Shining Heart Sufi Community

Here are some works-in-progress photos from my final project on the Shining Heart Sufi community in Kansas City. The Sufis were wonderfully accommodating and I'd like to thank Marty, Safia, Larry and Alladin specifically for all their help.

Storm Chasers (in progress)

Since the storm chase team didn't go out last weekend chasing storms, I was only able to photograph one of their briefings. While the technology they use to track weather systems is interesting, photos of it are not especially riveting. Still, until the teams goes out on a chase, these will have to stand in for the more exciting, thunder-and-lightning shots.

Video Job Profile

Here is the result of my video job profile exercise. A dead video camera battery complicated matters slightly, but I think it came together in the end.

Way of Harmony with Audio

 Here is the Final Cut version of my Way of Harmony project. The audio needs some tweaking, but the basics are there.

Readings Response (3/22)

The most absorbing thing to come out of this week’s readings came from the Hurn and Jay book On Being a Photographer when the authors discuss photography as a cure for shyness. As I read that passage I was struck by the thought that they could be transcribing directly from my own experiences. I very much indentify with the character of the shy photographer who uses the camera as a shield and invisibility cloak. I love finding out about other people’s lives and interacting, but often found myself feeling out of place or lonely in unfamiliar environments. Having a camera solves all of that by giving me a reason to be there and a way to interact naturally. I was very glad to read that others have had that experience.

I also liked the observation at the end of the chapter about photography producing (or at least containing) “curious, tolerant, self-motivated [people] with broad-ranging interests.” I have that impression as well, and I am glad to have the chance to work with so many people who fit that description.

The Chapnick reading on presenting ideas was very helpful and informative as well, and set down some practical rules for submitting strong, well written proposals. I am considering attempting a freelance career, and Chapnick’s suggestions will help improve my pitches considerably.

The Loup Langton reading was also well done, and I agreed with his characterization of journalism as an art that needs to be practiced with compassion and sincerity. I find it extremely offensive when I meet a writer or photographer who doesn’t care for their subjects and hopes to use or manipulate them.  I feel very privileged to have a chance to interact with people in this intimate and personal way, and will always do my best to represent them fairly and accurately in my images.

The Way of Harmony

This is a character profile of Doris Evans, a 65-year-old martial arts instructor who suffers from Parkinsons' disease. Doctors told Evans that she would be in a nursing home within 5 years...but that was 25 years ago. She attributes her health and stamina to Aikido, a Japanese art that stresses relaxation, compassion and harmony between the mind and the body.




Click here to view the project full size.

Pictures of the Year Multimedia Categories

Since I was only able to make it for a few hours here and there of each multimedia category in POYi this year, I decided to watch through the winners in each area and look for common themes and techniques they share to see if I could determine what the judges based their final decisions on.

Right away I was struck by the fact that only a couple of photographers swept the awards this year. In the feature category, Chang W. Lee of the New York Times and Liz O. Baylen of the LA Times both won two awards, 2nd and 3rd, respectively, with an award of excellence thrown in for each of them as well. In Baylen’s case, both stories share many stylistic elements as well as broader themes like the inevitability of death and the transcendence of racial boundaries. Lee’s stories, part of a series called Second Chance, document people who are going through difficult transitions or facing big changes in their lives. His 2nd place profile of an artist with stomach cancer is moving, but in my opinion his award of excellence winning story on a man about to undergo a sex change is the stronger work.

In the news category, David Gilkey of NPR also won two awards, both for stories about Afghanistan. His story “America’s Battalion” won 3rd and “Lucky Dustoff” got an award of excellence. The first place winner, a story about tobacco cutting in Kentuckc called Cutting Through the Competition, was the only one in the category that wasn’t about Afghanistan, and it was refreshing to see a non-war related piece win in the news category. Of course the war is important news, but after a while all the photos and media coming out of a war zone begin to look much the same. In this case it seems like the judges were rewarding the audio as much as the photos, which would certainly give the NPR team an advantage with their years of experience in creating compelling audio stories.

