A challenging assignment

Nir · December 4, 2005

I've begun a documentary photojournalism course instructed by three of Israels leading documentary photographers. For someone who enjoys photojournalism, this is a great pleasure. An opportunity to better understand what the editors are looking for and what they appreciate. It's an opportunity to gain tools for better conveying feelings through photo essays. I'm really enjoying it!

Also got my first homework assignment -
I have to tell a story in 3 frames.
Now, this is documentary work. Images must be authentic, not staged. Our 1st lesson had to do with planning the photo essay which weighs about 70% of the total project, so the instructors say. It's not a matter of going out, shooting, and then see what you got. Every shot needs to be planned in advance. The essay as a whole needs to be planned in advance. Then you go out and shoot exactly as you planned.

A three-frame story needs to have a beginning, a climax and an end.I have something I am working on. Still one more frame to go. I thought I'd share this assignment with you guys. Anyone game?

Plan your story. Plan your frames. Only then go out and shoot them, exactly as you planned. Tell a story without words. Share your story here.

I will finish mine within the next few days (I hope!) and share it here.

rutt · December 4, 2005

This sounds interesting. I'm going to try. Captions/words? Or just the pictures?

Nir · December 4, 2005

rutt wrote:

This sounds interesting. I'm going to try. Captions/words? Or just the pictures?

I guess captions are ok, I mean this documentary work, it's going to go into a magazine, right? Magazines use words.

rutt · December 5, 2005

Unitarian Xmas tree sale
Well, it's not the most earth shaking event, but I did plan it before I went and shot it. I knew the three shots I wanted, and got them. It's a poor thing, but mine own.

Nir · December 5, 2005

Way to go Rutt! Earth shaking or not it DOES tell a story! Are you feeling
the satisfaction of accomplishing a photo assignment you planned and executed so well?

I'm still missing one frame and believe it or not I am getting dressed to crash a wedding tonight (at least for a few minutes)...

Nir · December 10, 2005

OK!

Buds of Love...

The Climax

Family Court ... The End.

rutt · December 10, 2005

Nir, made me laugh, so I suppose it worked! You and I have exactly the same problem, though. Both would be better with better character continuity. In mine, the buyer of the tree should havve been in each shot. Now in yours that would be harder, much harder, because even the worst marriage lasts longer than your assignment period. So I probably get more points off than you did.

Nir · December 10, 2005

Hi rutt!

happy I could make you laugh! Character continuity ... well, perhaps i'll update this thread in a few years... although it looks like not too many are interested.

but you wouldn't believe the problems i had getting the 2nd frame - i think they're all still asking each other "who was that photographer?"

wxwax · December 10, 2005

Just get a car pulling into a gas station, gassing up, and pulling out.

bdcolen · December 31, 2009

Nir wrote:

I've begun a documentary photojournalism course instructed by three of Israels leading documentary photographers. For someone who enjoys photojournalism, this is a great pleasure. An opportunity to better understand what the editors are looking for and what they appreciate. It's an opportunity to gain tools for better conveying feelings through photo essays. I'm really enjoying it!

Also got my first homework assignment -
I have to tell a story in 3 frames.
Now, this is documentary work. Images must be authentic, not staged. Our 1st lesson had to do with planning the photo essay which weighs about 70% of the total project, so the instructors say. It's not a matter of going out, shooting, and then see what you got. Every shot needs to be planned in advance. The essay as a whole needs to be planned in advance. Then you go out and shoot exactly as you planned.

A three-frame story needs to have a beginning, a climax and an end.I have something I am working on. Still one more frame to go. I thought I'd share this assignment with you guys. Anyone game?

Plan your story. Plan your frames. Only then go out and shoot them, exactly as you planned. Tell a story without words. Share your story here.

I will finish mine within the next few days (I hope!) and share it here.

There's one major, crippling, shortcoming to this approach - it requires applying your preconceived notions to the story or project. That's fine for advertising or public relations work - figure out what story you want to tell to sell the product or client's story, and go shoot the pictures that fit the preconceived notion. But it is not a legitimate approach for either journalism or documentary work, both of which require that you approach the subject with an open mind and report - visually and/or with text - what you find. Yes, if you are trying to tell a story with photographs you need to be thinking about that when you're doing the shooting, because you indeed need an begining, a middle, and an end. But I find it really hard to believe that three of Israel's top documentary photographers would tell you to plan the story before you even see what the story is. Very odd.

craig_d · December 31, 2009

bdcolen wrote:

I find it really hard to believe that three of Israel's top documentary photographers would tell you to plan the story before you even see what the story is. Very odd.

