THE XPLORING BRIEF

The digital revolution has made photography accessible to everyone as the digital camera market is developing faster than other creative media, both technically and creatively. People now have an ever-expanding choice of tools to create their pictures while one product innovation is chasing the next. Everybody is able to document their lives and to explore their creative potential without taking any risks. Not only have people been empowered to create more images of their lives but also to share them and collaborate with others. Photographs have become the new social currency that people are trading on social networking sites to influence others and express their identity. It’s a universal language everyone can understand, but the quantity of images has taken over the quality of photos leading to digital inertia. Digital cameras are becoming commoditized in the megapixel and price battle. Consumers are trying to stay on top of the digital camera swamp as they are stuck in a tyranny of choice. What all camera brands are failing to do is to create an emotional connection with people who may not be passionate about photography as such, but use digital cameras in their everyday lives.

The purpose of this Xploring project is to uncover a strategic insight that will help us lift people’s rational barriers and take us to a powerful organizing idea.

Areas of Curiosity:
- The rise of creativity in people’s everyday lives
- People’s hidden creative talents
- How people reportage their lives in pictures
- How people’s see the world through their camera
- People’s passion to preserve their experiences on pictures
- What makes a good camera for ordinary people


THE XPLORING TASK
Xploring is based on a very simple principle:
If you want to understand how a tiger hunts, don’t go to the zoo...Go to the jungle.

Xploring is much more than gathering information, it means going into unknown territory. Taking risks, perhaps taking a wrong turn. It means following your gut and listening, really listening. It means trusting your instincts, over and beyond the facts given. Knowing that when you do, you'll see more, understand more.

We will spend the next weeks with real people in the real world to understand the things that matter to them when taking pictures. Our Xploring journey will take us to people living in Germany, Poland, Russia, Italy, Spain and the U.K. We will go to their homes, spend a day with their families and friends, share their personal memories, connect with them through social networking sites, go on a night out, play with their cameras, listen to their stories, and observe their creative abilities…etc.


13 August 2009

Happy Accidents

Stuart is a professional photographer who now lives and works in London. He studied photography at university and then did a masters in photojournalism. He now does a lot of free lance work but he tells me he is waiting to hear back from Reuters after he applied for a job with them. He is hoping to do sport journalism so that he can go to the world cup next year!
We begin to chat about photography and it is clear he is very knowledgeable. He likes to collect interesting cameras and shows me one that he has in his bag that you have to wind up to take a photo with. He still likes to shoot on film for pleasure because “It’s lovely to walk around taking photos and not know how they will turn out.” Because of the limitless amount of photos you can take with digital cameras he says that if he takes his digital camera on a night out “It feels like you weren’t there. You end up living the night through the photos.”
He also likes to use film occasionally because “Pictures taken with most digital cameras look too crisp. You don’t get any accidents like when you open up the back of a film camera and you can end up with a great photo.” He describes these accidents as “happy accidents”.
His first camera was a Pentax that his geography teacher sold to him. He has used several models since then but has now settled with a Canon because “Everyone else has it”. It’s the safe option and he knows that if he is doing some photojournalism he can borrow lenses and batteries off fellow photographers because they will all have Canons too. When he worked in Jessops he would tell people that Canon and Nikon were “much of a muchness” but that generally Canon’s were cheaper and thus more popular.
In terms of his professional work he likes to get out on the street and take photos of moments as and when they happen. He finds studio work boring and thinks “There’s enough interesting stuff out there to take photos of. It doesn’t always have to be perfect. Happy accidents can be good.”

Insights:
• The best photos aren’t staged. They’re spontaneous and often taken by accident.
• Buying a Canon is the safe option because everyone else has one.
• Because digital cameras allow you to take as many photos as you like they can prevent you from actually enjoying the moment because you are so obsessed with capturing it all on your camera.
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