What happens when the image is the story? When you pick a story to pull from the image - rather than sort through a photo file to find one fitting the story?

It sounds, "exactly upside down," which is exactly how Brian Storm, founder of 2005 start-up MediaStorm, describes their business model for the production and distribution of photojournalism.

"They take still images, motion-picture and video footage, and audio tape, seek out the best story within that material, and then create a narrative through cutting and editing, adding voices and music," reports the Wall Street Journal. "[It's] something like a documentary movie, a TV segment, a book that talks, or a magazine article that moves."

The multi-media production company, which gets images from individual photographers as well as archives and partners like the National Geographic Society and Reuters, has proved highly successful. Of the 22 stories available on their website, many are award-winning. Among others, "Bearing Witness: Five Years of the Iraq War" and "Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster" have received numerous accolades from the news community.

"MediaStorm's stories are not predictable; none of them preach. In this way, its aesthetic is very old fashioned, mainstream, almost apolitical," said Mary Panzer, of the Wall Street Journal.

In addition to production, MediaStorm also offers workshops to train journalists in multi-media techniques, equipment and software.

Source: Wall Street Journal