This weekly post has everything you need for completing this week’s self-paced content and readings, plus an outline at the end for what’s covered during class meetings. This week is about portraits in photojournalism.
Street Portraits
There is a long tradition of street photography portraits, where photographers approach strangers to take photos or sometimes photograph people without their knowledge. Many photographers do not approach this as photojournalism, and instead see it as a type of social exchange and artistic expression, though projects such as Humans of New York have drawn attention to the storytelling.
Watch this video about three photographers approaching strangers in Tokyo. This is from photographer and YouTube personality Jessica Kobeissi, who frequently posts videos about photo techniques and stunts like photographing with toy cameras. She is not a photojournalist and typically photographs in controlled environments with models, so a substantial portion of this video is about trying to get over the uncomfortable parts of approaching strangers.
Review & Reflection
- Why were the photographers nervous about approaching strangers?
- How is street photography with strangers both similar and different from photographing with friends or models?
- Do you think the photographers succeeded in being culturally sensitive and aware, or did they ever behave inappropriately?
- How did the photographers’ different approaches and styles come through in their work?
Pandemic Portraits
The coronavirus pandemic has limited street portraits and access overall, and one way photographers have responded is by doing socially-distanced portrait series from porches and windows. Watch this short video documentary about window portraits by photographer Pat Kane in the remote Arctic town of Yellowknife.
Review & Reflection
- These types of photo series have happened in a variety of places. What about the portraits are unique to this particular setting?
- What motivated the photographer to start this project?
- What types of lighting and composition techniques are possible with window portraits?
Portrait Over Time
This week’s reading is a long narrative story written by a photojournalist who got to know a former professional football player, Jackie Wallace, after meeting him at a homeless encampment.
I climbed the pier with my camera and made a few frames of the scene, then climbed down and woke him. He wasn’t startled in the least. I guess when you sleep under bridges, you learn to expect the unexpected.
This story uses several portraits to show the passage of time and different interactions. It is not presented as a photo essay or portrait series, but the visual and text work together.
Review & Reflection
- How do the portraits included in the story change or affect your understanding of the story?
- How did the photographer’s job and skills make him uniquely positioned to tell this story that other journalists missed?
- How does the overall story relate to the personal power of photography in people’s lives?
Monday
• Preview of week’s materials
Wednesday
• Portrait assignment
• Celebrity portrait discussion