help tell the story.
“A key skill in doing them well is good sound editing, so having a skilled radio producer focusing on them for us has been a major asset. In the end though, they are picture-led so great images are essential.”
But according to WaterAid picture editor Jess Crombie, the format has bear traps like any other. “With very few images you can get a complex message across,” she says.
“But the danger with AV slideshows is the temptation to slide into sentimentality. The beauty of a still is that it gives you room for your own thoughts. Add music and testimony and there is no longer room for interpretation.
“All of us producing slideshows need to be careful to keep emotion in check and trust the viewer to understand the severity of a given situation without needing to resort to heart-rending music and overly dramatic testimony.”
Depending on who you ask, photojournalism and the web haven’t made great bedfellows so far, but this could be a format that keeps people watching while also throwing shutterbugs a welcome extra revenue stream.
[…] and relatively simple to produce. A colleague of mine has written an excellent blog post about them over here. And many organisations are now using Flip cameras and other inexpensive digital stills/video […]