Zukunftsbild: capturing the future – How APA develops new visual worlds for the major issues of our time

ZUKUNFTSBILD: capturing the future is an innovative media project by APA – Austria Press Agency that rethinks visual storytelling for the major issues of our time, such as climate change and artificial intelligence. The aim is to develop a modern and inclusive visual language that authentically depicts these issues of the century and the accompanying social change. The classic “subject image” has been reimagined in terms of content and formally developed for digital media realities. During the conception phase, editorial processes and our understanding of our role in photojournalism were examined closely – reflecting, for example, on our own journalistic role in the selection, creation, and publication of images. The findings from workshops, a topic clustering across all departments, and a survey of news and photo agencies were translated into the production of new image worlds and video footage.

The demand for visual content among media outlets, corporate newsrooms, and PR and public relations professionals is constantly growing. At the same time, resources for Austrian image creators are becoming scarcer rather than more abundant. The support of the Vienna Business Agency was an important prerequisite for working on innovative visual language away from the deadline-driven daily news cycle.

Another result of the project is the white paper “Diversity in Images: Visual Storytelling in Transition,” for which not only our own photo database from the past 25 years was critically examined, but also numerous workshops and expert lectures provided input. A photo exhibition at the Concordia Press Club, participation in the Vienna Media Days, and other communication measures have contributed to the visibility of our project. The project itself forms an essential basis for the development of new image strategies by the APA editorial team.

Until now, the Austrian image ecosystem has lacked image stories and thematic images that depict social change in terms of the climate crisis and artificial intelligence without resorting excessively—and often unintentionally—to clichés. Comprehensive visual reporting that meets current media requirements was only partially available. This does not only refer to documentation, e.g., of the dried-up Zicksee lake, but also to not always portraying climate change as “far away” or “catastrophic.” An example from the project would be a photo reportage on the new recycling deposit instead of dead coral reefs.

A news agency is also heavily driven by current events in its visual reporting. In practical terms, this means photographing many press conferences, sporting events, and, in relation to climate change, natural disasters. For this project, topics “conceived in images” were anticipated for the first time. When the floods came in 2024, APA photographers already had photos of a renaturation project on their memory cards. The success is evident in the widespread media attention received by both the images themselves and the APA white paper “Diversity in Images: Visual Storytelling in Transition”. The white paper serves as a publicly available resource for editorial teams and international distribution partners who see the project as a model. 

Our business model is based on providing high-quality visual content to media companies and communications departments. The main goal of this innovation project is to support informed public discourse on topics that will have a decisive impact on our immediate future. The resulting photo stories are available to media customers via the new APA-NewsDesk information platform and to everyone else via the APA-Images photo agency. The news agency is thus contributing to a modern, visually and thematically inclusive image ecosystem in Austria. When the realities of life are depicted accurately, it strengthens trust in our work, because today's world cannot be shown with yesterday's images.