Interactive Narratives

On January 21st, hundreds of thousands of Americans traveled to Washington D.C. for President Obama's second Inauguration. I was among them to celebrate the event. Here are some of the people I met. These photos follow a set I took at the first Inauguration in 2009 as well as photos I took on the election night in November; I plan to continue attending every Inauguration in the future in order to document the type of people who gather for this event. I call the series "The America We Elected" because I am interested in focusing on the faces of the people in the crowd rather than the main spectacle shown in the media; it is interesting to think about how the faces would be different given a different outcome in the election. For instance, we are looking at radiantly happy people and strangers bonding together with a shared sense of hope, but we can imagine alternate situations where the people I would have encountered might have been angry protestors, or just entirely different demographics of the population. The main thrust of the project is to capture reality as it is and present this little seen aspect to a larger audience. The photos are unmanipulated, spontaneous, and captured on film by a Rolleiflex camera. More…

These are stories about a patch of land in Sydney, an infamous acre known as the Block, a place steeped in a rich history of Aboriginal culture, activism and hope. Over time, tragedy, drug abuse and crime crept into the Indigenous-owned housing precinct. In September 2010, the few remaining tenants received notice to vacate their homes. The Aboriginal Housing Company, which owned the crumbling terraces, was keen to redevelop the land. Now vacant, the Block sits on the verge of a new, uncertain rebirth. This virtual time capsule invites you to explore the Block, to witness the events that defined its 40-year history, and to meet the people whose lives it has shaped. More…

Phillip Toledano's life is marked by the passing of family. Each death diverting the river slightly. "You see yourself clearly when your parents die. You're silhouetted on the hilltop, whatever that means." More…

When Madje's dementia proved relentless, her daughter Maggie moved her life to care for her. Maggie documented the liberation from the roles she and her mother had learned to play -- a discovery that gave her the mother she always wanted. More…

A webdocumentary about Burkina Faso (Ouest Africa). Six people from this country will show us their dailylife and speak about their country. More…

This interactive documentary tells the stories of African immigrants and refugees living in Australia and their struggles and successes in shaping - and being shaped by - Australian society. It is both multi-platform and multi-lingual as the entire site has been translated and subtitled into six of the highest needs languages spoken in the African-Australian community. Each story is also being broadcast nationally across 68 language programs on SBS Radio. More…

Earthquake Kids - Children and their Rights in a Devastated Haiti shows how the children - who make up 40% of the country's population - were affected by the tragedy. Many became orphans, while others were removed from their families and taken illegally overseas. Sanitary conditions and access to health care and education - which were already precarious - are now even more volatile. The images, recorded by NGOs and UN agencies operating in Haiti, reveal shocking scenes of the desperate situation faced by the population in the early days following the earthquake. In this web documentary, you will see a devastated Haiti - putting at stake the future and the rights of its children. More…

In the new economy created by global warming, forests are becoming a valuable commodity. Promising not to cut them down is one of the most popular ways companies would like to offset their emissions. Correspondent Mark Schapiro follows the trail of one these offset projects deep into Brazil's Atlantic Forest to examine the human cost of carbon credits. More…

For all of the attention that Charles Darwin brought to the Galápagos Islands, most people know surprisingly little about them. Since Darwin’s birth 200 years ago, the people of Galápagos - both residents and tourists - have fundamentally changed the natural habitat of the formerly pristine archipelago. This multimedia project is the first of its kind to explore issues like illegal immigration, illegal fishing, invasive species and more through video, photos, panos, timelapse, and infographics. More…

According to the World Bank, 23 percent of Hondurans are malnourished. Researchers from UNC Chapel Hill and the Mathile Institute are working to combat the deadly effects of malnutrition by introducing a nutritional supplement into the diets of Honduran infants. "Honduras and the Hidden Hunger" tells the story behind this study. More…