Picture of the Year Multimedia Winners

All of the Picture of the Year multimedia winners’ stories were simply fascinating. The added aspect of combining sound with numerous images adds a lot to a particular story. The first place winner about the Iraq war really gripped me and filled me with many emotions, and I don’t think I would have gotten all those emotions if all the components weren’t simultaneously telling a story. Seeing the pictures of the pregnant woman who had just lost her husband was so upsetting, and having the numerous pictures with her voice in the background added a lot of detail for the audience to understand what is happening. 

In the hurricane Katrina story, I was very impressed with the black and white photos. The fact that some of the photos were black and white added a lot of quality to pictures that would not have been the same if they were in color. I think photojournalists sometimes underestimate the effect that black and white photos can have over color photos, and it should be something used more often in photography, especially when telling a gripping story like this. With black and white photos one pays more attention to lighting and contrast and when telling a profound and terrible story, like about hurricane Katrina, those effects should not be underestimated. All the stories were enhanced because of the way they were presented. I do not think they would have had the same effect on the audience if they were told in a typical article, or just as a television story. The multimedia aspect added something more to the story. 

Hayley Kaplan