Writing Here:

duckrabbit
David White, photographer
Ciara Leeming
Adam Westbrook
Carl Pendle
Joseph Rodriguez
Martin-Nachtwey

What they say about duckrabbit:

'One of the hazards of publishing a well-known photojournalism blog - getting multimedia like yours, where the photos are both powerful and moving, and I end up in tears at my desk.'

Alan Taylor, Boston Big Picture)

'David White's multimedia work with duckrabbit is very exciting.'

Kate Edwards (Guardian Magazine Picture Editor)

'I am a fan of duckrabbit. I am not a fan because I agree with everything Ben has to say, but because he says it without frills and then will spend the time necessary to engage the consequent discussions. Such commitment is a priceless commodity.'

Prison Photography

'I met one of them at an academic conference in the summer. He was the sanest person there, but sure enough by damn gadnabbit ruffled more than a few fluffed up peacock feathers.'

The Photography Pages

'If you haven't seen the duckrabbit blog on multimedia you should.'

Stephen Alvarez

'duckrabbit has done another jaw-dropping job with Condition Critical, a highly commendable and important project for Medecins Sans Frontiers.'

The Travel Photographer

The Green Book Materials

This is a masterclass in documentary production. Nothing is out of place.  Watch for the ending.  It just crushed me.

The Green Book Materials from phos pictures on Vimeo.

Don McCullin Audio Slideshow on the BBC - Shaped by the War

Don McCullin is not only a great photographer but he’s also a great talker. I caught him this morning on the BBC’s TODAY programme. It was a powerful listen. Important too to hear a photographer talk about the cost to his mental health of the work he does. The BBC are hosting an audio slideshow:

Don McCullin [...]

Bruno Stevens, on Haiti (audio slideshow)

This powerful audio slideshow is brought impressively to life by Olince Calixte, a blind street musician from Port au Prince.

It’s also a journey from pain, trauma and shock through to the first signs of recovery. For me it tells a much more balanced story of the aftermath than many sets of photos out there. [...]

Do unto others ...

Very roughly some 2000 years ago we nailed some bloke called Jesus to a tree.

Nothing new about that. Nailing people to trees was a rather effective form of crowd control.

Since then though a lot of people have been following this Jesus bloke. One of his oft quoted mantras was treat other people people as you would [...]

(click on photo, the video player will load, then click again to play)

It’s one of those moments you don’t forget.

This term I’ve been a guest lecturer at Birmingham City University.  I sat twenty students down in front of one of the four videos we’ve been producing for MSF (more of that in a minute) [...]

“Jack wasn’t going to get killed.”

BBC audio slideshow, Father and Son, on duckabbit [...]

Charities, journalism and PR

Adam Westbrook was one of a number of bloggers who followed up on duckrabbit’s post on MSF’s new cinema advert with a much wider analysis of how charities communicate:

‘At the heart of this lies the important question of how charities choose to spread their word. The public generally are now far less trusting of spin and [...]

MSF Cinema advert … what do you think?

WW2 Advert

Every now and then duckrabbit invites people to post here who have more interesting things to say about life than we do. Today its the turn of Pete Masters, MSF Uk’s web guru, a charity that provides medical support in response to humanitarian situations.

Basically they patch people up and save lives (and do a [...]

Where it’s at – Maisie Crow

‘Where it’s at‘ is where duckrabbit profiles the work that inspires us.  Last week we were privileged enough to feature the work of Joseph Rodriguez (we’ll be putting up some more of his multimedia features later on this week). Today the focus is on Maisie Crow.

(C) Maisie Crow

Tonight Maisie will be officially receiving the Ian [...]

Joseph Rodriguez – Where it’s at (part 1)

This week we’re kicking off a new series ‘ Where it’s at’. This is where the finest work we sing about on duckrabbit will go. The stuff that kicks our ass.

Where better to start then with  Joseph Rodriguez?

Regular readers will know that duckrabbit couldn’t give a toss about the tedious cult of the photographer but [...]

Multimedia -Sexual Warfare, Rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo

When duckrabbit lived in Ethiopia the radio programmes that I managed regularly told stories of women and children who had been the victims of sexual violence. The stories were horrific.  To say that that the problem is endemic is to put it mildly. Sexual violence  against women and children is rampant the world over [...]

How to do it

Ok…after looking at mediocre photography day in day out for what seems ages, I was sent an email by Marco Vernaschi.
He’s had a lot of exposure recently, and rightly so. His work is of a rare quality. He is technically totally in control, aesthetically he’s bang on and the stories he covers are epic. He deserves [...]

If you want to break someone’s heart, if you want them to care

make it personal.

Maddi, the seven-year-old daughter of British hostage Jason Creswell, wrote to her father in May 2009 to say how much she missed him. It read: “To Daddy, I miss you very much, we all want you to come home. I love you very much…”

Today it has been announced that after two years of [...]

Stevie Smith – Not Waving But Drowning

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he’s dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much [...]

Zimbabwe’s orhans – BBC Audio Slideshow

There’s a quiet and thoughtful audio slideshow running on the BBC about the harsh reality of life for many of Zimabawe’s children.  Take a moment out of your day to watch it and to reflect how ‘man hands on misery to man.’

The suffering in this world is only matched by the mass indifference towards it.

Honestly, some [...]

duckrabbit photography competition – WIN $1000

duckrabbit today launches an exciting new free entry photo competition with a twist. One lucky person will win a lip smackingly beautiful $1000. The task is simple … all you need to do is restore a little bit of duckrabbit’s faith in the world. Intrigued?  Read on …

The roots of duckrabbit’s competition stated several weeks ago [...]

Have you heard the light?

Photographer Oliver Edwards has. He’s just  signed up for duckrabbit’s first Trinity Session.

The Trinity Sessions are for photographers and journalists who want to get their head round multimedia storytelling and in particular recording audio for slideshows.

Oliver has a degree in documentary photography from Newport University. The moving photos here are from a job Oliver did for [...]

The voice is nothing but beaten air

A few months ago I emailed a friend of mine who works in the Kibera slum in Nairobi suggesting they take a look at an amazing set of photos by Jehad Nga taken in the same slum.

‘My Shadow. My Opponent’ explores the lives, spaces and activities associated with boxing clubs in Kibera.

Instinctively I knew the [...]

Viewing Restricted

‘Viewing Restricted: [Re]presenting Poverty is a major new exhibition which sets out to explore different notions, representations and manifestations of ‘poverty’ within a global context. ‘

That’s the kind of introduction I’d have gently persuaded the journalists I’m training in Pakistan at the moment to dump.

But if you think that was a bit over written get your [...]

The sight of homeless people in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa

can really get to you after a while.

Wherever there are problems in the world you’ll find people profiting from the pain but you’ll also find kind souls who are trying to make a difference.

Mercato is one of the biggest markets in Africa. They say you can buy anything there, even a human, dead or alive.

I once [...]