How have journalism and visual storytelling changed in the age of web documentaries and multimedia stories? What are the different ways to do long term cross-media projects without the support of...
Arnold van Bruggen
Arnold van Bruggen is a writer, filmmaker, and founder of the journalistic production agency Prospektor, and a cofounder, with photographer Rob Hornstra, of the Sochi Project. In The Sochi Project, Hornstra & Van Bruggen have been working together since 2007 to tell the story of Sochi, Russia, site of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. They have returned repeatedly to this region as committed practitioners of “slow journalism,” establishing a solid foundation of research on and engagement with this small yet incredibly complicated region before it finds itself in the glare of international media attention. The Sochi Project was one of the first big journalistic projects to be mostly crowdfunded. Since 2013 the project's exhibition has travelled worldwide and is the winner of many photography and journalistic awards.
Van Bruggen tries to explore new ways of storytelling by letting the story decide which medium to choose and who else to collaborate with on it, whether a traditional documentary like The Russian War or an interactive music documentary on PTSD like Hidden Wounds, or an innovative newspaper/exhibition like On The Other Side of The Mountains.
Photography in the internet age is becoming more and more frenetic and "instantaneous", but for some photographers slow working rhythms and an accurate research and preparatory work still remain ...