PHOTO ESSAY

NEW ASSIGNMENT: PERSONAL ESSAY / PHOTO JOURNALISM WITH FOUR PHOTOS

PHOTO COLLAGE FOR AMANDA MAR’S PHOTO ESSAY: REMEMBERING YOU

For this this week’s assignment you will write a 500 word Personal Essay, or photojournalism piece. You will need to take a miniumum of FOUR PHOTOS for your essay next week. You will want to choose a subject that you feel passionate about. A subject that you can easily write five hundred words with the addition of photographs. If you do not have access to a camera at home, you are not at a loss. On the contrary. Look at all the people here in this class with you. They all have stories, or their families have stories. Where did they came from? What made them who they are today? Our lives are filled with rich stories; now we just need to get their stories down on paper and using photography as a communications tool.

Examples could include first generation Ukrainian family members, where they came from, how they got out, and how they maintain their culture in a foreign land. Maybe someone you know is from Cambodia, maybe Vietnam, was there a way of doing things that is no longer here now. Maybe there is an item you could bring in, an heirloom from a family member, write about it, take pictures of it, where does it come from.

It could be about an up and coming sports star, maybe a friend of yours. An injury that sidelined an athlete for an entire season, and how it felt. The point is, stories are all around us, we just need to listen out for them.

This is not the assignment to rush through and turn it in at the last moment. The quality of this assignment will determine the quality of the photos you take the following week.

Here’s the bottom line: You may do either a photojournalism Piece or a Personal Essay. Whichever you choose will be accompanied by photographs. It’s the kind of combination of story and photographs that you would typically see in a newspaper or magazine. This week you will write the story, and next week you will make photographs.

A few things to look out for:

1. As you write this story (THIS MUST BE A TRUE STORY) think about what you will be taking pictures of. What are the moments in my essay that would be most photographable?
2. Consider making photographs for your story by bringing in objects associated with the subject, through arranging lighting to enhance those object, by incorporating with the subject you can start creating story-telling images instead of randomly taking pictures.
3. Write about something interesting! You do not want to be in the situation where you are working on a story that you have no interest in creating. If you need help brainstorming ideas talk with some classmates, or come ask me for about possible ideas.

Newspapers that have examples of Professional Photojournalism:

New York Times: http://nytimes.com
Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/home-page
The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
London Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Examples of Student Work in recent years on Howl Heritage

Christian Brett – Wake Up Call
Ashley Shockley – More Than Baking Cookies

Sean Hauff – Skate it Away

Melaine Merryman – Belonging

Aaron Jobin – My Life is Mine

Amanda Mar – Remembering You

Dylan Smith – A View to Something Beautiful

A Wonderful Example of A Photo Essay, which is pretty close to what we are doing:
http://www.dayswithmyfather.com/

AND THIS ONE. MUCH LESS SAD!

http://www.thereluctantfather.com/

MINIMUM of 500 words!!!!!!!!

Part 1: The 500 + WORD WRITTEN assignment is due uploaded to google drive and posted to this post on or before Monday, May 18th, 2015 – DUE FRIDAY.

Part 2: The FOUR PHOTOS are due posted to your flickr account and URLs pasted to this post before Monday June 1st, 2015.

HOW TO TURN IT IN:

Part 1: The Essay

1. Upload your file to your Google Drive Account.

2. Right click on the document in google drive. Click ‘Share’

3. Click on ‘Get Shareable Link’

4. Copy the URL for the document and paste it into the comment field below.

Part 2: The FOUR Photos

1. Upload the Four Photos to Flickr.

2. Add them to HHS Photography.

3. Copy and Paste the Flickr URLs as a comment to this post.

ACTIVITY: RESPOND TO THIS POST WITH TWO DIFFERENT IDEAS FOR WHAT YOU COULD DO FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT. REMEMBER THE IDEAS HAVE TO BE THINGS THAT HAVE REALLY HAPPENED, AND MUST BE NEAR AND DEAR TO YOUR HEART.

RUBRIC FOR THE FOUR PHOTOS