"Simple and elegant in its execution. The images are arresting and the poems haunting; it's great example of an enabling UI that lets the content come to the foreground and allows the user to get lost in the story." —juror Michelangelo Capraro
"A striking piece that brings the depth of the issue to life. Simple and honest, with personal words, voices and music, the piece is mindful of the circumstances while being resolutely hopeful. Vibrant photography creates a powerful counterpoint to the seriousness of the subject." —juror Ranee Chung
Overview: In collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Live Hope Love chronicles poet Kwame Dawes's return to Jamaica to meet and chronicle people living with HIV/AIDS. For the purpose of raising awareness of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean, the interactive presentation traces Kwame's route through the country via a lyrical interface that creates connections between disparate sections of the site to provide a path for non-linear exploration. Tailored with photography, music and video, it provides an immediate visual impact and pulls visitors into the lives that provided the inspiration for Kwame's poignant words.
• A producer/photographer team had only five days to conduct interviews and shoot photos; several interviews took place deep in the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica, with no reliable means to coordinate with subjects.
• Built with an XML framework deployed by a custom AIR application the site has 100+ photos, 20+ videos, 5 music pieces and 20+ spoken-word audio files.
Comments by Josh Goldblum:
Was the topic/subject of the project a new one for you? "We're very interested in the possibilities of combining high-production values—those normally associated with sites promoting international brands—with compelling, humanistic journalism. This project gave us the opportunity to develop some of the ideas and techniques we've been refining over the last few years. It was only the second time we had a interactive producer/photographer in the field, and was arguably our most successful piece of interactive journalism—it was picked up by many major blogs and quickly went viral."
What would you do differently if you could start the project over? "Since the launch we've been very involved with the integration of Flash and Drupal, creating experiential Flash, Web 2.0 hybrid sites. It would have been great to incorporate some of these techniques and features into the project, and to empower Kwame to keep adding content and include ongoing community voices and participation."
