NPPA student chapter of the National Press Photographers Association ritnppa@gmail.com

Photo of the Week 10/8/10

Today’s meeting began with a conversation about working on extended documentary work. We looked at the photographs of Ed Kashi, a photographer for VII, and the co-founder of Talking Eyes Media.

The best place to find Kashi’s work is the RIT Library, where you can find copies of his work in Northern Ireland, the Niger River Delta, and on the elderly in America.

Essentially, it was noticed that working on longer documentary projects is a carefully planned process. Through looking at Kashi’s work, one can see which situations were introductory photographs, and which ones developed out of contacts and research he made along the way. In “the Curse of Black Gold,” photographs from the Niger River Delta, Kashi explains in detail the extent he had to go to photograph some hard to access people and places.

Generally, larger photo essays are based off up groups of tightly edited short photo stories, with an eye towards the overall message. Having a question to answer (will he/she win? who are these people?) helps direct the edit further.

Because getting publications have limited budgets, often times editors will spring for projects that are complete, or almost nearly complete. For those that are just getting started, it is best to pitch a story that is concise and measurable in its outcome, realizing that you will build on this work later.

The fact that there is good photojournalism work being done in today’s economy is another topic worth reading on and discussing later. Neil Burgess, British photographer, wrote an opinion piece for the Editorial Photographers of the United Kingdom and Ireland “For God’s Sake, Somebody Call It,” saying that photojournalism is long since dead. James Estrin of the New York Times responded with an editorial called “If Photojournalism is Dead, What’s Luceo?” remarking that the group of young photographers at Luceo Images are not only producing compelling and unique editorial storytelling, but are making money doing it.

 

Photo by Robert Shook. New starting goalie for the RIT Tigers, Jan Ropponen, a 4th year International Business student, walks on to the rink at Ritter Ice Arena during an exhibition game versus Wilfred Laurier on October 2, 2010.

 

1st Place photo by Robert Shook. Second place photo by Michael Conti

 

Paul Smith's College's Woodsman team participates in the team horizontal cut event at the Timber Sports Competition at Cumming Nature Center in Naples, NY on Sunday, October 3, 2010.