I want to talk first about the recent presentation made by Pauline Lubens at the Women in Photojournalism conference in Austin a few weeks ago. To me, Pauline had the most compelling story to tell about the changes we are facing and its relevance to her current documentary work.

Pauline has been a staff photographer for the San Jose Mercury News since 2000. She was at the Detroit Free Press for seventeen years before that. Pauline has covered the war in Iraq twice, focusing on the impact of the war on Iraqi civilians. She was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist twice — in 1991 for a team entry documenting the U.S. visit of South African leader Nelson Mandela and in 2004 for a team entry covering the California Recall election.

Pauline started off her presentation with a comparison of old and new ways of presenting stories. A picture of gaffer-tapped black boards with prints mounted to them flashed up on the screen and she made the point that this was only a few years ago and that, “Now three years later, the evolutionary arc has shot straight up vertical.”

After starting to use sound with her photography presentations a few years ago she now feels that the element that has been missing from her previous work (sound) has now become integral to the way she tells stories. However, she said that the one thing that hasn’t changed, even though we do audio, video, we have new gadgets, and new presentation platforms, is great storytelling.

“It can be pretty daunting, but for me the key is still about storytelling. My approach hasn’t changed, how I do stories, how I get access hasn’t changed. How I think about my approach for what tools I’m going to use has changed,” she said.

She said that some people in photojournalism are wedded to their identities and feel that, “I’m a still photographer, I don’t shoot video, I wasn’t hired to record audio or do interviews.” Pauline is always surprised by statements like that. She says that she feels completely rejuvenated by doing multimedia.

“I’m 51-years-old and I feel like a kid again. That’s good news and bad news. I feel more energized about work than I have in along time. Everything seems really new and I also get to be a workaholic again. I feel like I have a whole lot to learn and it has been very exciting. It is a creative feast. But it can be really scary,” she said.

Pauline said that for her multimedia has given her new elements that she can add to her stories that give them greater depth. “Not only can I put a human face on stories that I have a passion to tell I can give them a human voice as well.” However, despite all the changes with multimedia Pauline hasn’t strayed far from her roots. Most of her work still contains about 70 percent stills and 30 percent video—only shooting video when it’s called for. One of the things she loves about multimedia is the control she is able to exercise over her work.

“Photographers are always complaining that we don’t have control over how our pictures get used. Well, I get to do it all myself and I don’t play well with other children,” she joked. Pauline’s latest story on U.S. Army Sgt. Frank Sandoval titled “Frank’s Fight” had a profound effect on everyone in the room. (A shout out to Richard Koci Hernandez as well who did much of the technical work on the site). It is the story of an Army survivor of a roadside bomb attack in Iraq who had severe brain trauma and his personal and family struggles to regain his life. The story took a recent tragic turn when Frank Sandoval passed away after another surgery to repair his battered body.

The story had a tremendous personal impact on Pauline—and everyone in the audience. The story is powerful and shows the ability of stills, video and sound to bring greater depth to our storytelling capabilities.

“Multimedia is a wonderful evolving thing. Photojournalists for the first time are taking the lead. What we are doing for the web now is visually driven. This is a very interesting time and I encourage you to take the lead, take control, and take the leap into it,” Pauline concluded.

One of the more interesting parts that I drew from Pauline’s talk and her work was the power that we have as visual storytellers. One of the most talked about directions and benchmarks for our new work in multimedia is to emulate the television news model with a few tweaks. To use shorter pieces and cover more breaking news to cater to an audience that has a short attention span.

I disagree. I feel we should be going more toward the documentary filmmaking model. To create longer more in-depth pieces like Pauline’s that use a combination of video and stills to tell a story that develops over time and explores the human condition. There will always be a need for the shorter pieces, but many of them could easily be told with a few still images and audio. However, it’s the long form documentary that has the power to hold a person’s attention and keep them watching until the end. My ten cents worth of opinion but you’ll probably see more stories here that help us to explore this issue in greater depth.

I’ll post a second piece on the workshop as soon as time and work constraints permit.

I was very impressed and moved with Pauline Lubens, staff photojournalist for the San Jose Mercury News, and her multimedia documentary about a soldier wounded in Iraq, “Frank’s Fight” (which won first place in the Best Multimedia Package in the small website division for the NPPA). I told Pauline she needs to take this story further and put together a documentary. I’ll talk about this later and what I think we should be considering when producing this type of package.

