Reconstructing Journalistic Scenes in 3D
A goal of journalism is to bear witness to history as faithfully as possible. This is especially true for photo and video journalists, who put themselves close to the action in order to visually document events.
Visual journalists are always searching for new technologies to help them capture more detail and get the news out faster. But they’ve operated within the constraints of a camera lens, a two-hundred-year-old technology that gives readers a single, 2D representation of an event.
While working as a Creative Technologist at the New York Times R&D Lab, we experimented with environmental photogrammetry, a technique that allows us to document large, complex spaces in 3D and deliver them to readers as immersive, interactive models. Building on the work of journalists in The Times’s graphics department, who pioneered the use of photogrammetry to capture objects in 3D, we investigated how increased bandwidth could unlock the ability to capture even more, and how to combine these with immersive storytelling.
Role: Creative Technologist
Year: 2019