POYi Multimedia Reaction

Pictures of the Year International wrapped up this weekend after three long weeks of some amazing photography. Multimedia was the hot topic in the last week, where judges watched all the major categories' multimedia submissions. The story that struck me the most was the winner of the Issue Reporting Story Multimedia Category - A boy's Struggle - by Liz O. Baylen for the Los Angeles Times.

Screenshot from the Los Angeles Times

The judges focused a lot on photography, rather than video, which was interesting in a multimedia competition. I thought, with the way things are going, that they might favor video. Baylen's story was an amazing one, with no video. While it's a little long, Baylen's ability to show us the boy, without actually identifying him, is absolutely amazing. We have all come across assignments where there are issues of confidentiality, but this story's focus is solely on a subject that cannot be shown. The visuals are spectacular and the audio really engages us for the vast majority of the piece. I thought Baylen's production of the story really highlighted a big issue, which is something else the judges often talked about - Issue.
I found that sometimes the judges almost "forgot" what category they were in. They saw some great pieces, but didn't highlight a larger issue. "A Boy's Struggle" uses one person's story to address a much larger topic of sexual abuse in the education system. I think the reason the story won is not only because it was a great story, but it really got the viewer to think about the issue the story was trying to highlight.
Baylen's ability to show a subject that can't be shown is legendary. If you get the chance, look at her stuff - she has a very unique style.