Photographic Essay and Picture Story

Yes, I'm once again using this blog for a class. This is my last one, my capstone for MU people. Photographic Essay and Picture Story is a class on telling a story with a group of pictures; the final project being an in-depth 30-day story resulting in a picture story. I'll be posting assignments, reading responses and updates on my story progress.

Here is reading assignment numero uno!

“One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore.” Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott, xii.

I’ll start the response to this reading assignment with the above quote. While the same theory applies to photojournalism, I had never realized the truth in this career choice. People who report have a strong desire to experience, and then tell. I thought I wanted to travel through society and cultures because of photojournalism. The reality of the situation is that I am a photojournalist because I want to travel and explore.

Although this book is about writing rather than pictures, many things can be transferred. Lamott advises to write about everything. Start with your past, your memories, write about what happened to you on the playground while reading the Babysitters Club. The same can apply when learning to make pictures. Photograph your family, go to anything and everything and shoot a variety of sports, people and nature.

I think I’ll discover when starting a good photo story is that it doesn’t always turn out how it starts. Lamott says to start with a small piece and combine more small pieces to become a whole, rather than trying to photograph or write an entire story thinking of the entire story. She does an amazing job relating every day occurrences to writing and life: like Heidegger, she sees the bigger picture. When her throat muscles were cramping and closing due to the absence of her tonsils, the analogy of our psychic muscles cramping around our insecurities and pain was exceptional.

Lastly, Lamott engrained this into my skull: your work will not be perfect the first time. Most likely, the second time will still be flawed. But maybe, by the third or fourth time, satisfaction will settle.

Langton Reading: In Langton’s introduction, he describes newsworthiness and objectivity as it relates to photojournalism.

He points out sometimes costs effect the time and energy spent on a subject, rather than it’s actual newsworthiness. An example was a photographer who wanted to stay in Haiti to cover the peoples’ turmoil. He was told to stay if he could fund himself. Later however, Haiti’s government became international news with its corruption. What made it news one day and not the next?

Langton made me realize news photographs are more memorable and have a higher sense of purpose then other photographs. They affect the way people are educated and perceive the world. One of the duties photographers have is to show people the way they truly are.

Although I am spending the semester as a photo editor, one thing Langton said made me think about why I like shooting more than editing. The editor does not always know the story. Their perceptions and what they want the story to be can be different from the shots from the photographer. It is at this point, the photographer needs to clearly see what is newsworthy.