30-Day Project

Hope in Hardship

Thanks to Liz and Shawn Beal for allowing me to photograph them and learn from them.

Liz Beal, 28, holds a bottle for her three-month-old daughter Jolie at their home in Columbia, Mo. Jolie was born six weeks premature on August 15, 2010. Shortly thereafter, Beal was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, which has a 40 percent survival rate and a very high recurrence rate, she said. The fact that she and her husband were powerless to stop Jolie’s birth made having no control over the cancer easier to cope with, the Beals said.

Shawn and Liz Beal sit in a treatment room at Boone Hospital Center as she receives her fourth round of chemotherapy. Beal had her chemotherapy port inserted a week after she was diagnosed. Her surgery date, September 14, 2010, fell on the couple’s 10th wedding anniversary.

A treatment bag hangs in the chemotherapy room at Boone County Hospital Center.

Liz rests on her sofa the day after her chemotherapy treatment. She says that she is lethargic for two or three days following the treatment, but it is other medication like anti-nausea pills that make her fatigued. “We anticipated the treatment to be harder than it has been,” said Shawn.

Shawn opens the door to his two older daughters’ room to quiet them as they are supposed to be napping. Framed photos of when the two were babies hang on the wall outside their bedroom. The couple made sure to get their wills and their medical powers of attorney in order soon after the diagnosis. “Hope for the best, plan for the worst. You’ve got to plan for the worst, said Shawn.

The Beals dress their daughters Chloe, 2, Zoe, 3, and Jolie, 3 months (left to right) as they start their day. “This is our life now. We kinda worked our new life into our old one,” said Liz. “It really should be harder than it was, I would think.”

Liz Beal smiles as she leads her daughters to class at Blue Ridge Christian Church amid a congregation sporting breast cancer support bandannas as a surprise for her. The Beals say they draw strength from their trust in God. “I don’t think we could do this without faith. Definitely not,” said Beal.

Final Project Second Works

I showed some of these images in class yesterday, but neglected (forgot) to post them until now.

CPOY: Individual Multimedia Story

In the individual multimedia story category, two key issues near and dear to my heart stood out to me: access and focus. These pieces made it this far largely due to these two factors. Access, obviously, is necessary, but the photographers in these stories are all but invisible. Gaining the subject’s trust to such a degree that you can photograph them in the midst of intimate, often embarrassing situations is our ultimate goal as storytellers. Yet that trust is so hard to find. It takes them saying yes for long enough to give us a chance. Then it takes time. Lots of time. It also takes a great measure of courage on the photographer’s part. I don’t want to ask to follow someone into their bedroom. It’s awkward and I feel invasive, yet I might need an image that can only be made in those last moments before sleep, or in their nightly or morning routine. More importantly, I need my subject to feel comfortable enough to allow me into their bedroom. The more I’m there (everywhere), the more invisible I will be. This has been a major struggle for me because I always want to express respect and understanding for my subjects. I fear that they will tell me I am overstepping my bounds, and then our trust would be irrevocably damaged. However, if I am to do their stories justice, I have to ask. I have to be wise and ask at the right moment, but I have to try and get closer.

The depth in these stories is made possible by the photographer’s impressive access. In For Better or Worse, we see the couple in their most private moments, and our hearts are broken. The man must dress his wife and straighten her diaper as he pulls her up from her toilet-chair. We know it must be hard for an elderly man to care for his ailing wife, but in those images we see the tragedy that his life has become. This couple has 62 years of memories together, and the husband alone is left to safeguard those. He cares for her in love and devotion, remembering who she was before and how much she forgave him for in years past. He tells us all this in the interview, but without the images yielded in the all encompassing access given to this photographer, this story would be limited to an audio piece and an environmental portrait. Again, access is basically miraculous in the Outsider story. Following him at school and getting the footage of kids bullying him is amazing. Despite our best efforts as photographers not to change the lives of those we photograph, our mere presence does affect people. The fact that the journalist was there with a video camera and the kids still made their critical comments seems to make their offense that much more severe.

