Questioning whether digital can hack the rigors of photojournalism

Proving that Kodak and Canon built a world-class sensor that can capture the images required of the fourth estate

Putting it in the hands of a badass photojournalist hellbent on telling the stories that need to be told

OK, this is a real throwback, but I got to work alongside a design icon on this so I just had to document it on my site.

In the late 1990s, Kodak was actually ahead in digital photography (though time would sadly reveal the company didn’t really want to go all-in on a true digital transformation of their business). They developed sensors that could perform in the SLR cameras that photojournalists around the globe relied on to create the imagery that fueled news media. So to prove it, we asked Black Star photographer (at the time) Christopher Morris to take a DCS 520 on his next assignment to Moscow to capture the police forces tasked with combatting organized crime that had exploded in the former Soviet Union. His imagery was powerful and the 6 MP sensors of that time did their job well.

This project coincided with my Kodak Professional team at Saatchi & Saatchi Business Communications developing a new overarching platform for the brand called Visual Thinking. To give that platform weight, we wanted it to be shaped by truly world-class visual thinkers of the time. So I reached out to graphic designer David Carson to see if he’d be interested in helping us shape Visual Thinking. Thankfully, he said yes which kicked off our collaboration to set the look of the new campaign.

Of course, Carson killed it. And I was proud to contribute to the development of the new typographic lockup and craft these layouts alongside a true design legend. I have cherished that experience as a career highlight.

Additionally, this was just one of many projects I had the pleasure of working alongside copywriter Karl Wiberg. Karl and I worked together at both Saatchi & Saatchi Business Communications in Rochester and Hill Holliday in Boston. Karl was a stellar creative and he unfortunately left us way too soon back in 2023. RIP Karl. CD Claude Shade was a powerful force for the Kodak Professional account at SSBC and was championing the Visual Thinking idea platform at the time. He also left us too soon in 2015. RIP Claude.