DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY
Telling a story with pictures
Instructor Vince Streano
From the time of Mathew Brady and the civil war, documentary photography has been the primary means of telling the stories of our culture and history. Whether it's the child labor pictures of Lewis Hines, the saga of the Country Doctor by W. Eugene Smith, or the images of the depression by Dorothea Lange, documentary photography is the most compelling means of chronicling the human condition.
This documentary photography workshop will be all about telling a story with pictures. We will begin by looking at some of the great documentary photographers of the past, then discuss what makes a great picture story. We'll talk about capturing the decisive moment, how to put together your own picture story, and the elements needed to complete your story in pictures. We'll also discuss some contemporary documentary photographers, and how they are able to achieve their images.
Finally the class will discuss creating their own picture story,
"A Portrait In Time/Anacortes".
The goal is to produce a photo portrait of the city of Anacortes at this moment in time. Each photographer will be assigned one or more different aspects of life in the city. Assignments will include: night shift with the Anacortes Police Department, ship building, religion in Anacortes, night life, the routine of a typical family with children, Anacortes business community, harbor life around the docks, Anacortes history, the fishing industry, sports, the Cats Meow, and more. Students will also be able to come up with their own subjects. Participants will have two weeks to complete their assignment, at which time we'll gather again for a critique of the images.
Workshops for creative minds.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
The Hero Shot
During our workshop, “The Art of Shooting Bridges”, instructor Vince Streano told the students that while on assignment he always looks for that “Hero Shot”, the shot that would make him and his clients look like “Heroes”.
Well our “Heroes” are our students and they always amaze us with their photography. During the critique Vince was blown away and excited by the “Hero Shots” from our students. They worked so hard in the ten days they had to complete their assignments and that hard work really showed in their photographs.
So to our students – thank you for the sharing with us your “Hero Shots”. We enjoy seeing how hard you work and feel such pride and honor in seeing such amazing photographs. Your “Hero Shots” make you and us look like “Heroes”.
The Talk of the Town
Social Media vs the ‘Grapevine’. Long before Facebook and Twitter, the grapevine was the way word spread. The power of the ‘grapevine’ is just as powerful today and just as fast as the Internet.
On Saturday, April 17th, Alternative Focus held a workshop in historical Pt Townsend, WA. The workshop was called, “How would Dick shoot this?” Using PT Townsend’s historical buildings as the backdrop and location; instructor Dick Garvey took our group of nine students/photographers on a tour of Pt Townsend. We visited four locations, already scoped out by the instructor, at each location Dick explained how he would photograph that location and why. Then he would give the students an assignment, which was to shoot the location based on their interpretation of how he would do it, then shoot that same location based on how they would do it. They were given up to one hour to complete the assignment.
Having nine photographers standing in one area with their cameras and tripods started to attract a lot of attention. Questions started circulating: What were we photographing? What was going on? Was this a workshop? Who were we with? People started to stop and photograph with us, others stopped to listen to the instructor and watch. This was as entertaining as the workshop.
By lunchtime we were the talk of the town. Word had spread that there was a large group of photographers photographing downtown. They were talking about us in the stores and coffee shops. In a very short time everyone was talking about us.
While photographing a series of old buildings a local passerby noticed us and took a photograph of us using her cell phone. She then emailed it to a friend, asking her friend “What am I missing?” Her friend then took the photograph and posted it to her Facebook, titling it, “What am I missing?” Thus spreading the news even further.
No longer were we just the talk of Pt Townsend, we were now the talk of somebody’s Facebook and her network of ‘friends’ and their ‘friend’.
Just goes to show how powerful these tools are and how fast they work. Too bad we didn’t get the name of the Facebook friend, it would be great to link to it.
Grapevine or Social Networking - useful tools for spreading the word.
On Saturday, April 17th, Alternative Focus held a workshop in historical Pt Townsend, WA. The workshop was called, “How would Dick shoot this?” Using PT Townsend’s historical buildings as the backdrop and location; instructor Dick Garvey took our group of nine students/photographers on a tour of Pt Townsend. We visited four locations, already scoped out by the instructor, at each location Dick explained how he would photograph that location and why. Then he would give the students an assignment, which was to shoot the location based on their interpretation of how he would do it, then shoot that same location based on how they would do it. They were given up to one hour to complete the assignment.
Having nine photographers standing in one area with their cameras and tripods started to attract a lot of attention. Questions started circulating: What were we photographing? What was going on? Was this a workshop? Who were we with? People started to stop and photograph with us, others stopped to listen to the instructor and watch. This was as entertaining as the workshop.
By lunchtime we were the talk of the town. Word had spread that there was a large group of photographers photographing downtown. They were talking about us in the stores and coffee shops. In a very short time everyone was talking about us.
While photographing a series of old buildings a local passerby noticed us and took a photograph of us using her cell phone. She then emailed it to a friend, asking her friend “What am I missing?” Her friend then took the photograph and posted it to her Facebook, titling it, “What am I missing?” Thus spreading the news even further.
No longer were we just the talk of Pt Townsend, we were now the talk of somebody’s Facebook and her network of ‘friends’ and their ‘friend’.
Just goes to show how powerful these tools are and how fast they work. Too bad we didn’t get the name of the Facebook friend, it would be great to link to it.
Grapevine or Social Networking - useful tools for spreading the word.
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