The other primary topic brought up in the category is that of story focus. My other weakness. During their final critiques, the judges discussed which stories held together best in terms of their focus. One of the Boys, a story about a man and his unplanned daughter, started out strong, but petered off after the storyteller began highlighting other areas of his life that, though relevant, quickly became rabbit trails to the heart of the story. I know all too well how easy it is to do this. I become so enthralled with my subject that I begin to see every area of their lives as something that needs to be shown. I want people to know them and understand them like I do. I think that the more they see, the more they will understand. But I am not trying to make my subject everyone’s friend. I am trying to tell their story. Contemplating that story's focus and continuing to consider it every day that I shoot is paramount if I am to avoid the tangents and instead show that one tiny bit of soul that can be viewed through their story.

CPOY: International Picture Story

Attending the judging of the international picture story category proved to be a new CPOY experience for me. Never before had I seen the judges struggle so much to place entries. First place was swiftly awarded, but after that they felt the remaining entries were too similar to choose one over the other. I agreed wholeheartedly with their choice for first place – the story of the overwhelmed, overworked mother was beautifully and intimately shot. The images showed her struggle as a single parent trying to provide for her children and hinted at why she stuck with it.

I was also pulling for the Irish gypsy story to be recognized as a more successful picture story than the Burry Man. While I felt the gypsy story had unnecessary redundancies in its images (namely, the many pictures of kids just hanging out around their homes), the images were clearer to me than those in the Burry Man story. Without hearing the captions read before viewing the images, I honestly thought the latter was part of a wedding festivity. I was confused as to why he would have to walk so far to get to the ceremony, but the photo of the Burry Man standing with the wedding couple, bunched with the images directly before and after it made me think this man’s job had something to do with a wedding. Then the last image (which would have profited from a shallower depth of field or a more deliberate composition) looked like it could be at a wedding reception. In the Burry Man entry I read the story entirely wrong from the images and I really didn’t care why this man was at a wedding. The interaction images showed little enthusiasm. The elderly and young many have been eagerly waiting for the Burry Man’s arrival, but I did not get that indication from the picture. The bride and groom shot was obviously someone else’s posed shot. I feel that image weakened the entire story immensely. It was not a genuine moment and it was the image that confused me into thinking this was all about a wedding. I suppose this critique is a bit harsh for since it is really more of a 1-day story than anything else. With the time limitations, the photographer did obviously work hard to obtain visual variety within the story. While this was similar to the Eye Bank story in that they were both more about the process than the personal impact, I think that Burry Man was the more successful of the two because it did not have the apparent potential to become personal that the Eye Bank story had. The Burry Man is a lighter story about an intriguing tradition. A woman regaining sight after losing it in one eye all but screams for intimacy.

In the Irish gypsy entry I was confused about who these people are and what they seemed so sad about, but I wanted to know more. I think the carriage picture was actually the most successful at summing up the gypsey identity and struggle that the photographer wanted to convey, so I would have suggested reordering the images so that it would show up sooner in the story. I also would have like to see more contrast images (as the judges were calling for) where the divide and lack of acceptance was more apparent. It’s a subtle, hard to photograph concept, but it would have made the story volumes stronger.

I have to say, I wish the judges would have discussed the story done on the group of middle aged synchronized swimmers. I know it was probably voted out for having a loose edit and not enough variety, but the images were stylistically sound. I was drawn into the beauty and grace of the sport by the compositions. I with the photographer had decided to either pursue the idea as an essay or a story. If he or she had portrayed the sport through a greater variety of angles (not all underwater, differences in focal length or distance to subject) and showed the preparation that goes on before and the interaction and healthy exhaustion that follows, they could have had a unique essay. Had the photographer chosen to focus on one swimmer and what the team and the sport mean to that individual, he or she would have had some great underwater shots to show the aforementioned beauty and grace that the sport highlights (which would be likely reasons for the swimmer to pursue it).

Reading Reaction 10-4

In Chapnick's "Truth Needs No Ally: Inside Photojournalism", he discusses photographic essays and picture stories. He walks us through the development of the two, from the first paired images to more extensive bodies of work that work together to compose a story. One thing that struck me was in his section on Eugene Smith. He noted that Smith's country doctor and Spanish Village were innovative, first-of-their-kind works that took the photographic world by storm. But what were they about? They were not topics that were terribly difficult to access. They were not issues or ideas that people knew nothing about. They were stories about common, everyday experiences of people. And they were powerful for that.

