duckrabbit - we produce photofilms » Yasuyoshi Chiba

Yasuyoshi Chiba nails it (again)

duckrabbit — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 22:21:51 +0000

Yasuyoshi is in South Africa shooting The World Cup. He emailed me today to say that one of his photos was a two page centre spread in the Guardian. If anyone saw it, or has a copy please give me a shout. In true Chiba style he hasn’t shot anywhere near a football stadium preferring to hang with the vast majority of people who can’t afford a ticket.

Yasuyoshi doesn’t know which of his photos it was, but there was a good chance it’s this one, which reminds me a lot of the photo of his from the Obama win that we’ve taken as the duckrabbit banner at the top of the page:

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Mishoka’s Story

duckrabbit — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 09:42:28 +0000

(3rd Place, Feature Audio Slideshow, Best of Photojournalism 2010)

Congratulations to all the other winners.

This video was produced in collaboration with MSF as part of their amazing Condition Critical project. Please do visit the website and leave a comment. THANKS.

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Photo: the last night of the noughties on the hill of Masailand (Kenya)

duckrabbit — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:16:48 +0000

Thanks Yasuyoshi … stunning work as ever.

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“We never knew”

duckrabbit — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:07:19 +0000

(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) and pressed play …

The response was terrible.

At the end nobody wanted to say anything. Not a single comment. Just a shattering silence and unease as the class shuffled out the door.

Over the last couple of months duckrabbit has been working with Robin Meldrum from MSF (audio) and the photographers Martin Beaulieu Julie Remy, Yasuyoshi Chiba, and Dominic Nahr , to record and produce four videos for the final chapter of their Condition Critical website.

The idea has been to bring awareness to the terrible conflict in the East of the Congo.

A lot of famous photographers have made their names in this patch of the world. We are often exposed to their black and white images that have no doubt played an important role in sharpening minds to the conflict but also reinforce negative stereotypes about the dark continent. There’s undeniable beauty and depth in the work of photographers like Marcus Bleasdale but all too often photo editors, in their insatiable blood lust for the edge, pick out the most despairing shots. Even Bleasdale takes ‘darkness’ as the title of his book.

Ultimately, out of context, these singularly negative images have become a cliched, two dimensional and self defeating form of journalism, because all they ask of us is to pity these wretched people and admire the artistry of the photographer.

I would like to think that duckrabbit’s work with MSF goes some way to showing that these people neither ask, nor need your pity.

The name and style of the photographer is the last thing we hope people think about when watching our work.

Over the next few days I’ll be popping the videos up for you to have a look at. MSF hoped that they would prompt people to leave a message of support for the people of Eastern Congo on an interactive map on the Condition Critical Website. Sounds a bit daft doesn’t it? Surely what they need is cash, right?

Well first off if you watch the videos you can find out a little about their lives, that they’re not that much different to you and me except that they’ve been caught up in an unforgiving conflict. Secondly messages of support do make a difference. I know this because last year I worked in camps in Kenya and the thing that people were most frightened of was being forgotten, the sense that no-one cared. That’s what leads to depression and despair. Worse than that, when no-one cares people get away with murder, literally.

So the fact that MSF will take these messages and share them in the camps and clinics will make a difference. It will also give a huge morale boost to the MSF staff working in Eastern Congo.

So If you’ve enjoyed reading duckrabbit blog over the last year and if you’re moved by any of the video’s please let us know what you think and then go and leave a message of support on the map. That’s exactly what many of my students who so silently watched the video in class did. They obviously needed time to take in what they’d seen.

One of them sought me out privately afterwards to say:

‘”We were shocked. Not by the video but because we never knew.”

Please feel free to embed this video on blogs, and facebook and twitter the Condition Critical Website.

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Zimbabwe’s orhans – BBC Audio Slideshow

duckrabbit — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:10:10 +0000

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 days I feel completely defeated.

If you want to learn how to craft an audio slideshow then get in contact with duckrabbit about our training.

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The voice is nothing but beaten air

duckrabbit — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:14:20 +0000

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 photos would make a powerful audio slideshow and suggested my friend approach Jehad with the idea. Daylight magazine beat him to it, but from my perspective the result is massively disappointing.

My disappointment is not because this is a bad audio slideshow, far from it, but because I know how powerful it could have been.

The voices of these boxers should have been allowed to step out from the shadows and to be heard. Jehad speaks eloquently for them but his voice is a poor substitute for the way life will have leeched its way down into their vocal cords.

Let me point out one half- truth.

Audio slideshows that feature the voices of photographers often leave us thinking about the photographs.

Audio slideshows that feature the voices of the people in the photographs, leave us thinking about the people.

I’m a people person.

Congratulations to Daylight Magazine and Jehad for fine work.

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Nine times out of ten a picture in a paper is a quick hit,

duckrabbit — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 11:43:58 +0000

bang it tells its story and then its gone again.

The problem is so many thoughtful photos get left behind.

