Gary Embury, senior lecturer at University of the West of England, started the Reportager website over two years ago and has been working on developing an award for reportage drawing. After 18 months and still no backer, he received an email from Moleskine in Milan, who were interested in the award due to the journalistic nature of documentary and reportage drawing. They spent the last six months defining what the award should be in terms of initiating, encouraging and rewarding innovative work from professionals and students. Embury spoke to me about the plan.
Illustrations by Olivier Kugler
Tell me about the prizes.Moleskine are funding the award in terms of the three category prizes. Professional, Student and a Moleskine special mention award. All entries for this [latter] prize are to be produced in a Moleskine journal and the winning entry will be given the opportunity to donate the original to Lettera27, a nonprofit organization supported by Moleskine, and be eligible for inclusion in the ‘myDetour project,’ exhibited internationally. The professional and student awards have travel bursary money attached as well as a cash prize.
What will the winners get out of this?An exhibition of shortlisted entries will be hosted at the University of the West of England in Bristol and the awards announced at the event. I am hoping this award will initiate work which is innovative, challenging and cross disciplinary. Projects which are pushing the boundaries of what reportage and documentary drawing could be, projects which scrutinize, examine and explore an issue, location or subject through a series of made images.
Is visual journalism really viable in the digital world?I believe this is the beginning of a new era of drawn visual journalism. Reportage artists can only benefit by embracing opportunities available to them. There has in recent years been a notable rise in publicity on and offline concerning drawing and reportorial projects. Reportage artists need to take advantage of the opportunities digital media can offer by considering new directions in the way work is produced,
recorded and distributed. Inspiration can be taken from the way in which photojournalists and documentary filmmakers are using the ‘Meta Image,’ creating multi-platform interactive projects to tell their stories and reach new audiences. Drawn reportage and documentary illustration is increasingly relevant today, especially when one considers the rise and ubiquity of citizen journalism. Practitioners are making self-initiated work, self-publishing and proactively finding a commercial context for their work.
Reportage and Documentary Drawing Award
Reportager in partnership with Moleskine announces a call for submissions for the Reportager award 2015. The award is intended to encourage new, existing and emerging talent and projects in the area of reportage and documentary drawing.
Reportager Professional PrizeThe winning entry will be awarded £600In addition to this Moleskine reserves the right to commission the winning artist/journalist to report on an event (timing, location and event to be at Moleskine’s discretion). Travel expenses, accommodation and subsistence up to the value of £1700 will be available.
Reportager Student PrizeThe winning entry will be awarded £300In addition to this Moleskine reserves the right to commission the winning artist/journalist to report on an event (timing, location and event to be at Moleskine’s discretion). Travel expenses, accommodation and subsistence up to the value of £1300 will be available.
Moleskine Special MentionTo be eligible for this mention, work has to be produced in a Moleskine notebook/journal. The selected project will receive a full-year Moleskine essentials pack.
Terms and conditions, guidelines and application form can be found on the Reportager website.
The February 2015 issue of Print—Type Today—is out now.In this issue, Print tackles one of its readers’ most passionate topics: Typography. We take a deep dive into how type has evolved—where it has been in the past, major industry milestones and so on—and analyze current trends to decode where it’s going tomorrow. Print also looks at new artists who are taking it there by naming 9 Type Designers to Watch in 2015. Get a copy today.