Photojournalism

A project in the category of photojournalism is a project that will capture “the soul” of a message with images. The images should “provide a voice” for an event, series of events, an individual life, the collective experience of a group, a trip, or a specific time period. The images used can be captured with digital media or film photography to document the story.

Requirements:

  1. Photojournalism projects are distinguished from Photography projects in that their purpose is not to learn the art of photography, film processing, developing and printing, but to learn how to tell a story, or document an event, using photographs. However, students are still expected to familiarize themselves with such concepts of photography as:

  • Composition

  • The Rule of Thirds

  • Filling the Frame

  • Image Balance

  • Color

  • Lighting/exposure

  • Law and ethics

Students can learn about these terms, and photography in general (as opposed to simple snapshots or candid shots) from numerous websites, books, journals and / or people. You are expected to familiarize yourself with these concepts before you begin taking pictures. All resources the student uses should be recorded in your journal. It is expected that some of your 100 hours will be spent completing this preliminary research.

  1. Photojournalism projects should identify a focus in their proposal. What, specifically, do you want to capture? What story do you want to tell? Whose voice do you want to publish?

  2. For a photojournalism project, you are expected to shoot at least 100 images. You need to keep a log of each photo shoot (when you shot, where you shot, what you shot, and why you shot). Upon request, you will need to provide your primary advisor with a complete set of the photographs that you took via a digital drive, online drive, contact sheet prints, negatives, or flash drive.

  3. From the total images you collect, you need to select 15-25 images as the ones that best capture the story you want to tell, or event you want to document. You need to provide a brief written explanation, or rationale about what you wanted to capture, and why the images you chose actually captured that goal.

  4. Your selected images should be in a collection format. Suggested formats include a coffee-table book or similar style bound book or a professionally presented binder or readily viewable digital display of the images.

  • The Senior Team recommends students electing a Photojournalism project document a minimum of 10 hours of direct instruction/conferencing with their on-site advisor

  • All direct instruction hours completed must be documented on the Verification Form and signed by your on-site advisor