Photo Essay Assignment

Professor Byttebier

RH104 London

Unit 5 Assignment: The photo essay

Due date: Monday July 22nd, 11:59 pm

Length: 10-12 pictures, each with a caption/cutline

Grade: 25 % (20 % for finished product, 5 % for storyboard)

Assignment:

 

  1. Choose a topic/”idea” from the list below to give purpose and direction to (preparations for) the photo essay.
  2. On our field trips in the first half of the semester as well as on your own planned and spontaneous wanderings through London, take a wide variety of pictures, keeping the range of different possible shots in mind while also training yourself to become more aware of the compositional and technical choices a photographer might make (angle, focus, lighting, framing, lenses). Try not to take pictures just for the sake of taking pictures (because you have to, either as a tourist, or a student in this class). Rather, keep in mind that the camera is your opportunity to see things in a new, and revelatory, way. Edward Weston, one of the 20th century’s most influential photographers, famously wrote that “Good composition is only the strongest way of seeing the subject. It cannot be taught because, like all creative effort, it is a matter of personal growth.” Susan Sontag wrote that the camera “dismembers reality,” “see[ing] the whole by means of the part–an arresting detail, a striking way of cropping.” Therefore, take pictures to discover and find meaning in the things you see (big or small). Remember that what I am looking for is a personal vision that allows me a glimpse into your own unique perspective on the locations we visited. What reality do you want to show?   
  3. Collect all your photographs together after you are done, and start the process of making a selection of photos you want included in the essay. This selection process should be based on a few principles:
    1. The photo as resonating with the overarching idea/topic of the essay 
    2. The photo as likely resonating with an audience because it represents something familiar
    3. The photo as creating cohesion in the set, by way of content and style 
    4. The photo as achieving variety in the set, by choosing different kinds of shots
  4. Start creating a self-drawn storyboard of the layout of your essay, by using the provided template. That is, in squares indicating each picture frame, make a basic drawing illustrating the objects/people/things shown in your picture, and experiment with two or three possible captions for the picture next to it, as well as describing the things you want your viewer to notice in terms of composition. Mention also the principle of attraction between this picture and the next: why does this picture belong next to the one following it?  
  5. When writing captions and cutlines, consult the handout on captions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qEPxe3pd8lEn8e4Xp4Da91m9naavywKallXF5RQlw3U/edit?usp=sharing 
  6. Use the software of your choice (Google Slides, Powerpoint, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Spark, etc.) to create your photo essay. I will provide tutorial videos composed by RH professor Kathleen Vandenberg for InDesign, but you do not have to use this software. 
  7. Write a brief introduction (250-400 words) communicating your topic and angle to the reader.  Do not make an explicit argument, but make clear how you approached the topic and what your angle of approach is/was. These intros serve to orient the reader and to establish a motivation/purpose for the essay. Use some of the models to get a feel for such an introduction. (See also separate handout for the intro: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iiY7lPXZ-0sDXXQZL66j10tfZhn_OXtl2SCXci5z84k/edit?usp=sharing)

 

Topics:

Choose one below, or, if you really want to work on a different topic of your own choice, then talk to me. Any alternative topic needs to be approved by me.

  1. An American in London: Your essay should reflect on and tell the story of your experience as an American visitor/tourist in London. (For inspiration, you might take a look at Gordon Parks’s “American Teenagers in Paris” photo essay for LIFE in 1952.) What does it mean to live in London for six weeks as an American student in this program? (Note: you’ll only be able to include pics from your first three weeks, but you can always edit the photo essay later to include different photos.) What pictures capture the essence of your experience here (which undoubtedly includes emotions like shock, displacement, alienation, wonder, awe, camaraderie, etc.)? How does your American-ness influence your perspective on the city? How do you see it? How might it see you?   
  2. London Goes Public. London boasts an incredibly impressive array of attractive public spaces–spaces (as we will investigate in much more detail in the next unit) that were designed to appeal to the public’s social and aesthetic, and even one might say, spiritual needs. This topic invites you to explore some of London’s most attractive public parks to narrate what makes them, in your eyes, so unique. Note: I’m *not* asking you to just explore just Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, St. James’s Park. Here are some others you should check out: Holland Park, Regent’s Park, Battersea Park, Hampstead Heath, Richmond Park. 
  3. High London, Low London. London is a city of opposites: it boasts some of the largest wealth in the world but is kept running, daily, by England’s working and middle classes. On our field trips as well, you’ll see that history is composed of interactions (peaceful and less so) between the high and low. Think, for example, of Highgate’s “democratic” principle of inclusion, meaning you’ll find graves of rich people and poor people alongside each other (or are they more separated than that?). Think also of the Grave of the Unknown Soldier located prominently in the middle of Westminster Cathedral. Then there’s the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, built for King George’s pleasure but reused during WWI as a hospital for some of the war’s most broken soldiers. London is full of such juxtapositions and contradictions, both from the past and in the present. Compose an essay that tells this story through your eyes.