With its relatively young population composition, youth culture is naturally an important part of the urban character of Rotterdam. Vincent Dekkers wrote a plan for an artistic research into storytelling within this culture, in order to develop multimedia skills to visualize and display it. “With an artistic research into the work of other image makers, channels and my own work, I want to gain more insight into the application possibilities of multimedia storytelling.” Dekkers would like to experiment with photography, film and text for the right tone of voice. The innovative power of young people embraces the changed composition of society, says Dekkers. This makes young people a model for how to deal with societal challenges that everyone faces, including adults. His research focuses on this theme as well as on the fact that it is a technical and communicative exploration, a pilot for a follow-up project to be developed at a later date.

Dekkers studied photography at St. Joost in Breda, was a photography teacher at the Willem de Kooning Academy and photographed for various newspapers. He exhibits his photography at photo festivals and arises from long-term relationships that he enters into with the city. He focuses on youth culture and the multicultural society by trying to get close, engage in the encounter, and move past the pose with empathy. His research request was honored by the R&D committee, which found it a clear plan that resonates and promises good technical impulses.

Dekkers has systematically explored journalistic and artistic possibilities: read a lot, talked to people from the professional field, listened to podcasts. This initially led to an image research of interviews, photos and a film portrait, partly to be shared on social media. In the second instance, it led to the outlines for a larger plan for multimedia storytelling of Rotterdam youth culture, including partnerships and texts for subsidy applications. In the end he wrote a follow-up plan to create images and text and to have this culminate in an exhibition and publication.