26 4 April 2020 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
would boo and hiss at the
suggestion that journalism was
changing, and not necessarily for
the better for everybody. Eventually
though, people began to realise that
what he was saying was true – and
the students became incredibly
attentive (just as I was).
Traditional methods
The old, traditional way of ‘top-
down’ reporting was starting to
become a thing of the past. Daniel’s
first true encounter of the new way
of doing things came in 1996 as he
worked on a project called 24 hours
in Cyberspace. A book publisher
had been creating projects based on
24 hours in the life of various
places, and had the idea to conduct
one via the newly emerging online
space known as the world wide web.
Daniel was tasked with researching
a story via the internet (using the
only computer in the department to
have access to it at the time),
photograph it, include an audio
element and upload it to a website.
He discovered that a doctor in
mid-Wales was trying to use digital
photography of the retina to help
with the diagnosis and monitoring
of diabetes patients. At the time, the
only place to get photographed was
in Cardiff – a journey that was not
always practical for every member
of the community. Travelling to
Builth Wells in the snow, taking
with him a computer and a modem
- he photographed the doctor,
convinced a Snappy Snaps to stay
open to process the film (digital
cameras weren’t good enough for
the portraits at the time) and then
getting home in time to file eight
pictures. ‘I think I was still sending
the material at about 11 o’clock at
night, because it was taking more
than an hour to upload one single
image,’ he recalls.
After the story was published, he
received an email – itself an unusual
novelty back then – from an
American emergency room doctor
in Kentucky. He wanted to know
where one could procure one of
these ‘digital cameras’, as he thought
they could be useful in sending
advance shots of road accident
victims to hospitals. Daniel was able
to hook up the American doctor
with the Welsh one, as well as with
a Mexican expert in digital
photography. With relish, he tells
me, ‘Then I got another email some
time later that said “Thanks to a
tweedy doctor in Builth Wells, a
lanky academic in Cardiff and aDA N I E L M E A D OWS