Beyond Documentary
Beyond Documentary is a photographic documentary project that provides teenagers with the skills to record their own photographic documentary stories using photography, sound and text recorded with technology that exists within the community including mobile phones, digital cameras and the internet.
These photographs are shown on our blog site, on LCD screens in the Westfield shopping Centre Manukau, and as Street posters, during the Manukau Festival of Arts 9th – 15th November 2009.
The current social identity of ‘South Auckland’, (a term used to describe the district south of Auckland) is largely governed by media, often unfairly. In particular the youth of South Auckland are featured frequently in the local and national news. In the summer of 2008 Serena Stevenson met two teenagers in Manurewa who were not into gangs, stealing, or making trouble. They were into their friendships, hanging out in their garage, and the takeaway bar, or spending time with family. Beyond Documentary’s key protagonist’s Nikki and Annie are two normal teenagers from Manurewa, South Auckland. This work is a celebration of the normality of their lives, spanning over a 12-month period portrayed in this collaborative multimedia exhibition.
Artist Statement
Beyond Documentary is non-linear multimedia ‘photo documentary’ incorporating a combination of text, still photographs, video clips, audio, and graphics. This means that rather than having a text version of a story accompanied by still photographs, various parts of a story are told using different media. The Knight Digital Media Centre at Berkeley calls it multimedia journalism, and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard calls it Photo Documentary. I call it: Beyond Documentary.
The work utilises collaboration with subjects with the aim to hand over some control to those being photographed. Nikki and Annie learnt how to make photos and contributed to the editing of their story.
www.beyonddocumentary.blogspot.com
BEYOND DOCUMENTARY'S OBJECTIVE IS TO USE MULTIMEDIA AND COLLABORATION WITH SUBJECTS IN THE CREATION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTARY STORY TELLING. ALL PHOTOGRAPHS ARE BY SERENA STEVENSON, ANNIE LATU, AND NIKKI SHEPARD.
The project outcome is a collaborative photographic exhibition, using sound and text made with technology that exists with the community, for example mobile phones, digital cameras, and Internet. This work is made in collaboration with Nikki and Annie, two teenagers from Manukau City South Auckland, spanning over 12 months. The images are exhibited within their own environment. To achieve this Beyond Documentary is exhibited on LCD screens throughout the local shopping mall Manukau Westfield, online on our Blog site, and printed on street posters displayed around the city, all part of the Manukau Festival of Arts 9th – 15th November 2009.
Credits: Photographers – Serena Stevenson, Annie Latu, and Nikki Shepard. Project designer – Serena Stevenson. Affter Effects operator – Adam Sheffield BDES, MDES. Project supervisor – Marcus Williams MFA.
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Serena StevensonBig VOICE LTD is a company specializing in production of content for multimedia distribution. LCD screens, mobile phones, the Internet etc. Big VOICE LTD is passionate about giving the story of a brand, movement, organisation an ethical VOICE.
