Humans of point pleasant
Point Pleasant. Home. A place by the beach. A place where you live. A place where you grew up. A place where a teacher or coach helped you. A bus driver, a restaurant worker, a custodian, a friend, a cousin, a grandma--all live here for some reason.
They have lives, they have histories, they have STORIES. Let's explore those for our photojournalism unit! |
SWBAT: Use Photojournalism techniques to capture the history, culture and people of point pleasant.
What is Photojournalism?
Photojournalism is the process of story telling using the medium of photography as your main story telling device. While a journalist will use their pen and paper to tell stories, a photojournalist will use their camera to capture the visual representation of a story, often times accompanied by a story or interview.
Most of us are familiar with the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Well this is the theory behind photojournalism. News publications are willing to pay top dollar to those photojournalists who can capture the most dramatic images.
Put simply, photojournalism is about capturing verbs. This doesn't mean simply taking an action photo. Communicating the verb is much more than that.
Stories are captured in slices while photojournalism strives to convey what is happening in one shot.
Although it is great when it happens, photojournalism isn't about the best composition, or the best technical details, or a pretty subject. Photojournalism is about showing the world a story of something that really happened. "Bearing witness" is a phrase that comes to mind in regards to photojournalism.
Photojournalism allows the world to see through the eyes of the photographer for just a moment. When photojournalism is done right, that one moment conveys volumes of time. Conveying the full story is part of environmental portraiture where the setting tells us as much about the subject as the subject themselves.
The emotion is often raw in photojournalism. The photographer is not directing the scene as a portrait or commercial photographer would. Instead, the best of them blend into the background and become a shadow figure (unlike the paparazzi). They are there to observe and capture, not become the story or interrupt it.
Most of us are familiar with the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Well this is the theory behind photojournalism. News publications are willing to pay top dollar to those photojournalists who can capture the most dramatic images.
Put simply, photojournalism is about capturing verbs. This doesn't mean simply taking an action photo. Communicating the verb is much more than that.
Stories are captured in slices while photojournalism strives to convey what is happening in one shot.
Although it is great when it happens, photojournalism isn't about the best composition, or the best technical details, or a pretty subject. Photojournalism is about showing the world a story of something that really happened. "Bearing witness" is a phrase that comes to mind in regards to photojournalism.
Photojournalism allows the world to see through the eyes of the photographer for just a moment. When photojournalism is done right, that one moment conveys volumes of time. Conveying the full story is part of environmental portraiture where the setting tells us as much about the subject as the subject themselves.
The emotion is often raw in photojournalism. The photographer is not directing the scene as a portrait or commercial photographer would. Instead, the best of them blend into the background and become a shadow figure (unlike the paparazzi). They are there to observe and capture, not become the story or interrupt it.
Your assignment: capture cultural diversity by photographing someone who has a unique story.
answer the following questions through your photograph:
What is the story behind the person you are focusing on?
why are they here?
what is unique about them?
what are they doing with their hands?
why are they dressed a certain way?
What is the meaning of their belongings/certain items that are important to them?
What is the history behind those belongings/items?
Capture who they are in a series of photographs, examples below.
Go to the google classroom classwork assignment page and follow the peer interview documents posted for instructions or click the below:
Peer Interview Questions
Peer Interview Example
Peer Interview Questions
Peer Interview Example