It’s frightening how little we see of the pictures that really matter.

I only became aware of this when looking through Yasuyoshi Chiba’s photos of the Kenyan conflict.¬† If you were just to see the pictures the editors picked then you would think the only thing Yasuyoshi was interested in was either getting himself killed, or getting a picture of someone else being killed.

I’ve started to wonder what happens to all those great photos that never get seen?

Collectively they tell the full story of conflict. I mean take the Kenyan post election violence.¬† It must have been one of Africa’s most comprehensively photographed and reported conflicts ever and yet, to my knowledge, not one dollar has been spent pulling all that work together in an attempt to properly document what happened.

Something is wrong.

Perhaps we need some kind of working template to achieve this … or just someone with the vision to get it done.

So here’s a photo from the Kenyan conflict that has never been seen apart from here on the blog.¬† It tells a simple story of how people pick up the pieces from their shattered lives and move on, literally.

Next time your house gets knocked down by a mob will you think about using the bricks in this way?

Recycling the wreckage of a house destroyed in Kenyan violence (c) Yasuyoshi Chiba

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Yasuyoshi Chiba wins World Press Award, Amen

duckrabbit — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:58:50 +0000

Every now and again something happens that makes you feel good about the world. This email to duckrabbit was one of those times:

From: chiba.yasuyoshi@gmail.com
Subject: from Chiba
Date: 13 February 2009 13:46:13 GMT
To: benjamin@duckrabbit.info

Hi Benjamin,

One of my photo got a prize in the world press photo.

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=view&id=1429&type=byname&Itemid=224&bandwidth=high

When you mentioned about my photos and this contests, it just happened.
I think you have right eyes to see photographs.

I really appreciate what you encourage me always.

Yasuyoshi Chiba

Lets face it I know absolutely nothing about photography but I can spot a good bloke.¬† Yasuyoshi is far more than that, he is someone utterly focused on his art, but not in a way that he has to F*** up everything around him.¬† He is, as this email proves, incredibly humble.

Yasuyoshi’s photos did something far more important than fly around the worlds press. He gave them as a gift to me in Kenya to use in my work training journalists.¬† The effect was to remotivate journalists beaten down and confused by the terrible events that had gripped their country. That, far more than the World Press, is what makes Yasuyoshi special.

I told Yasuyoshi he would win a World Press. It wasn’t a hunch, just a hope.

If you’re out there doubting yourself, work hard and hope. That’s all you can do.

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INNOCENCE – Sri Lanka’s former child soldiers

duckrabbit — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:56:02 +0000

This comes straight from duckrabbit’s heart, where else?

The Sri Lankan civil war has long been notorious for the LTTE’s recruitment of child soldiers. As the violence intensifies UNICEF is reporting that forcible recruitment of children is on the the increase despite assurances by the LTTE that they would no longer force children to fight. David White was one of the first journalists to travel to the North of the country and take pictures of former child soldiers lucky enough to find their way onto a recovery programme. In this powerful audio slideshow White reflects on the fate of those children.

If you’re on a decent broadband connection please click on the little icon with four arrows on the bottom right hand corner of the player to watch the feature in fullscreen mode, otherwise just click on the play icon in the bottom left hand corner.

Please help distribute this feature by embedding it in your blog or website. If you need help email benjamin@duckrabbit.info

Inform yourself about what’s going on in Sri Lanka.

These organizations support child soldiers in one capacity or another:

UNICEF, Warchild, Human Rights Watch, Coalition To Stop The Use of Child Soldiers, Amnesty International

duckrabbit would like to thank Luka Bloom for kindly allowing us to use his song, ‘Innocence’.

Read this:

childsoldiersglobalreport

As ever we appreciate your comments.

David and Benjamin

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New York Times audio slideshow – Last day in the office …

duckrabbit — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:49:26 +0000

duckrabbit thinks that The New York Times have established themselves as the most consistently interesting publisher of multimedia on the web. Their online tagline is ‘Breaking News, World News and Multimedia’. It’s clear that they aim to be a global brand, though with the way their revenue is heading the most likely brand they they’ll be is an extinct one.

We still above all else value local, we’re still mainly sheep, we still stick to what we know and most of us live insular, parochial lives because to do anything else is to stretch our brains in so many directions it hurts. Will the New York Times be able to bring in enough revenue to sustain its approach to multimedia? I hope so … a lot of great careers are banking on it.

The skill of the NYT multimedia team is to stick to great and simple design combined with short narrative portraits that rarely stretch beyond three minutes but consistently captivate. They care deeply about photography and it shows because they present photographs better then any other publishing team by a country mile.

The latest piece I’ve come across covers the final day in office of the disgraced American Governor Rod Blagojevich and its a peach. What it does is capture a brief moment in history in a way that straight news simply cannot. Bravo.

“You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. I came up that way. That was the path that you chose and they won’t let you out.”

Check out duckrabbit’s own audio slideshows on our portfolio page.

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