Scott Anger is the founder and creative director at Pandau, an interactive company that designs, implements and manages campaigns around storytelling projects and documentary films.
As an independent journalist and award-winning documentary filmmaker, Scott has more than twenty-five years experience. He’s worked for The Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, British Broadcasting Corporation, Voice of America and PBS’ FRONTLINE.
In addition, Scott has produced several feature-length documentary films, teaches storytelling and documentary production techniques and is a lecturer.
I had the pleasure of meeting this really amazing and humble storyteller many years ago. In the world of Simbaisms, he’s a wise tree. We’ve managed to stay connected throughout the years and I’m grateful because he’s a great source of wisdom.
In this interview Scott:
- shares the different mediums he uses to tell stories
- how he ended up in journalism
- the impact of covering conflict
- advice for aspiring journalists and photojournalists
- leveraging the power of social media
I hope Scott’s insights on journalism will inspire you so sit back and enjoy!
Photo Credit: Diana Baldrica
How did you get into Journalism?
I started making serious photographs at age 16. One day, the local cafe caught fire and I happened to be nearby so I photographed the firefighters as they worked to save the historical building. They allowed me to work beside them, which allowed for intimate images of the battle. My photographs of the fire were published on the cover of the “metro” section of the local paper, which had a circulation of more than a half million readers. I learned two things from this experience; good photography is valuable because publications were willing to pay me for what I loved to do and that journalism allowed me access things the general public didn’t have. The still camera became a way to gain access to intimate parts of peoples lives and events.
I found mentors in the photography staff at the local paper who helped me develop my skills further. The day after I graduated from high school, they offered me a job as a contract photographer. For the next 15 years, I freelanced for publications around the world. I worked mostly on assignment but was also able to tell longer, in-depth stories which I sold back to newspapers and magazines.
What types of media did you start with and what medium do you prefer?
I am a visual person. Because I got my start in photojournalism, still photography is still my primary “voice” and the most comfortable medium I work in. I’m always thinking visually. Even while working as a radio journalist, I would always strive to create an image in the listener’s mind that would evoke the story. Radio stories should be visual.
I also love sound and the power of it being a single-sense medium like photography. Just like a good photograph, sound has the power to evoke an emotional response. My love of sound helped me move into full-time radio storytelling after years of still photography.
Documentary filmmaking is, for me at least, the perfect combination of photojournalism and radio storytelling. It combines both of my passions. But it isn’t that simple. In filmmaking, the challenge is to move the medium beyond its inherent passiveness. I don’t want viewers to simply lean back and consume my stories. I strive to use the power of the images and sound to produce something evocative that forces the viewer to actively participate.
As a journalist who has covered wars and the world’s struggles, how has this impacted your life personally?
I have always loved the access journalism allowed me to have to events and people. It allowed me to tell stories that I felt needed to be told. My passion for storytelling and love of travel eventually led me to cover conflict. The first “conflict” I covered was the aftermath of communism in Romania in 1990. Dictator Nicolae Ceau?escu had been overthrown and executed in December 1989 so I decided to travel to Romania to document the aftermath. It was a self-funded trip with promises interest and distribution from my photo agency, Gamma/Liaison. It was my first trip to Eastern Europe and after photographing very depressing stories about mental health, poverty and pollution, I was in the capital, Bucharest, when violence broke out. I photographed people being hacked to death and shot over the course of a few hours before order was restored. I had never witnessed anything so brutal. Two days later, I left still shaken by the experience. I was shocked at violence. My struggle to understand how our species can be so violent led me to cover conflicts off and on for the next 15 years.
Covering conflicts is one of the most unpleasant things I’ve done as a journalist. I don’t enjoy the danger, fear or witnessing of death and destruction that comes with it. However, I still feel driven to do it. It is important that the world knows – and hopefully begins to understand – the impact war and conflict has on societies.
Although I’m still driven to do so, I don’t directly cover conflict anymore. Today, I help facilitate others to tell the stories of conflict. Journalism and storytelling has changed. Because of technology, there more ways for people directly affected by conflict to tell their own stories and bear witness. Of course, an argument can be made that journalistic objectivity is lost when participants tell their side of a story but it adds a powerful dimension to the overall history of a conflict or event. I’m very interested in giving people the tools they need to tell their own stories and have a voice.
What are you hoping to convey with your work?
I start a project with the sole purpose of telling the most compelling story I can while remaining truthful and fair. That’s the core of what we do as journalists. Legacy organizations within the industry are struggling now from the disruption and democratization, however, the pure form of telling truthful and accurate stories is still relevant and important.
Social media has offered various options for journalists to create, connect and work. How are you experimenting with social media to further the work you do?
I am trying to leverage the connectivity of social media to allow more people to practice journalism and storytelling. As I mentioned earlier, I think there is real power in people being able to tell their own stories. One of the projects I’m working on is an SMS-based, crowdsourced storytelling project to give people a voice in their communities in addition to having a network that provides information. The idea of journalism is that it provides a check and balance in an open society. Social media allows us to take it to another level by opening up the perspective and making it more participatory to a larger group of people.
What advice would you give to aspiring journalists?
Aspiring journalists need to find an area of focus or a specialization. Do something no one else is doing. Journalists today must be entrepreneurs. Few jobs exist in the industry and fewer will exist in the coming decade. To be successful, a journalist needs to not only be passionate about a topic, subject or place but also must become an expert in order to tell the stories no one else can tell.
We’re not done yet! To continue this discuss, Scott has agreed for a Q&A session. This gives you the chance to find out more about Scott’s work, journalism and some of his most memorable stories.
The Q&A will take place on Witnessing Life’s Facebook page so do join in on the discussion. I’ll be announcing the time and date via our Facebook and Twitter.
In the meantime, enjoy this film Scott co-directed and shot as part of the Stop Torture in Health Care series for the Open Society Foundation so that you have a full arsenal of questions for the Q&A.
Post any questions you have in the comments for Scott and he’ll address them either during the Q&A session or here on the site.
