Ballad Photo
click on the image for a larger view
It’s gotten late, and I am sitting in the hallway outside my room, with double the amount of trousers considered normal and a borrowed jacket, the temperature falling fast, so I’ll make it short and sweet. An announcement:
There’s a new photo agency out there. After much anticipation (I would’ve been one of those camping outside the ticket office), the new cooperative Ballad Photo finally aired not with a bang but with a whisper. At time of writing, the cooperative consists of Jonathan Boulet-Groulx and Lucas Mulder, based respectively in Canada/Haiti and (across the street) in Guatemala.
“Ballad Photo is a cooperative of independent photographers working internationally on diverse projects. And while our individual work differs we are united by our desire to produce high quality, in-depth reportage grounded in responsibility, accuracy, accountability, and truth-to-power.
We prioritize an authentic journalism based on solidarity and partnership with the people we are working with; a journalism that best represents both the unique character of the issues at hand, as well as the communities in which they are based.”
Short glimpses around the site and it’s looking real good. A clear and logical design of the website: a selected photos slide show welcomes the visitor on dark background, with a brief and open mission statement, while all other content is provided on text-friendly white section, and photo galleries are hovered as a light box slide show. The functionality and focus om images is a lot better here than a lot of other (good) photo agency sites out there (the heavy Magnum and VII sites, say). And of course they’ve been clever enough to include a blog.
Already, Ballad houses nine full photo essays by Lucas Mulder and Jonathan Boulet-Groulx, featuring stories from Guatemala, Quebec, Haiti, Bolivia, and Palestine.
I bet they could use a hand in promoting it (so what if Lucas is one of the very few people reading my blog?), so a big welcome to Ballad – it looks great guys, and I for one will be keeping an eye out for what happens. Bring on the stories!
