Innovative Individuals

Innovative Individuals: Brent Foster

This post is also available in Spanish

Today we are pleased to feature Brent Foster, former LA Times photographer and current member of Danish multimedia company Bombay Flying Club, as this week’s “Innovative Individual.” I have closely followed Brent’s work since he left the Times back in January, 2009. If you have not come across his work before, I highly suggest you do so! He runs the blog Visual Journalist, works with the extremely talented duo at Bombay Flying Club, and teaches numerous photography and multimedia workshops around the world.

Make sure to keep track of Brent via his LinkedIn profile, his Lightstalkers profile, and on Twitter.

Q) How do you drive innovation in your work?

A) I actually try not to be too innovative with the pieces I’m working on. Although I believe strongly in the strength of multimedia storytelling, I try to concentrate on the storytelling aspect of the process, and less on the technical end. I think it’s important that the tools you use are second nature, but I think we get too wrapped up into what camera we’re using, and what we’re editing with. The stories seem to get lost in that.

Q) What piece in your portfolio are you most proud of and why?

A) The piece I’m most proud of is one of the simplest that I’ve done. It’s still photography, and a one track audio interview. Simple, yes, but to me, it’s a quiet, effective personal story. It’s called “Till Death Do Us Part.” To me, the power in multimedia is the ability to allow a subject to have their own voice. I feel this piece is a good example of that.

Q) Please provide a brief educational and professional history.

A) I grew up in Wallaceburg, Canada, and fell in love with photojournalism at the age of 14 after seeing a documentary style picture on the front page of our weekly local newspaper. As a high school student, I did a co-op with the photographer that took that picture, and went on to study photojournalism at Loyalist College. Since graduating in 2002, I’ve been on staff for three dailies in Canada, before being hired at the Los Angeles Times in 2008. I decided to leave the Times and begin a freelance career based in New Delhi, India, where I’ve based myself over the past year and a half working for clients such as TIME.com, Human Rights Watch, and Canadian Geographic. Currently, I’m freshly back to Canada, and taking some time to decide what’s next.

Q) Where do you believe multimedia fits into today’s society and how will that role change over time?

A) I’m not sure where multimedia fits in today’s society. I do think as devices like the ipad evolve, and as people start watching television from their hard drives, and ethernet connections, that the way we receive content will change, and multimedia will continue to play a big roll in that. I do think as a group of journalists/multimedia producers, we do get too wrapped up in the term, and tend to forget what readers/viewers actually want.

Q) What is one thing on your “To-Do” list?

A) I just want to continue to push myself to tell better stories. My goal is to be able to find a way to spend more time on the stories I’m focusing on, and to actually be able to survive as a journalist in the meantime.

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Want to nominate a deserving colleague, friend or inspirational figure to be highlighted in this series? Confidential nominations can be emailed to innovativeinteractivity@gmail.com on an ongoing basis. Self nominations are also welcome. A person will be featured every Friday, so look for the next “innovative individual” Friday, April 23rd!

Other posts that might interest you:

• Innovative Individuals: Poul Madsen
• Innovative Individuals: Henrik Kastenskov
• Innovative Individuals: Simon Sticker

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