The panel discussion with editors from five large market papers was very enlightening, especially concerning multimedia and newsroom training. I’ll write a separate article on that event.

There were multiple discussions on technique, technology, and ethics concerning multimedia with television photographers sharing their thoughts on the direction they are taking as well as sharing what newspaper photographers shooting video and gathering sound should consider. A very interesting discussion on ethics took place and I’ll talk about that in a future column.

As I decompress and process what I saw and heard this weekend, I’ll write about the sessions I attended. I start teaching the fall semester this week and need to prepare for classes, but I promise more in-depth reports throughout the week.

The dates for Cutting Edge IX have been released. And while this is geared toward television news, it could be a great opportunity for multimedia producers to learn advanced editing techniques. News announcement from the NPPA:

DURHAM, NC (July 14, 2007) – Shawn Montano, director of the Cutting Edge IX: Order of the Edit workshop, announced that the 2007 seminar will be held September 8 in Nashville, TN, at Belmont University’s Bunch Multimedia Hall from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. Cutting Edge is an NPPA educational workshop with emphasis on the craft of editing. This year’s program is co-hosted by Belmont University’s New Century Journalism Program. Topics at this session include “The Art of Natural Sound”; “Opening and Closing Shots”; and “Separating Yourself from the Group.” Faculty for this workshop includes Lou Davis, chief photojournalist for WTVD-TV in Raleigh-Durham, NC. Matt Rafferty is also on the faculty. He’s a video editor at WJW-TV in Cleveland, OH. Shawn Montano rounds out the Cutting Edge faculty and is director of the workshop. For more information contact Montano at shawnmontano@gmail.com. -more

The NPPA has the beginning pages up for this year’s Flying Short Course. The first stop is in Washington D.C. on October 26-27 at the Frank E. Gannett Auditorium on the campus of USA Today. Stop two is in Chicago, IL, October 27 & 28 (location TBD), and stop three is in San Jose, CA, October 27 & 28 at San Jose State University. This is the National Press Photographers Association’s annual traveling short course in photojournalism that usually makes three stops across the country. Each stop is a two-day event comprised of the national faculty on one day and a multimedia day with local faculty on the second day. This year’s faculty so far are: Mary Calvert, Carolyn Cole, Rene Byer, Rick Rickman, and Andrew Devigal.

DURHAM, NC (July 14, 2007) – Shawn Montano, director of the Cutting Edge IX: Order of the Edit workshop, announced that the 2007 seminar will be held September 8 in Nashville, TN, at Belmont University’s Bunch Multimedia Hall from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. Cutting Edge is an NPPA educational workshop with emphasis on the craft of editing. This year’s program is co-hosted by Belmont University’s New Century Journalism Program. Topics at this session include “The Art of Natural Sound”; “Opening and Closing Shots”; and “Separating Yourself from the Group.” Faculty for this workshop includes Lou Davis, chief photojournalist for WTVD-TV in Raleigh-Durham, NC. Matt Rafferty is also on the faculty. He’s a video editor at WJW-TV in Cleveland, OH. Shawn Montano rounds out the Cutting Edge faculty and is director of the workshop. For more information contact Montano at shawnmontano@gmail.com. -more

DURHAM, NC (June 12, 2007) Russ Kendall, director of NPPA’s Region 11 who is a photography editor at the Bellingham Herald in Bellingham, WA, has been appointed chairman of the annual NPPA Photojournalism Summit. The announcement was made this week by NPPA president Tony Overman. “Russ was highly involved in the planning and operations of this year’s Photojournalism Summit in Portland,” Overman said. “He will be assembling a team of volunteers to ensure continuity and success of future events, including the 2008 NPPA Photojournalism Summit in Louisville, KY.” -more

File under buzzed. Too much caffeine + poor grammar + incomplete thoughts + my opinions = buzzed.

I have been a member of NPPA my entire career. When I started going to events sponsored by the NPPA, they were doing it right. The right speakers, relevant topics, eight projector eye openers and most importantly inspiring. My personal opinion is that in recent years the organization lost some of it’s luster. But damn, did they get it right this week. Finally! more

The future of online photojournalism and how it is published on the Web will be determined by what happens with the next version of the Internet and revenue, the managing editor for multimedia for Washingtonpost.com and Newsweek Interactive said during an NPPA panel discussion about the Future Of Multimedia Photojournalism. The panel discussion wrapped up NPPA’s Multimedia Immersion program this weekend in Portland. more