Documentary
The visual image has immense power in the modern world. The images we see frame our understanding of events, entertain and scare us and influence our purchasing decisions. The proliferation of digital tv and radio stations has, however, reduced the audiences for news programmes and therefore the resources devoted to them. The perceived necessity of 24 hour, on demand news delivery with its need for reporters to be available for live broadcasts has further reduced the investigative role of the tv journalist. The decline of printed newspapers and the domination of large picture agencies has also resulted in more syndicated stories and photographs, and therefore a more homogenous product.
These dynamics present a real challenge to our freedom and democracy as their continued maintenance depends to a great degree on the ability of journalists to uncover wrong doing and of news organisations to transmit such information to the general public. Much now depends on the internet and how it develops. On the one hand it offers access to an incredible amount of information which is potentially massively liberating but on the other, governments and big business will naturally seek to control content and minimise choice respectively.
Against this background there are many freelance journalists working hard to bring important issues to our attention or provide us for a different perspective on life. One of the founding principles of my company Nutmeg was to utilise the skills of such journalists to promote acts of corporate social responsibility in the business world, thereby providing them with a source of income to fund their documentary work.
I produce visual-based documentary and editorial work through my company Mark Howell Multimedia Ltd. I work on my own projects and in commission for national newspapers and other organisations.
I have a Masters Degree in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography from the London College of Communication (University of the Arts) (2005). Since graduating, I have focused on socio-political, photography-based projects although increasingly I am using sound and video to produce multi-media pieces.
Between 2005 and 2007 I worked on a project recording the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank, part of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This was ultimately commissioned and published as a book with the title: What did we do to deserve this? Palestinian life under occupation in the West Bank.
I supply visual and consultancy services to Nutmeg through this business. My media skills have also been invaluable to Poole People, helping the party to break the monopoly of the national parties in the Borough of Poole.