I appreciate that Chapnick does not dismiss these simple story topics as the humble beginnings of a growing form of documentation. Instead, he notes that photographic essays and stories do not necessarily need complex subject matter, or even a particularly exciting one. What a solid story or essay needs most is an element of truth. Viewers will be drawn into a story that they feel is real. They can relate to real.

Another note that I appreciated was in Chapnick’s section on Donna Ferrato. In describing her application of photojournalism, he refers to it as her “weapon.” I was immediately reminded of Woody Guthrie and Arlo Guthrie, who are both folk singers. They attempted to use their music to encourage social change, and they bandied no words about their intent. They had a habit of writing on their guitars “This is my weapon.” I think this similarity between music and photojournalism is one worth considering. They both appeal to the senses. They both aim to tell stories that ring true to the consumer. They both have the potential to inform and to elicit change. In short, I think describing Ferrato’s use of photography as a weapon is incredibly accurate. Weapons are not always destructive, but they are always used deliberately for some purpose. Photojournalists who can’t find reasons for their stories are going to have a difficult time telling their stories.

In Langton’s “Photojournalism and Today’s News,” he discusses the development of photojournalism as a news force and in its technological progress. When discussing the various topics that news consumers are drawn to, Langton pointed out the extreme interest invoked by war. He also discussed the start of the controversy between journalists and government institutions like the military. Interestingly enough, he suggested that WWI, was perhaps the most tightly controlled access to any conflict. Photographers had extremely limited access, to the point that they were driven to fabricate images or limit themselves to portraiture and camp life. In the first large-scale instance of citizen journalism, the best coverage of the war was discovered later, after soldiers returned home and developed the film they had illegally exposed on the front lines. Where journalists were denied access, the soldiers who had to be there were compelled to document their own life experiences.

I find this significant because no matter the technological barriers and the logistical nightmares of access, people find ways to photograph their life. The ability to visually document life and to show people and say “this is the way it is” is a fundamental human longing. Photojournalism survived its tumultuous birth, and it will survive its current growing pains because people will continue to make it happen. It’s in our nature.

One Day Story - Stuff Culture

Final Edit

Callie Gates tapes together salt and pepper shakers before pricing them for the garage sale she and her husband, Daniel Gates, are preparing to host the next day. The Gates, who have been married almost two years, have never held a garage sale before but decided to organize one before they moved across town from their 3505 Chapel Hill Rd address. “We don’t want to move with all this stuff,” said Callie Gates.

Daniel Gates and his brother, Bryan Gates, carry a reclining chair out to the driveway in the early morning. The sale was sheduled to run 7 a.m. to noon, Saturday, September 11, 2010. Despite the schedule published in the Columbia Tribune and on the posted notices around the neighborhood, devoted shoppers began arriving around 6:15 and stragglers continued arriving into the afternoon.

Mingyung Kim, 6, examines a TY beanie baby at the garage sale’s toy table while she carries her own doll. Mingyung visited the sale with 10-year-old sister, and her parents, who are all from Korea.

Daniel and Callie Gates move a sold sofa into the garage to protect it from looming rainclouds until its new owner returns with a vehicle large enough to haul it home. They sold several furniture items during their garage sale, inlcuding sofas, recliners, and a kitchen table and chairs. “We are buying new furniture for the new house,” said Callie.

A lone table full of used clothing stands in the Gates’ driveway as the garage sale draws to a close.

Outtakes

Devin Gates carries a chair from the front door of the house to the garage in preparation for his uncle and aunt’s garage sale the next day.

Callie and Daniel Gates stand among the items they are selling at their garage sale.

Xavier Lopez, Madison Coleman, Iris Castellanos, and John Paul Castellanos hold toys and school supplies at the Gates’ garage sale.

This Week's Reading

In "Selecting a Subject" by Bill Jay and David Hurn, the two photographers discussed one of the most important aspects in photojournalism - choosing what exactly to photograph. They made several noteworthy observations. The first of which that struck home with me was the thought that photographers do what they do for something greater than the love of the art. The idea of making images might originally attract them to the profession, but it cannot hold them there. Photography must be employed to some bigger purpose. It is a tool use to accomplish something, but it is not the accomplishment itself. I could not agree more. I chose to pursue a career in photojournalism because I saw the potential for what photography can do, not what it is alone.

