Embedded Files
The gym is almost empty; students don’t feel the need to come to class anymore, making classes feel lonely and isolated.
During the school musical, when the auditorium was mostly empty; there is a lack of participation and energy in school events, save for the shadow of a performer.
“I’m just so exhausted, with the musical and schoolwork and everything else” — Steven Noonan, taken after the Chicago musical.
Students who had a study but no work to complete, taken in the library in the middle of a school day with the students slumped in their seats.
In one of the main hallways of the school where students walk every day; “EMPATHY” reads on the wall in large letters.
“I have so many assignments even though school ends in two weeks, I’m ready for it to all be over,” — Yonas Esayas, on the floor of Mrs. Netishen’s room while he looks over his Classroom assignments.
“I’m able to focus on my self care, I get more sleep, and I’m overall so much happier,” — Henry Estes, about how the summer affects his mental health.
Colorful floats in a pool outside, taken from above.
Boats on the lake in New Hampshire, showing how people are moving and living their lives.
A picture of tulips taken outside of a neighbor’s house, showing growth and perseverance.
"I’m just not drowning anymore” — Emerson Waisnor, talking about how freeing it feels to go outside and see the sun.
My project is a photojournalism series called “How Summer Restores Joy.” The main focus of the project was to explore how during the school year, mental health can be affected very negatively, but the coming of summer can change that. I focused mainly on the effect of mental health on students, and although I made a photojournalism series, I still interviewed students in order to portray that. By using quotes from students as captions, I was still able to capture students’ voices despite using very few words. I also interviewed a multitude of students in order to capture multiple perspectives on the coming of summer. By creating this project about summer, centered from the student perspective, I was able to create a timely project that relates to human interest and proximity in order to spark interest from viewers. With it currently being early June, summer seems to be coming infinitely closer, so this project is very relevant for the current time period. This project shows my skill as an interviewer and journalist because it is a highly relevant project told almost entirely by the students themselves.
This story shows my storytelling skills with my use of color and body language. The series uses a “before and after” set up to show students in school and out of school in order to compare their mental health and wellness. The pictures from the “before” section are in black and white and show wide empty spaces and hunched postures from students. This combination makes the students in the photographs look very small and isolated. In comparison, the summer photos are bright and show relaxed postures. This juxtaposition helps to really sell the story that summer allows people to feel more free. The pictures are able to tell themselves without a need for highly descriptive captions or background information. Similarly, my reporting skills are shown through the series’s ability to tell a story of “before and after” without context.
This project demonstrates my understanding of journalistic ethics because I had to photograph other people. When photographing or writing about other people, you are required to perform additional research and work in order to make sure that people are portrayed how they want to be. I made sure to be very clear about the purpose of any photographs in order to make sure anyone shown in the series was consenting to the use of their image to tell the story. Additionally, I had to be sure not to accidentally show the face of anyone in large open areas, such as the hallways, who was not specifically asked if they wanted to be in the project. Besides personal consent, because the project is centered around the school I had to be sure not to do any harm towards any administrators or policies. Instead of focusing on the negatives of the people in the school, I focused on the negative effects of school itself. The series’s location and focus forced me to acknowledge journalistic skills and ethics.
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