Warning: This piece includes materials some may find distressing.
Photojournalist Marc Ellison explains the making of Safe House, a ‘graphic novel 2.0’ that mixes illustrations, video and stills
The visual arts and storytelling have been intertwined throughout history, and illustrations continue to play an important role in the coverage of sensitive, deeply personal and often traumatic events.
“The graphic novel format allows me to basically plug gaps into time,” explained photojournalist Marc Ellison, who has been working with a “graphic novel 2.0” format, a mixture of illustrations, stills and video.
Ellison covered the stories of child marriage and female genital mutilation survivors (FGM) in Northern Tanzania in his latest graphic novel Safe House, published by The Toronto Star at the beginning of April.
The format allowed him to grant anonymity to the young, vulnerable interviewees when needed, and portray their experiences of surviving abusive marriages, running away from home to escape the illegal practice of FGM, and their journey to the safe house in an accurate and softer way.
The videos were intended to keep audiences grounded and serve as a reminder that the report is not a work of fiction.
“Having the photos and video in there as well, it constantly reminds the reader if they were to forget that this is very much a real story, this isn’t make-belief,” Ellison told Journalism.co.uk in a recent podcast.
[…] Safe House was created with funding from the Fellowship for International Development Reporting, a programme of the Canadian Association of Journalists and the Aga Khan Foundation.
Read more at the source: www.journalism.co.uk/news
Sources:
- www.journalism.co.uk/news/telling-the-stories-of-tanzania-s-child-brides
- marcellison.com/safehouse
- www.akfc.ca/en/get-involved/reporting-fellowship/past-fellows
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Ismailimail 
Important stories – but not sure I could watch the videos
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