Another of their suggestions that I appreciated was the practice of narrowing story ideas. Broad concepts and wide-reaching ideals are fine to discuss. They are next to impossible to photograph. But one idea or one emotion can make a compelling image. Added together, those compelling images can make a telling story. I appreciate the authors' practical examples too. Flowers became "plants that relate to architecture." How cool (and challenging) is that?

A final observation that I am grateful the authors made is their idea that intellectual interest is not opposite emotional connection. While some photos are bursting with intimacy and personality, others can be just as moving without the photographer feeling so connected to the subject. A disaster story will surely carry more raw emotion than a photo illustration manufactured in a studio, but does that mean it is automatically better or more useful? No. The illustration might depict an important social issue that needs addressed just as much as the disaster relief and future prevention.

Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird" continues to drive home the point that if you don't start somewhere, you'll never move. I love her candid approach to the creative process. She does not build herself or her method up. Instead of attributing great writing to great minds, she implies that hard work and tenacity are really what will yield a compelling piece. I think the same is true for photography. While some photographers are, undoubtedly, very talented, they would not grow if they did not work. We all have to start somewhere.

She also suggests that if you start working on a story, you may well find a better one in the course of your first work. The first work is by no means a waste of time, whether you publish it or not. If it leads you to a truly great idea, then how much better that you spent those hours trying something rather than trying to think of something?

Reading Reaction

In my Capstone course we are reading Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird." While the book is intended to advise would-be writers, its content is easily applied to photojournalism students as well. For one thing, Lamott stresses the process, or journey, rather than the destination. She points out that so many newbie writers obsess over the day they will finally be published. I agree with Lamott when she says they are missing the larger accomplishment. Dedication to a craft, and perseverance when that craft is cruel and when human imperfection prevails, is far more rewarding than any superficial mark of success. Being published does not mean we have arrived. A book on a shelf in Borders or in a warehouse for an online retailer does not mean we can stop working and it certainly does not allow us to stop striving to be better.

If we as writers, photographers, and individuals stake our professional value solely on our societal standing, we have lost our way. Thousands of established professionals have been published before us. But did all of them learn what we learned? Have they seen what we've seen or worked with the subjects that we have? Would we, really and truly, rather be any one of them rather than ourselves if only to be assured of success? Or are we willing to risk the unknown in order to be true to our own stories? Do we have the courage to try, fail, and try again?

Another of Lamott's points that I appreciate is her note that creative endeavors, while frightening in the uncertainty they inevitably inspire, also give us the opportunity to use our own insecurities to further our work. For writers, Lamott suggests finding the paranoias or character flaws they see in themselves in the people they write about as well. Why not write something you know firsthand? Photojournalists, too, benefit from finding stories related to their own experiences and interests. Their own curiosity and musings can (and should) be their greatest source for story ideas.

Another reading assignment was from Loup Langton's "Photojournalism and Today's News." I appreciated the candidness with which Langton commented on photojournalism as a profession. It had never before considered just how different the public and the photojournalists providing them images consider the profession. Photos as moments frozen in time. That look, that action, that emotion, all of that actually happened. It's true. But just how true is it? The public, understandably, makes assumptions based on what they see. Photojournalists, however, are limited to explaining the context of the photo in the tiny caption that runs beneath it. Context is key in accuracy, but the visual impact of the image can easily dwarf the explanation beneath it.

Well thought out images tell a story. They communicate an idea. This is their aim. Langton notes that he problem arises when people fail to see the symbology in images. Instead, they are seen as depictions of an all encompassing reality. Thus, his example says, a photo of a Haitian rioter eating human flesh can be falsely associated with Haitians in general rather than the frenzy and chaos of a riot anywhere.

We were also assigned to listen to a podcast by LensWork's editor, Brooks Jensen. While he discussed a myriad of topics, the topic that struck me most was when he talked about Skype. He pointed out how the video-chat program has quickly been incorporated into family life. Despite the prevalence of phones in society, people will still sacrifice the mobility and convenience of a phone to sit in front of their computer screens to actually see the people they are talking to (despite low resolution video). Obviously, people want the visuals as well as the audio. We want to see the smile on our loved ones' faces instead of only hearing it in their voice. Photojournalists can find a measure of job security in this.

