Guillaume Nolet made this photo of an older horseman in Alberta, Canada, during the 15 months that we we worked together on the project. We talked about how to approach the topic, then I’d look at every frame he made and further advise him on how to elevate his image making and narrative approach. It’s a wonderful set of photographs.
My favorite thing as an editor is to work with visual storytellers on projects from inception to completion.
What that involves:
• Helping focus the idea
• Figure out how best to approach creating photographs and other forms of content, creating the narrative structure. (Some people use the word story instead of narrative but I find that word to be pre-loaded with written content meanings that don’t apply to photographs and other visual media.)
• Looking at every frame made, selecting the strongest work, giving feedback on why those are the strongest photographs and what the photographer could do to make the work even stronger, consistently
• Creating a hierarchy among all photographs as they’re made to more accurately assess the work as it progresses, including knowing what has been photographed well and what still needs work
• Advising as the project evolves, tweaking the approach to achieve the greatest potential
• Building final selections and sequences for various potential uses, including making pitches, a book edit, an edit for the photographer’s web site, promotional pieces and more
I’v just finished working with Guillaume Nolet, a Canadian photographer based in Calgary, Alberta, on a 15-month project photographing the life of an older cowboy - and what an active life he leads.
Guillaume’s work was strong before but grew immensely as he applied the feedback and direction throughout the year.
I asked Guillaume what he got from the experience. Here’s what he said: “The constant constructive feedback and valuable insights I received from Mike helped me achieve higher quality work. His positive approach and mentoring were instrumental during every step of the project we worked on together. His knowledge on photography, editing and storytelling skills were the light I needed when I was lost in my cave.”
We had worked on a few shorter term projects that Guillaume had initiated - he’s a good idea person. One of them was just a finalist in Canada’s National Magazine Awards. Until the cowboy project Guillaume would send me a wide selection of photographs and that had great value. But there’s so much more potential for growth when I respond to all the photographs made. I can discern approaches that are working or not, see if you’re using default approaches that keep you from more dimensionally expressing things about what’s in front of your camera, and more. (I’ll address the idea of defaults in a future post in this space.)
This is just one of the ways you can work with me. I’m happy to engage with a project you have in the works, look at a broad set of your photographs and determine their best presentation or advise you during a review.
If you belong to an organization that could use some help elevating its visual narratives, I can advise in that arena, too, having worked in a great range of settings that evolved to creating powerful storytelling.