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Documentary image production involves observing, interacting and documenting activities. Photographs are able to quickly communicate context, environment and activities to an audience in a way that text cannot. Visual anthropology provides a rigorous methodology that gives us an interactive, ethical and honest approach to our image making. Possible outputs include single images, exhibitions, photography booklets partnering photos with text and photography project books providing a lasting record.
Film
Documentary film provides the opportunity to observe, document and communicate activities to others. Complexities, subtleties and personalities are clearly communicated in a way that brings the viewer close to the subject. Myriad specialises in bringing documentary film to research projects, creating visual outputs increasing the impact and public dissemination of findings.
Ethnography
Myriad brings together professional anthropologists and image makers. Ethnography, the principal methodology of social anthropologists, brings a structured approach to the collection, analysis and synthesis of social research. Linking an ethnographic approach to the potential for rich data-collection and data-communication using visual as well as textual communication strategies gives Myriad a unique potential to carry out rigorous research projects, while simultaneously producing a rich library of content for public communication.
Documentary Photography Case Study: Women Entrepreneurs in Kyrgyzstan's Community Based Tourism (CBT) Sector, Central Asia, 2022
In collaboration with Associate Professor Shumaila Yousafzai and her research team from Nazarbayev University (Astana, Kazakhstan), Myriad worked on a contract basis to produce documentary photographs and a photographic art book as an academic research project output aimed at public communication of the research topics.
Myriad delivered to brief, providing engaging portraits of women interviewed for the project showcasing their stories. The project included a research fieldwork trip and book production stage. Copies of the publication will be available through Myriad soon.
This project was supported by FUJIFILM UK
Documentary Film and Photography case study: To Keep The Water Flowing, UK, 2019-2023
Myriad worked in collaboration with Emeritus Professor Greg Bankoff. This project was designed to produce public communication outputs for an NERC-funded academic research project.
The primary output is a 30-minute documentary film telling the story of the role of water management boards over a recurring yearly cycle of works, the seasons and countryside activities.
A secondary output is the creation of 3-5 minute short films suitable for online and social media dissemination.
A third output is a documentary photography and portrait booklet. With specific narrative stories presented alongside contextualising images and portraits, a wider scope of the research insights can be shared than would be possible in the 20 minute documentary alone.
Documentary Photography case study: Trailblazers of the Steppe: Women Entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan 2022-2023
Myriad worked with NURCE center at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan.
The primary output is 320 page photography and text book telling the stories of 50 women entrepreneurs working across many different industries across the Central Asian country.
Through two fieldwork trips Myriad completed the work photographing 55 women, working to tight timetables and meeting with women across the country. The narratives, written by the research team at NURCE, give an insight into the booming entrepreneurial ecosystem with a focus on the role of women.