Ideas

The New York Times is conducting a long term project covering the 87th Infantry Battalion out of Fort Drumm, N.Y., on their year long deployment to Afghanistan. One component of their coverage was documenting the soldiers before they deployed. I am drawn to this piece in particular because it touches on an aspect of war and the military that often gets overlooked- family. Wherever the service member in question is going, whatever government they take orders from, and whatever conflict they participate in, the fact that they are leaving people they love is timeless. In the New York Times' video the pain and regret felt by those leaving their families for 12 months is tangible. It's also important.


Media Storm also published a series of stories focusing on war's impact on families. The journalists followed the families of soldiers who died in Iraq. The interview audio is brimming with emotion and the images are impressive considering the confines of a subject matter that is hard to show. Not only is the photographer challenged to portray the absence of someone, he is required to do so for 2 minuets or so throughout each individual story.


This 2004 photo essay by Mike Kane entitled Desert Vigilance, interests me for both its subject matter and the skill with which Kane photographed and edited. I am drawn into the story because it shows a different side to an issue that is of national concern. I had no idea there were people who would volunteer to patrol the border and travel from all over the country to do so. Whatever your political stance on the issue, the fact that these people believe so greatly in their cause yields an impressive series of photos with depth to them.

Kane's use of light, composition, and angle is striking. I am drawn into each photo and held there. The story has a beautiful progression to it (spotlight: case in point). I know when I've reached the end and I've learned a lot along the way. I also leave with my curiosity piqued, which I believe is the mark of a successful journalist. One story can never encompass the entire issue, but if a story can interest viewers enough to start them on their own quest for information and involvement the story teller can rest easy that night.

EPJ: Second Multimedia Critique

Reuters piece A day at Frontier Airlines about Frontier Airlines was a solid look into the business. The interview with the airline official is good quality and well edited to keep the story moving. It speaks both to the changes that are occurring in the airline industry and to Frontier's character in particular.

While the project contains many telling images, the zooms that occur randomly are distracting and lessen the quality of the story overall. I am also left wanting to get leave the ground. None of the images show a plane carrying passengers. There are also no images of planes in flight. These are not optional images. A story about passenger transportation needs visual representation of that happening. That said, many of the photos showed impressive access. The viewer gets to see things from viewpoints they would never visit otherwise- behind the ticket counter, under the plane on the tarmac, and in the baggage transport tunnel. The story starts and flows well, but it ends quite abruptly. An ending so quickly after the speaker stops talking is jolting. A few seconds of silence afterward would help immensely.

As far as presentation, the video starts immediately after the page has loaded on the Reuters site. This too, causes a start and would be easily avoidable by giving the viewer the control to hit the play button.

EPJ: First Multimedia Critique

I viewed the New York Times piece “Military Bases as Wildlife Havens” by Leslie Kaufman and Emily B. Hager for this assignment. The project considered how the sweeping acreage of large military bases is becoming a refuge for endangered animals.

The first thing that struck me about the project was the opener- the bird squawking seemed a bit loud, but it certainly got my attention. The New York Times opener overtop the squawking for the first three seconds was rather confusing. When the title slide came up after that I suddenly understood what the sound was. The fact that the sound was followed up by a medium shot of the bird suited the audio very well, though I would have like to see more of the woodpecker and less of the handler in order to focus on the source of the sound more tightly.

The piece included several pans and zooms, some of which I appreciated and many that I thought awkward. In one case the frame starts at two airmen’s feet and pans up to their faces. I would have much rather seen a wide shot and then a tight shot or even stills of the boots if that’s what the journalist wished to emphasize. One pan that I didn’t mind was when a scuba diver was emerging from the water. The frame started tight on the diver in the water and zoomed out as he stood up to handle the darters he trapped in his net. While there is unnecessary zooming on either side of this clip that could have easily been avoided with a tighter edit, the motion of the diver getting out of the water makes it impossible for a single videographer to capture that transition in one take. If they want to be purely documentary and avoid asking the diver to get up out of the water again, there is no way to get that clip without either zooming or framing the entire sequence wide. The wide shot would not have been nearly as compelling, in my opinion.

