mapjd@lcc

Foto8 was established in 1998 as an online web journal featuring quality photojournalism by professionals worldwide. Today, it continues to produce innovative online presentations of photojournalism, including providing the online resource for buying essential photography books and tickets to events, publishes the physical quarterly magazine EI8HT and houses the new gallery of photography in London, HOST. Over the years Foto8 has become known for its award-winning documentary photography presented in an exciting online and print format. From classical photo-stories to contemporary multi-media shows the website and magazine, and now the gallery, continue to stimulate and innovate. By showcasing this work Foto8 aims to inform and involve the viewer whilst pioneering new ways to tell stories. Foto8 believes that documentary photography performs an essential role in modern society. It is a valuable tool of communication as well as a vital part of educating ourselves about the lives of others which are often distant from our own. Photography allows us to look into, as well as at, lives of other people, to learn about their world, and in the process to define the issues that are important to us.

At PixelPress our intent is to encourage documentary photographers, writers, filmmakers, artists, human rights workers and students to explore the world in ways that take advantage of the new possibilities provided by digital media. We seek a new paradigm of journalism, one that encourages an active dialogue between the author and reader and, also, the subject. Our online magazine features projects that use a variety of linear and non-linear strategies, attempting to articulate visions of human possibility even while confirming human frailty. For us the digital revolution is a revolution in consciousness, not in commerce. We work with organizations such as Crimes of War, Human Rights Watch, World Health Organization and UNICEF to create Web sites that deal directly with contemporary issues in complex and innovative ways that circumvent media sensationalism and simplification. We also try to factor in ways that the viewer can help remedy social problems, rather than remain a spectator. Recently we completed a site focusing on how to end polio worldwide; another trying to aid an orphanage in Rwanda; one trying to reclaim the Brazilian forest; and a site featuring the images of photographers from the Vietnam War. And we also create books with photographers such as Machiel Botman, Kent Klich and Sebastião Salgado on social themes, as well as traveling exhibitions using both digital and conventional processes.

photography at national geographic