The Globe and Mail recently published the 2nd of 3 parts of The Boy in the Moon- an intimate glimpse into writer Ian Brown's family life and daily struggle to care for his son with CFC, a rare genetic disorder. The story is an exceptional first-hand piece, told through videos, photos, audio, and accompanying articles. The final part will be published on Saturday, December 15.
This month's Digital Journalist features work from two renowned photographers, both with new books out. David Kennerly has just released "Extraordinary Circumstances: The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford"- an intimate look at the daily life in the White House during Ford's administration. Another well-known White House photographer, Diana Walker, has also released a book- "The Bigger Picture: 30 Years of Portraits" - featuring not only the high-profile subjects she's often known for, but also portraits of everyday life. Other features this month include an editorial on imprisoned AP Photographer Bilal Hussein, and dispatches from Chris Hondros, William B. Plowman, and Véronique de Viguerie.
With the relatively recent advances in DNA technology, there have been significant numbers of inmates released from wrongful imprisonment. The News & Observer spent some time with one man, Dail, who was imprisoned when he was 20 for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl. 18 years later, the North Carolina Actual Innocence Commission found that not all of the evidence had been destroyed, DNA testing pointed to another man, and Dail was freed. Photographer/Videographer Shawn Rocco, along with several others from the News & Observer, put together a nice multimedia piece, with several additional videos, photo galleries, and other material.
Last May, photographer Jonathan Harris spent 9 days living with a family of Inupiat Eskimos in Barrow, Alaska, joining them as they prepared and then went on a traditional whale hunt. During that time, he took 3,214 photographs at five-minute intervals (even while sleeping, using a chronometer), mimicking a "photographic heartbeat", with the pace increasing during intense moments. The site that he put together, The Whale Hunt, initially displays all of the images in a large mosaic, but once you've entered the site, viewing possibilities seem endless. Images can be filtered by cadence, color, context, concepts, and cast, viewed by day, hour or minute, or just simply watched as a slideshow the entire way through.
I'm excited to welcome Bob Sacha as MediaStorm's newest Multimedia Producer. Bob is an award-winning photojournalist who has spent more than 25 years producing in-depth photo essays, portraits and covers for National Geographic, Life, Time and Fortune, among dozens of other national and international publications. Bob was the John H. and James L. Knight Foundation Fellow at Ohio University in 2006-2007, teaching photography and as a master's candidate in new media and film. This year he leads a graduate seminar in documentary and photojournalism at New York's International Center of Photography.