Would it be inappropriate in this forum to note that documentary work within Israel and the Occupied Territories is almost always planned out in advance to push one political agenda or another?

Nir · January 1, 2010

craig_d wrote:

Would it be inappropriate in this forum to note that documentary work within Israel and the Occupied Territories is almost always planned out in advance to push one political agenda or another?

Craig, I really hope you just meant this as a joke!

Nir · January 1, 2010

bdcolen wrote:

There's one major, crippling, shortcoming to this approach - it requires applying your preconceived notions to the story or project. That's fine for advertising or public relations work - figure out what story you want to tell to sell the product or client's story, and go shoot the pictures that fit the preconceived notion. But it is not a legitimate approach for either journalism or documentary work, both of which require that you approach the subject with an open mind and report - visually and/or with text - what you find. Yes, if you are trying to tell a story with photographs you need to be thinking about that when you're doing the shooting, because you indeed need an begining, a middle, and an end. But I find it really hard to believe that three of Israel's top documentary photographers would tell you to plan the story before you even see what the story is. Very odd.

Not really odd BD - this was just a first homework assignment in what turned out to be an incredible course that opened my eyes and set me on a new path in my photographic life.
The idea behind the assignment is something I really appreciate - "plan and execute" as opposed to going out to shoot randomly and then trying to put the pieces together to get them to make some kind of sense.
And I believe documentary work is always biased. It delivers a message or makes a statement the photographer wishes to make, if he/she is aware of it or not. When you shoot, when you edit, you're making choices that influence what the viewer will see and how he/she will perceive the story as whole.

An open mind is always necessary, as you say, in both photography and life. I have often set out on a project with an idea in mind and then changed course as the project unfolded, revealing aspects I was not aware of in the beginning.

Course instructors by the way were Alex Livak, 2005 winner of prestigious Israel Prize, the state's highest honor, world renown Ziv Koren and photographer and editor Roni Sofer.

Happy 2010 everyone!

Richard · January 1, 2010

I moved this thread to Street & PJ. Since it's an old thread, I think it must have accidentally ended up in Macro when it was split off from OCS.

I find it curious that so many people still think that there is/should be no bias to reporting, when almost everything one sees in the media clearly contradicts that. As a professional, I suspect your career will suffer if you stray too far from the editorial line of the publisher/owner. Sure, it would be nice to see objective coverage of world events--just like it would be nice to have world peace. But that's not the world we live in, and the sophisticated consumer of media will take bias into account when trying to make sense of reporting. That's what I love about Google News--it gives you quick access to different versions of the same story, and lets you draw your own conclusions.

bdcolen · January 1, 2010

Nir wrote:

Not really odd BD - this was just a first homework assignment in what turned out to be an incredible course that opened my eyes and set me on a new path in my photographic life.
The idea behind the assignment is something I really appreciate - "plan and execute" as opposed to going out to shoot randomly and then trying to put the pieces together to get them to make some kind of sense.
And I believe documentary work is always biased. It delivers a message or makes a statement the photographer wishes to make, if he/she is aware of it or not. When you shoot, when you edit, you're making choices that influence what the viewer will see and how he/she will perceive the story as whole.

An open mind is always necessary, as you say, in both photography and life. I have often set out on a project with an idea in mind and then changed course as the project unfolded, revealing aspects I was not aware of in the beginning.

Course instructors by the way were Alex Livak, 2005 winner of prestigious Israel Prize, the state's highest honor, world renown Ziv Koren and photographer and editor Roni Sofer.

Happy 2010 everyone!

Nir - I question neither the need for planning, nor the credentials of the instructors. What I do question is the definition of 'planning.' If planning means thinking carefully about what the subject is, how it's been portrayed previously, and what's been lacking in that portrayal - great. If planning means spending time - without your camera - the people, or in and around the situation in which you will be shooting in order to visualize before shooting begins and to make it easier to go 'unobserved' when you begin shooting - terrific. But if it means pre-planning the story you're doing to tell, then I'd politely suggest someone's off track. As I noted in yesterday's post, if you're on some kind of a commercial assignment - say shooting a manufacturing process, a medical procedure, meal time at a restaurant, then by all means familiarize yourself with the situation and possibilities, and plan out the shots you need to tell the story the client expects you to bring back. But if you're talking about journalism, or true documentary work, then an open, honest approach requires being open and honest to the changing scene unfolding in front of you. Pre-planning the shooting - and this final form - of photo story is no different from pre-planning the reporting of a written story - it requires that you shape the final product before you see what the story really is.

A challenging assignment

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