…on photojournalism in germany
Saturday, July 17th, 2010 at 8:33 am by Brian Ales
When we moved here to Berlin about a month ago, I was expecting - and looking forward to - experiencing all the differences, large and small, between life in the US (if the New York City area qualifies) and life here in Germany. A lot of what I’ve come across here was entirely expected: the healthy work-to-live attitude, the not-so-healthy attitude towards smoking (the otherwise cautious and sensible Germans seem not have gotten that memo yet), the smaller personal environmental footprint, the thoroughness and competency, that inscrutable Northern European reserve - the list goes on and on…
I’ve come across some unexpected differences, too - for one thing, I now consider New York a relatively polite place (there is a German term for “excuse me” - but I can assure you that you won’t hear it on the sidewalks or subways of Berlin - ever).
On the other hand, there are more than a few pleasant surprises to be had here as well - and one of them is the consistently high quality of German photojournalism. Granted, when I pick up a copy of Der Spiegel or Stern, I can’t do much other than look at the pictures (yet) - but even so, the quality, honesty, and story-telling impact of the print media photography I’ve seen here is striking. Photojournalism here in Germany, it seems, is simply operating at a higher level than what we’re used to (or what we’ve become used to) back in the US.
A paean to the lowly magazine photograph on a technology/new media blog? Why not - because at the end of the day, doesn’t content quality deserve at least as much mention as any technical aspects of the medium and/or the delivery platform(s) carrying that content?
So if a picture is in fact ‘worth a thousand words’, maybe it would be worth 1024 words here on digitalmissive - but even though I’m sorely tempted to grab a few of the compelling photos from the “Fotografie” sections of the Der Spiegel and Stern websites and republish them here in an effort to entice you to visit the websites yourself, you’ll just have to take my word for it: although the best shots seem to be reserved for the print editions, both publications’ sites are still well worth a visit.
Tscheuss von Berlin…

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San Fransisco’s
In this particular commercial, the product’s effectiveness was illustrated by an ‘odor-smelling wand’ prop waved over 2 pieces of carpet recently sat upon by the family dog - one carpet treated with our deodorizer, one with theirs. After the post production was complete, though, it was discovered that the number of (fake) beeps coming from the prop didn’t accurately match the (real) numbers coming from the underlying focus group testing - so the spot had to be reedited with the correct ratio of fake beeps - hence my (and the voice-over talent’s) call-back.
Point #1. Technically, the new Apple new iPad device was disappointing on several levels (still no Flash support, still no multitasking, still no video partnerships, still no AT&T alternative). But while the storm of negative Twitter reaction had already begun while while Steve Jobs was still on the stage, it was not until the next day that the negative reaction was reflected in the stock price. Take a look at the chart to your left - the iPad event started at 2:00 Eastern Standard Time and was accompanied by a clear immediate spike in Apple’s share price, due as much to the sheer momentum of pre-event buzz as to superficial (”isn’t Apple the coolest?”) mainstream media coverage of the event itself. Despite an army of bloggers and tweeters continuing to bash the iPad for its disappointing feature set throughout the day, the price remained elevated - in fact, it was not until the market open on the next day (Thursday January 28th) that the stock suddenly pulled back, ending up lower than it was pre-announcement (with knowledge of the twitter traffic, shorting Apple at about 4:00 that afternoon would have been a good move).
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