Change of Pace

NOMAD Photos is a Canadian photo agency cooperatively owned by four documentary photojournalists. They pursue a stated goal of highlighting “under-reported social, political, health and environmental issues worldwide.” NOMAD markets its work to a variety of clients in the arts, media and not-for-profit/non-governmental sectors. I picked their multimedia site to look at because that kind of sounds like my dream job.

Built in xhtml using CSS, the bare bones site is organized by way of a simple frame structure using a stark color scheme of black and grey.

The three stories featured on the homepage lead the visitor to a new page where they can access a commercial gallery/slideshow presentation supported by PhotoShelter.

Within the NOMAD site itself, the viewer can link to a ‘features’ page that showcases a selection of each photographers’ work. Clicking on each photographers’ name leads to another page where you can click on a thumbnail representing a photo project which leads to another page with a slideshow. The whole process is a little onerous and involves a lot of clicking around to find everything. I was also disappointed with the amount of information available about each story and the caption format was not consistent between photographers.

The NOMAD site’s ‘multimedia’ page features seven very small Quicktime MOV files. Most of these are clearly produced to advance the interests of specific NGOs in Afghanistan rather than to function as journalistic reports. They feature music soundtracks and odd little video flourishes (like page turning or spinning cube effects) that make them feel a little tacky. One of the videos is about an AIDS patient, which feels a little abruptly out of place.

All in all, the sites efforts to target any specific audience feels a little haphazard. I think it would help if there were more consistency in the presentation of each photographers work. I also get the sense that the site isn’t updated very regularly, especially since the copyright at the bottom of the page only goes through 2008.

As we stood at the pizza counter picking out our toppings, Jack looked over at me in my insulated camo jacket and asked if I might not want venison on my slice. He has pointed out that, after only 14 months in the state, I am now probably more Missouri than he is. ... 17-year-old Megan Perotti texts the news of her successful hunt to her friends while her father, Brad Perotti, prepares to field dress her 8-point buck, near Paris, Mo., November 14, 2009.

I did, of course, grow up in a hunting state, so all this talk of deer and ducks isn't completely foreign to me, but the last month or so has definitely provided me with far more hunting experience than I'd ever been exposed to before. My ultimate conclusion is that the sport is primarily about sitting around and waiting for something to happen. As one of my subjects observed, that is why it is called "hunting" and not "killing".

I'm nearly done with the actual picture-taking for both my picture story and electronic photojournalism (EPJ) classes, though I'm still hoping to get in one more element with a father and daughter at a local handgun shooting range. I'd also like to print out some of the images and sit down for a little photo-elicitation with each of my father/daughter pairs for the picture story project. I wish I'd figured out earlier on what my focus for that project was going to be, but this is after all a learning process, so I'm trying to not be too hard on myself. I'm still a little fuzzy on what the EPJ final project will look like, but as in each semester thus far, these things have a way of working themselves out just in the nick of time.
.... Shawna, left, and Brenna Scott participate in a Missouri Department of Conservation youth duck hunt, Oct. 31, 2009.
... Missouri Department of Conservation youth guide Jarrod Pantaleo checks the time while 12-year-old Kasay McNail waits patiently in a deer blind in hopes of seeing a deer, Oct. 31, 2009. After nearly four hours, a doe stepped into the clearing and she was able to make a clean shot.