CPOY: Individual Multimedia Story

In the individual multimedia story category, two key issues near and dear to my heart stood out to me: access and focus. These pieces made it this far largely due to these two factors. Access, obviously, is necessary, but the photographers in these stories are all but invisible. Gaining the subject’s trust to such a degree that you can photograph them in the midst of intimate, often embarrassing situations is our ultimate goal as storytellers. Yet that trust is so hard to find. It takes them saying yes for long enough to give us a chance. Then it takes time. Lots of time. It also takes a great measure of courage on the photographer’s part. I don’t want to ask to follow someone into their bedroom. It’s awkward and I feel invasive, yet I might need an image that can only be made in those last moments before sleep, or in their nightly or morning routine. More importantly, I need my subject to feel comfortable enough to allow me into their bedroom. The more I’m there (everywhere), the more invisible I will be. This has been a major struggle for me because I always want to express respect and understanding for my subjects. I fear that they will tell me I am overstepping my bounds, and then our trust would be irrevocably damaged. However, if I am to do their stories justice, I have to ask. I have to be wise and ask at the right moment, but I have to try and get closer.

The depth in these stories is made possible by the photographer’s impressive access. In For Better or Worse, we see the couple in their most private moments, and our hearts are broken. The man must dress his wife and straighten her diaper as he pulls her up from her toilet-chair. We know it must be hard for an elderly man to care for his ailing wife, but in those images we see the tragedy that his life has become. This couple has 62 years of memories together, and the husband alone is left to safeguard those. He cares for her in love and devotion, remembering who she was before and how much she forgave him for in years past. He tells us all this in the interview, but without the images yielded in the all encompassing access given to this photographer, this story would be limited to an audio piece and an environmental portrait. Again, access is basically miraculous in the Outsider story. Following him at school and getting the footage of kids bullying him is amazing. Despite our best efforts as photographers not to change the lives of those we photograph, our mere presence does affect people. The fact that the journalist was there with a video camera and the kids still made their critical comments seems to make their offense that much more severe.

The other primary topic brought up in the category is that of story focus. My other weakness. During their final critiques, the judges discussed which stories held together best in terms of their focus. One of the Boys, a story about a man and his unplanned daughter, started out strong, but petered off after the storyteller began highlighting other areas of his life that, though relevant, quickly became rabbit trails to the heart of the story. I know all too well how easy it is to do this. I become so enthralled with my subject that I begin to see every area of their lives as something that needs to be shown. I want people to know them and understand them like I do. I think that the more they see, the more they will understand. But I am not trying to make my subject everyone’s friend. I am trying to tell their story. Contemplating that story's focus and continuing to consider it every day that I shoot is paramount if I am to avoid the tangents and instead show that one tiny bit of soul that can be viewed through their story.