Visual Story Telling/ Realeyes Photo Magazine -J213
3 units
Ken Light
642-4825
Lecture, Discussion & Critique Monday 10-12
Critique session: TBA evening or afternoons as announced
Office Hours Monday 9-10/ 1:00-2:30 WednesdayBy Appointment room 122
An in-depth documentary story telling class where students will work photographing and investigating problems facing California and its people as well as finding uplifting stories of its communities, and will try to visually document the causes and affect, issues such as immigration, schools, homelessness, urban sprawl, development, injustice, individual determination etc.
You will work throughout the term on one in-depth photo documentary project in class, attempting to reduce a tiny area of the moving world to a set of still images that convey what the viewer needs to know about what you saw.
This course will focus on developing a personal style and culminates with a collaborative body of work edited for publication and inclusion in the photo center's spring 2017 annual Realeyes magazine, and a portfolio presentation of 10-12 final images.
YOU WILL HAVE 8 WEEKS OF SHOOTING BEFORE OUR PUBLICATION DEADLINE
(April 3rd last day)
A photo documentary is a set or series of photographs that are intended to tell a story or evoke a series of emotions in the viewer. Photo essays range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small notes to full text essays with a few or many accompanying photographs. Photo essays can be sequential in nature, intended to be viewed in a particular order, or they may consist of non-ordered photographs, which may be viewed all at once or in an order chosen by the viewer. All photo essays are collections of photographs, but not all collections of photographs are photo essays.
A photo essay can take a number of forms, including:
An article in a publication, Newspapers and news magazines often have multi-page photo essays about significant events, both good and bad, such as a sports championship or a national disaster. A book or other complete publication. A web page or portion of a web site. A single montage or collage of photographic images, with text or other additions, intended to be viewed both as a whole and as individual photographs. Such a work may also fall in the category of mixed media. An exhibition, which is staged at a particular time and location. A slide show or similar presentation, possibly with spoken text, which could be delivered on slides, on DVD, or on a web site.
If you need to leave early before class ends or during a guest lecture, please let us know beforehand. No laptop/phone use during class. All photos will be shown on one device. Active participation and respect is key to a great semester.
THE CLASS RULES
No laptop/phone use during class
Class starts 10 minutes after the hour
If you miss classes, make-up assignments are available. Make-up assignments maybe accompanied by a 1-2 page written paper about what you learned or found interesting about an exhibition, or independent research on the subject discussed in class.
1. Students should study syllabi for class at the start of the semester to determine if they anticipate any absences, or if they expect conflicts to keep them from satisfactorily completing the required work. It is the responsibility of students to bring any such conflicts to the attention of their instructors as soon as possible.
2. J-school rules say: Teachers are not at fault if their insistence that their course requirements be met interferes with student obligations in other courses. Students should discuss any conflicts they anticipate with their instructors by the second week of the semester so that mutually workable solutions can be reached. Teachers may penalize unexcused absences by assigning extra work or lowering the student’s grade.
3.Excused absences for reporting projects that unexpectedly require students to miss class should be requested to instructors at least 24 hours in advance so that make-up work can be assigned. The instructor is not obliged to approve these requests. Unexcused absences may result in penalties such as a lowered grade or mention in future letters of recommendation. Senate Guidelines Concerning Scheduling Conflicts with Academic Requirements are posted on the Intranet (click on Misc/Instructor Handbook) and worth reading before the start of semester. Absences related to extracurricular activities, or personal leaves unrelated to reporting assignments or J-School classes should be reported to instructors as soon as the student knows about them. Consistent absences without mutually acceptable solutions can lead to students being dropped from a class.
BRIEF COURSE DESCRIPTION
An exploration of photojournalism and documentary photography as applied to magazine, photo essay assignments. Legal and business issues, including fund raising and grant writing to support extended projects. Writing text to accompany photographic work and publication of original photographs in Realeyes magazine
REQUIRED TEXT
Subscribe to Time Magazine Lightbox: (each week a student will show and talk about a photo essay published on Lightbox
Required Reading
Witness in Our Time, Second Edition: Working Lives of Documentary Photographers [Paperback]Smithsonian Books; 2nd edition, Ken Light
Recommended:
Bending the Frame: Photojournalism, Documentary, and the Citizen Paperback
By Fred Ritchin (paperback)
In Bending the Frame, Fred Ritchin--Professor of Photography & Imaging at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and author of After Photography--examines the complex relations between social justice and photojournalism in today's oversaturated political and media climates. Is visual journalism even effective at all, given the ease with which so many of us can simply record events? And how can the impact of iconic images from the Civil Rights Movement or the Vietnam War be compared to, say, the consequences of leaked images from Abu Ghraib? Do changes in strategy imply changes in accountability and responsibility for visual journalism as a whole? Ritchin intends his discussion--which ranges across new media but also includes uses of video as well as a wide range of books and exhibitions--to provide critical tools with which to approach the various efforts of today's visual (and "citizen") journalists and documentary photographers. He also examines the historical uses of photography and related media to inspire social change, the better to pose the critical question that lies at the heart of his book: How can images promote new thinking and make a difference in the world?
