Exercise #3: Art Direction: Photojournalism
The purpose of this project was to present a story primarily through images with minimal to no supporting text. The objective of the exercise was for us to be able to tell a story using the planned pictures we took. The reader should understand the story you're trying to tell without the help of written context. To do this you must use a theme of identity as your starting point and compose the story around personal experiences or the world around you.
My first step was creating a story outline. I work as an After School Leader at an elementary school for the YMCA, I chose to create a story revolving around my students and the role I play in the program. I wanted to share the story and the experience of what it's like to work with children. The them I chose was "Shaping Young Minds and Growing Bigger Hearts" because as much as we prioritize education in our program we emphasize the importance of being a kind and caring person.
After I discovered what I wanted my theme to be I drew a story board. The story board consists of sketches of planned shots I want to take. The story board helped me visualize how the narrative will flow and what shots I need to make this story happen.
I planned to take pictures of the students working hard on their education and soft skills. I wanted to show them working on their homework, playing at recess, caring for others when they're sad, sharing their emotions in the Community Circle, cooking in cooking class, and sharing toys with each other. I think these shots would've been the perfect portrayal of out program and the kind kids we work with. Unfortunately, I couldn't continue with this project or theme because I cannot take pictures of the children without their parents consent. And out of respect for my students and their parents I decided to change the direction of my project. I kept the theme of telling a story of the YMCA experience, but with the absence of the children. Instead, I'm going to take photos and tell the story of our day to day activities, but just without the kids. My new theme is "A Day In the Life of a First Grader." I work with first graders and wanted to show what their typical day in the YMCA looks like.
I took the pictures above at the elementary school and chose some of my favorites to use in my final project. After I narrowed down my options and chose which photos I wanted to use I took them to Adobe Lightroom to edit them.
These are all the photos I edited using Adobe Lightroom. To edit these pictures I adjusted the exposure, the shadows, the highlights, the contrast, the whites setting, the blacks settings, and adjusted the point curve to get the tints and hues I wanted for the picture. I found Adobe Lightroom to be very useful and easy to use, especially for was my first time using it. I like end product of the edited pictures and am quite proud of how they came out.
My last step was to create my story in the form of a magazine using Adobe InDesign. It was also my first time using Adobe InDesign, and I found it to be easy to navigate and to use. I'll definitely use it for future projects. I adjusted my page settings to be 8.5in x 11in and included 8 pages in my magazine. The first page will be for the cover, pages two to seven will be the body and include my story, and then the last page would be for my credits. I began to create my story and move around my pictures until I was happy with he final product. At first I wanted to implement captions because it is through a first grader's point of view and I was going to make it seem like they are telling the story of the day, but I realized it was too wordy and thought the message can still be received without words. I also thought the story would be just as strong without the captions because a picture speaks a thousand words so the photos are able to speak for themselves. I wanted to stay true to the assignment and take on the challenge of telling a story with no written context.
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This is my final product, I hope you enjoy it because I enjoyed creating it.
