Classic photojournalism is facing great difficulties which compel us to seek new formats and, at the same time, let us explore the great potential that digital world offers. But they also put us in danger of getting lost into the forms and forget the content.
In the era of new technologies, journalists, and photojournalists by extension, we have one thing really clear: first is the content and then, the form. Classic photojournalism and traditional media are losing very fast spaces into the market and we must quickly find new languages, new channels, new formats that could let us get what we have always tried to explain to the audience, which is no longer the same.
Spanish photojournalist Olmo Calvo, very committed to issues with social value, also said so during the seminar FOCUS ON in Barcelona and he offered examples through his latest projects, which are very simple, in its positive meaning. Still images, video, audio and text are combined clearly and efficiently.
During these sessions, Olmo shared a debate with two other different multimedia examples: José Colón, one of the authors of digital magazine MEMO, an iPad application that offers complex documentaries; and the Dutch owners of The Sochi Project, an endless web that explores the darkness of the Olympic Games in Sochi (Russia), 2014.
These last two examples are, in my opinion, a step that goes really far. And I wonder: do we need to go to a labyrinthine future, where photography, and image in general, may become diluted? Are we interested in bombarding the public with tons of information, images and aftereffects?
We need to be careful with the challenges of this new era. We don’t know for sure where we are going to. We have years ahead before the new era of communication is consolidated, so we are groping. Some people much braver than others.