John Berger :About Looking
In About Looking he explores our role as observers to reveal new layers of meaning in what we see. How do the animals we look at in zoos remind us of a relationship between man and beast all but lost in the twentieth century? What is it about looking at war photographs that doubles their already potent violence? How do the nudes of Rodin betray the threats to his authority and potency posed by clay and flesh? And how does solitude inform the art of Giacometti? In asking these and other questions, Berger quietly -- but fundamentally -- alters the vision of anyone who reads his work.
SYLLABUS
1. January 22Discuss Class Project & Realeyes schedule & text
Power Point-photostory /SteveSalvidar-Realeyes
Introduction and History of Documentary Photography
Powerpoint Helen Levitt- Salgado to Joseph Koudelka
Powerpoint- Jill Freedman
Business of Photography
1. property and personality (where you can and cannot shoot)
2. Invasion of privacy and other laws
Pitch:
Photo project pitch to class:
This iswritten 1 page description/pitch (bring a copy for each student)
What makes a successful pitch?
Open with a 1 paragraph synopsis/200 word description (as a header/stand alone) & and then
what’s the story and what might be its impact for the viewer. Describe how you see the
images and story evolving.Have a well-defined concept, with suggested locations and/or characters you might meet and photograph. Specifics are critical. This shows you have done a little research, and given it some thought.
It seems that the most successful pitch’s - have a tightly focused, one-paragraph description (be able to elaborate, upon request) - have a timely peg of some sort (tied to an event or topical subject) - are well-researched (know your numbers and make sure they’re current) - are appropriate in content, tone, production value and style of the publication (look at Realeyes) - are specific but have broad appeal.
2. January 29th- Pitchin class (give each student your written pitch)
Power point: photo story-Saldivar
START SHOOTING
Bring Witness text to Class next week
3. February 5th
Definition of a Photojournalist/Documentary Photographer and Projects
Methods for developing images around a theme
FSA Shooting script/informants/ Henri Cartier Bresson Decisive Moment text
Power Points/Slide show: The Photographer as Activist
East 100 Street Bruce Davidson
William Eggelston: Color
Development and implementation of point of view
1. Story line
2. The documentary/photo essay
4. February 12 Robert Frank-distribute Frank/Steidl catalogue
powerpoint: Robert Frank & More
5. February 19 Holiday- NO CLASS
6. February 26
Critique session (review via thumb drive- flash media/)
Video: Everybody Street
7. March 5th
Methods for developing images around a theme thoughts on Cartier Bresson Video
Slide Show:
Larry Clark: Tulsa
Joseph Rodriquez –El Barrio
Ken Light-Course of the Empire
Critique session Review shoot in class-bring files on thumb drive
8. March 12th
Assign: Production Jobs
Managing Editors
Editor/
Designers
Copy Editors/ assistants
Director of Photography
Production Assistant’s-Photo Shop
For the rest of the semester we will work together, as a class, on the editing, scanning, design, layout and text of the group publication. We will proceed with intense individual and group critiques.
Levitt-Smith-Winogrand-Mary Ellen Mark
Powerpoint: Yuri Kozyrez- Iran/Color
Friday March 16th Attend the show opening and lecture by photographer Joe Rodriquez
9. March 19 Critique TBA :Critique Evening
Critique session Final selection and Layout begins April 4th
10. March 26 SPRING BREAK WEEK-NO CLASS
SHOOTING ENDS APRIL 2nd
BRING TO CLASS NEXT WEEK
ALL SELECTED IMAGES PRINTED AS 4 x 6 small prints Walgreens/Costco/Looking Glass Photo (should cost about 15cents or less each)
PUT YOUR INITIALS ON THE BACK OF EACH ONE PRINT
11. April 2 (class discussion-led by Managing Editor and Designer) TBA: Critique April
12. April 9Critique & editApril 12th & April 13th TBA
14. April 16 Finalize edits, layout, text, cover and back page images
Realeyes To Printer
In class finalize design/text approved
15.April 23 What is the Role of Photojournalists & Documentary Photographers in the World?
Using:Witness In Our Time/ Ken Light
Choose a Photographer in the Book and share your insights and understanding of their work.
Questions: How has the documentary photographer identified/developed their subject matter and what is their working process/ field practice for engaging their subject (how they initiate and sustain the project, their approach, their considerations of tools and materials and the forum the work appears in)?
APPROVE PROOF
15. April 30th
Class Presentation
Last Class
Salgado’s Genesis
Assignments
1. Assignments based on preceding course outline
2. Meeting assignment deadlines.
3. Ability to critique own work
4. Research and prepare written materials
Final Projects:
Project: Publication project based on student input
Sequence photographs
Create caption list and write text
Edit/Select and print 8-12 final images that tell a cohesive story
Which will be edited for publication.