Issue 33: New beginnings...
This is an email about photography, sound, and documentary practice. I am Bojan Fürst. If you'd like to unsubscribe, just click on the word.
Not really a new beginning. I am just trying to switch away from as many US-based services as possible and it seemed the easiest to start with ditching the previous newsletter mailing service and switching to Ghost. Aside from formatting, you won't notice much change but will have a better access to the archive because Ghost is more like a Substack, but without a nazi problem.
On to the links! Aperture has a long interview with Italian war photographer Emanuel Satolli who has most recently been covering the war in Ukraine and has a new book out called "That Thing That Never Vanished." A friend photojournalist introduced me to the work of young Jared Thomas Tapy whose YouTube channel is refreshingly nuanced and fun to watch as he addresses various aspects of photojournalism today. Start with this piece on the demise of photoessay. Leica Camera occasionally publishes long form conversations with some of the photographers who use their cameras and lenses. Here is a neat one with Joel Meyerowitz. The 2026 World Press Photo winners have been out for a while. The site is a mess, but still worth your while to explore. If you are going to look at only one thing in this newsletter, please look at this gorgeous story in New Yorker written by Paige Williams and photographed by Bob Miller. And here is a Magnum story on Greek photographer Nikos Economopoulos and his work on the Balkan Peninsula.
PhD Readings
Much, if not most, of literature around visual methodologies is written by researchers who study visual material, but don't necessarily make photographs or films. That is fantastic and really helpful if you are trying to reflect on what you do as a practitioner. However, sometimes it's just nice to read the work of somebody who has theoretical as well as practical approach to visual methods. Belgian researcher Luc Pauwels based at the University of Antwerp is one of those people. From theoretical pieces such as Visual Sociology Reframed to his writing about the utility of photo essay in articles such as Conceptualizing Visual Essay as a Way of Generating and Imparting Sociological Insight, Pauwels is interesting because he doesn't treat photographs simply as visual notes or a data collection method or just data, but he also sees them as a powerful research communications tool that could allow researchers to provide a different entry point into the work they do. If you are really into this kind of stuff, I would recommend his book Reframing Visual Social Science which brings together much of his writing on visual methods and attempts to provide an elaborate framework for visual social research.
Things I made recently
There is a new on-line publication in Canada called BeGiant (hey, I did not name it) that focuses on business and tech stories and has a fair bit of backing from one of Canada's billionaire families. I recently wrote a story for them about a really interesting St. John's-based company called PolyUnity that uses 3D printers to make medical equipment components. What is really interesting is that we forget how much what we call innovation comes out straight from the post-secondary education institutions and we almost never give them credit as the cornerstone of Canada's economy.
Speaking of which, when Memorial University of Newfoundland closed the centre I used to work at, they also stopped paying hosting fees and neglected to archive 15 years of applied research projects including the 42 episodes of Rural Routes Podcast I produced for three years. Well, I managed to get my hands on every single episode we made thanks to the good folks at the National Community and Campus Radio Association and have created a podcast feed on my website where you can now find all those episodes. I also updated podcast services so, if you were subscribed before, you will notice that all the episodes are back in your feed no matter where you get your podcasts.
Feel free to share this newsletter with anybody you think might be interested. As always, no paywall and no special paid content, but should you feel so inclined, you can buy me a coffee. After all, I continue to pay hosting fees ;)
