Dave Siebert helped us learn better ways to visualize storytelling

Like so many others, I was quite moved, even inspired, by the videos Dave Seibert shared Tuesday at the Reynolds Institute here at Arizona State University. In his talk entitled "The Changing Role of the Multimedia Photographer," this Arizona Republic photojournalist/multimedia staffer explained: "No longer will we just have a still photographer who just does stills. No longer will we have a video photographer who just does video. The industry continues to shrink. That said, there are opportunities."

Seibert emphasized "storytelling, emotion and lighting" as the triad we should all remember. What I will remember were three sterling visual features -- one that depicted an Indian dance troupe who were paying homage to "Father Sky and Mother Earth"; a student-produced character-driven story about a Latino muralist who defied the oft-stereotypical portrait of a Hispanic youth spraying "placa" on walls, but instead this gifted artist was using paint to depict the richness and beauty of Latino life in a away that merged arts and activism; and lastly a moving package on women in the 21st century who are prisoners on an Arizona chain gang. This story, which strategically used stills and videos to convey the horror of this draconian 19th century practice, made me and many of my colleagues think about issues of gender, class, race and the intersection of all of these isms in the criminalization of many young women from working-class communities who may or may not have committed the crimes they've been convicted of.

To me, a guy of color, who on one hand admits certain privileges as man and who is often denied other privileges based on the tropes some might have of someone like me who is both Black and Cherokee, I continue to be stirred by the startling images of women in chains. It draws on the collective unconscious of ancestors on both sides of my family who suffered generations of injustice. I believe, Seibert and his staffers wanted us to think deeply about injustice. For that, I thank him for making me think about ways that I, too, can use stories, lighting and emotion to not just get the story, but to get the story right.