Newsletter - The power of the protagonist...

Hello,

I was scrolling Instagram the other day. I do this pretty much every day, and rarely stop in my tracks to double back through someone's work.

But this day I did. 

I stopped. Looked. Read. Went to the photographer's gallery and stopped more. Read more. Found more. I was insatiable, I wanted to know all the things.

The photographer was Ian Willms and the photographs were of Warren John, a man from Fort Chipewyan who'd fallen victim to cancer due to the oil industry in Alberta. Mr. John died from a very rare form of cancer he had a 0.0001% of contracting, yet he was one of six to contract this rare cancer in a town of 1200 people. 

If Ian Willms had done a story showing the pretty landscapes of Alberta being destroyed by big oil companies, of trees being levelled to the ground, of big oil sand pits taking over the forest, likely I'd have scrolled on. I'm desensitised to these images, I have them committed to memory and I know when I see them what they are about. They make me sad and feel helpless.

However I did not know of Mr. John or his rare cancer. I did not know that this very rare cancer had struck him and five other people in his tiny town, despite the odds. It is believed to be the result of environmental contamination.

Mr. John became the protagonist in a story of environmental contamination and the lack of a proper health study in this tiny town from the Canadian government. Ian Willms successfully gave us a heartbreaking story of a human being who something real happened to and it cost him his life. We want to know more about why this happened to Mr. John. We want justice for Mr. John.

That is the power of finding a protagonist for your story: Someone who can tell the story for you, show you what the story is, instead of you scrambling to find the "right" photographs to fit a story in your head. Stories are the most powerful when they come from other humans. Great stories need a protagonist so the people viewing and reading the story can find a way to engage on a personal level.

I would urge you to go visit Ian Willms' story on Warren John, as I write this (Nov. 18th, 2019) he has four carousels up about him, each with a lengthy captions worth a read. 

Are you currently working on a project? Tell me more!

All for now,

Kristine