Rob Hornstra - The Sochi Project

I stumbled upon the Sochi Project today, which is a five year attempt by Rob Hornstra and documentary film maker Arnold van Bruggen to document the drastic changes forced upon the people who live in the are the Russian government is preparing for the 2014 winter games.

What I found most interesting about the project is the way in which they are seeking to finance it (with a very modest 15,000 euro goal).

They state:

Documentary stories start with your donation.

For five years, Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen will document the area around Olympic Sochi. Never before have the Olympic Games been held in such a turbulent region. We believe it is of great journalistic importance that the run-up to such a major international event can receive sustained and in-depth coverage. Dutch newspapers and magazines do not have the budget or manpower to realise a project of this scale. That’s why we are doing it ourselves. Your support in this is indispensable. As a donor of The Sochi Project you will have access to every section of this website.

You can support us in three different ways:

BRONZE A donation of a minimum of €10 per year will give you access to the private donors’ section of the website. This is of course where all our articles, photo series, interviews and essays will be published. But there’s more. In our sketchbook we will provide an extra dimension to the published stories. Here, we will write about photography techniques, travelling, production and content dilemmas, as well as the many encounters and adventures we have had along the way that do not appear in the larger publications. This will be of interest to anyone who wants to find out how slow journalism comes about.

SILVER From €100 per year you will not only receive access to the website. You will also receive all the publications produced by The Sochi Project, including an annual report, exclusively designed by Kummer & Herrman. We will inform you personally of exhibitions, readings and presentations related to The Sochi Project and you are welcome to attend any of these for free.

GOLD If you donate more than €1.000 per year you are a gold donor. This will give you access to the same benefits as silver and bronze members. In addition, after you make your first gold donation, you will receive a special collectors’ box for five original prints and articles. For every year you are a gold donor, you will receive a numbered hand-printed image from Rob Hornstra and an article specially written by Arnold van Bruggen as a gift. After five years you could be the owner of a unique collectors’ item, the existence of which was only made possible thanks to your donation. Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen are happy to visit you – or your union or club – personally, to explain the project further.

I wish I had an extra 1,000 euros but 10 per year sounds pretty reasonable to follow the project and contribute to a good cause.