This piece made good use of Flash to present the video and audio within a user-controlled format. I could fast forward, rewind, pause, and adjust the volume within the player. I also had the option to switch in to the full screen mode, but the resolution of the project was too low to effectively facilitate that feature. While I appreciate the option, I would rather people view the project in good quality than in a large spread. I suppose that might have been a decision made by website managers rather than the journalists though.

EPJ: Second Website Critique

Louie Aguinaldo is a Filipino photographer whose work is primarily commercial. I like the fact that his site does not operate in Flash, so it is not limited to web browsing devices that support Flash. I was surprised at how difficult it was to find a photo website blog that was not entirely Flash (other than blogs).

The site's layout is simple and very easy to navigate. While it is not as minimalist in the number of images in holds as many portfolio sites are, the frame number is not gratuitous. Aguinaldo also has links to more extensive galleries for food, product, and jewelry photos. I appreciate his foresight in offering potential employees more samples if they wish to view them, but not overwhelming the viewer with score upon score of images in the main galleries.

One thing that I would change about the website is the individual image viewing. When one clicks on the thumbnail for an image, the photo opens larger in a new tab without any navigation back to the gallery or to any of the other photos. While the new tab/same tab argument can be made for both sides (with a new tab being equivalent to a new window depending on the browser you are using), I think the need for navigation between photos is definite. As a viewer, I don't want to have to exit a page entirely to have to view the next photo. I would much rather be able to click on the image, move with my keyboard arrows, or click on navigation tabs on the page to move between pictures in a particular gallery.

I respect Aguinaldo's recognition of his strong suits. While his site has 15 different galleries, his bio page makes note of his skill with metal, glass, and food photography. These are also the focused topics of the links to the exterior galleries that I mentioned earlier. He does not limit himself to the areas in which he is most accomplished, but he does emphasize them over any other category. The one thing I might suggest to make these focal points even clearer is to start the category list with them (food, jewelry, products) on the left.

Lastly, I am impressed at the extensive contact information given. If I were a potential employer or if I wanted to buy an image, I would not want to be limited to emailing the photographer. While technology allows fast communication, email is rarely as direct as a phone call. I am glad that Aguinaldo does include telephone information, for it seems that many photographers do not. Furthermore, texting is key in Filipino culture, so including a cell number as well as a land line was most fitting.

EPJ: First Website Critique

Brent Stirton is a photojournalist whose website was among those listed in Smashing Magazine's "35 Beautiful Photography Websites" posting on July 10, 2009. Stirton is a staff photographer for Getty Images whose work has been published by many noteworthy international news organizations as well as non-profit organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund for Nature.

The website was accurately evaluated in the posting. I like the fact that Stirton includes his contact information at the top of every page, though it does seem strange that he lists only phone numbers and no E-mail address (though he does on his specific contact page). There is no link back to the home page throughout the site, but the site is not designed around a home page. There are convenient gallery links on the upper right hand side that hold the entirety of the website's media.

The site's largest limitation might also be considered its greatest asset. Each gallery is presented entirely in Flash. With 40 some images in each gallery, this makes load time long on anything but an ideal internet connection. This also means than any device without Flash cannot view the photos at all. Another thing I noticed was that the individual images do not include caption information. While this seems common among photo websites, I do wish that the norm would change to include the specific details that come with an informative caption.

There is a "words" hyperlink attached to the various galleries within the "Projects" menu. This link opens a description of the entire gallery in a new window. While I appreciate having access to the information in some format, I do wish that there was a more convenient presentation for the text. A new tab would be less awkward than a new window, but I'm not sure how that would operate in different browsers. The most ideal option would be to include the text within the website itself, possibly in a summary form that could extend into a longer format if the viewer wished to read the entire description.

While Stirton's website may not be ideal for those operating on less than a lightning speed connection, most of his potential employers at this point in his career probably do not fall into that category. His images are compelling and professional, as is the format they are presented in. Because he has lengthy experience and wide diversity in his photography he can afford to include 50+ image galleries. This would not be wise for someone in my position, but one day it just might be...