#257 ENGLISH - Paul Moakley on photography, storytelling, The New Yorker and what we’re not seeing
From De Donkere Kamer by Kaat Celis
March 31, 2026 · 1h 3m
About this episode
Kaat Celis interviews Paul Moakley about photography, storytelling, and the nuances of visual representation.
In this episode of the De Donkere Kamer Podcast, I sit down with Paul Moakley, executive producer at The New Yorker and former editor at large at Time Magazine . We talk about photography as a way of recording history, and about that thin line between documenting and interpreting the world. Paul shares how he approached portrait commissions at Time , what makes an image carry weight over time, and why the still image remains at the core of everything visual, even in film. We move into his current work in video and short documentaries, and how storytelling shifts across formats, yet always comes back to the same question: what are we actually showing, and what are we leaving out? We also talk about trust, working with photographers, the role of history in your development, and why clarity matters more than noise in a saturated visual landscape. This is a conversation about seeing, choosing, and staying sharp in how you tell stories. If you want to go deeper into how strong photographers think, work and build their voice, join one of the monthly De Donkere Kamer masterclasses. Each session is led by an international photographer who shares their process, decisions, and the reality…
People in this episode
Host: Kaat Celis
Guest: Paul Moakley
Topics covered
- photography
- storytelling
- visual arts
- documentary
- history
- trust
Keywords
- photography
- storytelling
- The New Yorker
- documentary
- visual arts
- history
- trust
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: The New Yorker, Time Magazine
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