Photographic Essay:
In this project, you will create a photographic essay.
A photographic essay is a set or series of photographs that are intended to tell a story or evoke a series of emotions in the viewer. It allows to tell more than what is possible with a single image Essays range from purely photographic projects to photographs with captions, small texts or full text essays. You can finish the presentation by creating a book, prezie or artistic gallery walk of your work. Pretend that you have been chosen to display your work in a gallery or that you have been given a book deal to show off your essay.
You can choose to do the essay either:
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THEMATICALLY - An essay that addresses a topic or issue through a unifying theme.
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THROUGH A PHOTO ESSAY NARRATIVE - An essay that tells a story, usually in a chronological sequence.
THEMATIC ESSAY
You need a theme of some kind to tell your story.
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• Ask yourself what issues you find important.
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• Consider ideas that are relevant. Check what is in the news today. Find out what topics are important to your community.
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• Are you affiliated with a nonprofit organization that you could use as a resource? See if you can collaborate with them on a project.
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• Look at photography publications to familiarize yourself with what other photographers are publishing.
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• Consider what type of photography you enjoy. What type of subjects do you enjoy working with?
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• Who do you know? Do you have any contacts that would allow you to get some powerful and candid shots?
STRUCTURE
Unless your essay is part of a journalistic piece, it should be able to stand alone, without a written article, and make logical sense to the viewer It is important that the order of your photos effectively tell a story, in an interesting and logical sequence.
Think about:
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Range of Photos
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Order of Photos
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Information vs emotion shots
NARRATIVE SHOTS ESSAY
The Lead Photo / The Hook
Your lead photo should effectively draw in your audience. This is usually the most difficult photo to choose and should follow the theme of your essay. It could be an emotional portrait or an action shot, but ultimately it should provoke the curiosity of the viewer.
Establishing shots
Establishing shots are pictures that set the stage and describe the scene of your story.
Details
Detail photos focus in on one element, be it a building, a face, or a relevant object. These photos are your best opportunity to capture specific objects.
Close-up photos provide an opportunity to focus in on specific objects. These photos are tightly cropped, simple shots that present a specific element of your story.
The Clincher Photo
The final photo, the clincher, should evoke the emotion you want the viewer to walk away with, be it a feeling of hope, inspiration, or sadness.
Other shots
Portrait:
Often a tight portrait or head shot, but can also be tight environmental portrait. This shot gives a face to your characters. It make the story personal to someone. Even if your character is not a human, a portrait can be important.
Medium Shot:
The medium shot serves to inform the viewer who are the characters and what they are doing. The shot should include both the subject and it’s surrounding.
Action/Gesture:
Action shots show your subject doing something, ideally the thing you are reporting on.
UNITY
Creating visual coherence in your photo essay is very important. This will allow all the pictures to tie together and be perceived as a whole, rather than individual images thrown together. There are several ways to accomplish this, including the theme itself, the structure and specific elements such as color, composition, use of light, etc.
Diptychs and triptychs are a brilliant tool for photographic storytelling. They present two or three images which can be from the same session or they can be polar opposites to show opposition or contrasting ideas.
When two images are placed together, their individual narrative is altered as they enter a dialogue.
EXAMPLES
What the World Eats - Peter Menzel
https://www.becomingminimalist.com/what-the-world-eats/
Behind the Scenes with Obama Callie Shell
https://theobamadiary.com/2010/12/11/callie-shell-photographer/
42nd and Vanderbilt - Peter Funch
We all have our little morning rituals. In his new book 42nd and Vanderbilt, the Danish photographer Peter Funch captured the rituals of strangers on their way to work on the same street corner, every day between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. over the course of nine years. From 2007 to 2016, Funch parked himself on the corner of 42nd Street and Vanderbilt, right outside New York City’s Grand Central Terminal, and photographed the crowds that emerged in waves from the depths of the station. During his editing process, he began to pick out characters–people he’d captured again and again across the years.
Echoism - Julian Wolkenstein
There is a myth, some say a science, suggesting people who have more symmetrical faces are considered more “ attractive “. If you are made symmetrical, do you consider yourself more beautiful, less so, or is it just weird? Do you have a best side? What is to be said of left and right brain dominance? This is a series of photographic portraits that were photographed front to camera and in the same position. They were asked not to express emotions or character. The process consisted of a face-to-camera portrait, then the image is split into a left and a right section, and one side is horizontally flipped.These images are recombined to create two separate and symmetrical identities of the subject. This initial study focusing on facial symmetry, is part of a larger piece revolving around facial features, facial proportions and facial symmetry. The term Echoism relates to facial symmetry in its physiognomic sense. An accompanying website and continuing project entitled "Echoism" is at www.echoism.org
People Matching Artworks - Stefan Draschan
“Museums are my natural habitat,” says photographer Stefan Draschan. “I like museums’ silence and how there isn’t pollution or danger from cars, which dominate most of the other public spaces in our civilization.” Over the years he’s surreptitiously documented the social dynamics that emerge in art museums. One of his longest-running and most evocative series is called People Matching Artworks, an exploration of coincidental coordination between paintings and their admirershttps://www.fastcompany.com/90150166/this-photographer-seeks-out-museum-goers-who-perfectly-match-the-art
Open Road: Photography and the American Road Trip - Stephen Shor
“Our country is made for long trips,” the photographer Stephen Shore once mused, a statement proven true in The Open Road: Photography and the American Road Trip published by Aperture next month.
http://time.com/3811996/road-trip-america-photobook/
A world around Disney - Christoph Sillem
Wandering through Christoph Sillem's photographic series
Surreal houseing around Disney, for it's workers. Non-reality spills out of the park. The neighborhood is designed after Baron Haussman's architecture, the man who designed much of Paris in the 1860s. However, this neighborhood does not resemble the thriving metropolis of Paris. Rather, it seems much more like a plastic ghost town.
http://www.galerie-peter-sillem.com/en/artists/christoph-sillem?series=a-world-around-disney-2
Garden art - various photographers
Final thoughts and resources
Context:
Make sure to portray the context, setting & situation
Character(s):
As yourself, Who are the characters of my story? What makes them interesting & compelling?
Conflict:
Is there a conflict? Plot: Is there a sequence of events?
Theme:
What is the Essay about ?
Image Characteristics:
How will you use the composition, color, & light to create unity for your story? Progression/order: Does the chosen order of the images help you tell the story? Why was it chosen?
Juxtaposition:
How does juxtaposition affect the meaning and power of the images.
Narration:
Is there narration? Is it effective? Necessary?
Criteria:
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Your essay theme or message needs to be clear and understandable.
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Your essay needs to be school appropriate. Please see me before you complete the work if you are unsure.
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Your essay must be well thought out ahead of time.
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You must have something that links the images, whether through elements of art and design or through composition, lighting, etc. - not just through the theme itself.
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You have a variety of shots that are exposed properly - no under or over exposure.
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You will be graded highly on presentation, whether in a book, a powerpoint or individual photos to be displayed
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Your essay needs to have unity in the work.
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Photo subjects need to be in focus, and pre planned.
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all shots need tow work well and flow together. You should not have any 'odd ones out' no matter how much you love the work.
https://www.slideshare.net/natytronic/photo-essay-assignment-28324970