In the Issue Reporting category Liz O. Baylen makes another two appearances, winning 1st and 3rd for stories on a boy who was molested in kindergarten and a former nurse who became a quadriplegic after an accidental drug overdose. In both stories, just like her award winning feature pieces, she uses many photographs with out of focus foreground elements and exotic framing devices. She also does an excellent job choosing details that illustrate her themes simply and effectively. It seemed like the judges really responded to her stylistic choices, and the stories themselves were moving and powerful simply for their subject matter. Baylen does a terrific job selecting good stories, and she treats her subject with humanity and dignity that is refreshing to see. Most surprisingly, perhaps, she was able to shoot the entire sex abuse story without once identifying the boy or showing more than a piece of his face. It must have been incredibly challenging to make those photos work together without the unifying thread of a face to link them, but she seems to do it almost effortlessly.



Here are the links to the winners' galleries:

Feature
News
Issue Reporting

POY Judging - Issue Reporting Picture Story

After spending a few hours watching the POYi judging this year I was as surprised as always to see what sorts of pictures and subjects the judges chose to award. I certainly don’t envy them the difficult job of sorting through the mounds of material to find the real gems, but many of the selections in this year’s Issue Reporting category seemed mediocre at best.

The first place winner, “Love Me,” was pretty good, but the second place winner really seemed pretty average to me. “For Better or Worse” tells the story of an elderly couple in rural Ohio and, while it is touching to see the husband taking care of his Alzheimer-inflicted wife, the story just seemed very tired to me. It didn’t break any new ground visually or even seem particularly effective upon repeated viewings. It is not my intention to tear down the project as I am sure the photographer worked very hard on it, but I was just puzzled that out of all the hundreds of topics submitted, the judges chose to recognize that story so highly.

I was even more taken aback by the choice of the third place winner: “Moldova - The Outsiders.” Again, I have no doubt that a lot of work went into the project, but in my opinion it represented the definition of “a parking lot of pictures.” There were several nice frames, but no storyline at all, not even a compelling explanation of why we were being shown certain things. It reminded me of the video we watched in class that talked about Eugene Smith’s project on Pittsburg. The photographer could have strengthened the piece considerably by focusing on one noteworthy aspect of the culture rather than showing an array of disparate images.

A couple of the award of excellence winners were nice, though the one entitled “Faded Tulips” about the aftermath of a revolution in Kyrgyzstan seemed very similar to the Moldova story, and in my opinion should have taken third in its place.

Visit the POY site to view the gallery of winners.

One Day Story/Five Points of View

 

Vancouver-born olympic hopeful Lauren Lavigna prepares to launch herself into the 200m Backstroke at the Missouri Grand Prix swim meet on February 13, 2010.

 Lavigna recently won 12th in the World Championships for the backstroke, and she hopes to compete in the 2012 Olympics in London.

 Lavigna surveys the competition as she practices in the diving well before the race.

   

Lavigna listens to coach Brian Hoffer as he gives her advice after the race.

Lavigna placed 2nd in the heat, but she didn't seem disappointed in the result. "I'll race again tomorrow, and just try to improve my times to get ready for the bigger meets."

Week 3 Readings

"Photojournalists...are more than just spectators in an historical grandstand. Being there is important, being an eyewitness is significant, but the crux of the matter is bearing witness. To bear witness is to make known, to confirm, to give testimony to others. The distribution and publication of the pictures make visible the unseen, the unknown, and the forgotten." -Marianne Fulton

The above quote was by far my favorite part of the readings this week, though I really enjoyed the Chapnick piece on great photo essays. It is always instructive to look back on those groundbreaking stories to see how the ideas developed and what techniques they were still trying to master. It is humbling to see the work of the masters, but encouraging as well to find that they had to start from the ground up, too.

Week 2 Readings Response

After listening to the podcast and reading the chapters assigned for this week I feel much better about my skill level and technical proficiency. I especially liked the observation in the podcast that to really gain mastery in any subject you must spend 10,000+ hours studying, thinking about and practicing the necessary skills.  I like to be good at things immediately just like anyone else, but I really appreciate the idea that I can become great at almost anything if I put in the required time and effort.

I also am a big fan of Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird." Many years ago I tried my hand at writing and her practical advice on writing and life definitely fits with my experience. I think her suggestions will translate very well to photographic ideas, and make the process of brainstorming and story selection much easier.

Great Ideas = Great Journalism

I think it is only fitting that the first entry on this, my capstone photo blog, should point to some truly great photojournalism. Our first assignment is to find examples of great ideas that subsequently became great stories, and the story featured below is certainly one of the best I've ever seen.

Many of you may already be familiar with Mediastorm.org, but if you haven't seen the "Black Market" piece by Patrick Brown I think you're missing one of the real gems of the site. Take a look:

Black Market