Thesis 7: Think beyond the frame.

Read all 7 theses on international photojournalism here.

Two images from the series "On the Identity of a Tomato Picker." The complete series can be found here.

The repetition of the same tropes, over and over again, has done nothing to foster a better understanding of the world. 

On the contrary, it has flattened the depiction of every crisis into a handful of clichés which are quickly forgotten, and the lack of uniqueness of the images fail to make a lasting impression on the audience. Instead, we should be open to working with techniques not traditionally part of photojournalism. Photographers should borrow from portraiture, still life, or even be willing to contaminate our images with external elements. Most importantly, though, we need more openness from the publications themselves.

It is futile to bend the frame if nobody publishes the work. The powers that be must break the rules and try something different because the same old thing is not working in our magazines and newspapers anymore. We must be brave enough to jump into the void and experiment, to produce and publish that which breaks the mold.

Dario Bosio specializes in documentary photography. He also works as an editor and a curator. In 2015 he worked as a photo editor at Metrography, the first Iraqi photo agency. He co-produced the project, “Map of Displacement.”

The 2015 n-ost Media Conference Translating Worlds yielded five essays on the challenges facing today's foreign correspondent, as well as a series of seven photo-theses concerning modern photojournalistic practice. The complete works are available here.