Photojournalism

I got this picture from National Geographic website, which is of course the first place I thought to look for amazing pictures! This particular photo was from the “Milestones in Wildlife Photography.” I love nature photography and I feel like I could have made a blog post using any one of the pictures from the site, but my next assignment for my photojournalism class is to do a portrait of someone, and so portraits have been in the back of my mind as I search for pictures to use on this blog. I’m not sure if this picture was staged or not – I think it probably wasn’t, but I think it can still be described as a portrait.

I really love this photo. The lighting is beautiful – it frames Goodall’s face in a way that’s almost angelic, her hair creating a sort of halo around her face. I like the way it alludes to the famous “Creation of Adam,” with the chimp’s hand reaching out towards Goodall, and her face so patient and happy; it is clear she loves what she does. I think this shot is so powerful because it is so simple, but tells such a clear story about Goodall’s work. The chimp hand reaching out to her seems to symbolize breaking the barrier between human and other primate interactions, and she is happy to be doing the research that is helping to break that barrier.

(I can't post this picture, I think because of copyright issues, but I still wanted to write about it! You can look at the picture here though.)

I got this picture from the New York Times’ slideshow titled “The Week in Pictures.” I like this picture because I think it’s so creative. The caption says that the picture being held in the photograph is one of the pictures that has inspired New York Times photojournalist Librado Romero. The picture is of Shipwreck Kelly standing on his head 42 stories over a New York City street, while someone dunks doughnuts in coffee and feeds them to him. I really liked how Romero found the spot where the original photo was taken and held up the photo as if it was a piece of a puzzle. His hand holding the photo makes the story clearer, that this photograph was one that has inspired him during his career in photography. This picture has so many different layers – the hand, the photograph with its own depth and story, and the background of the building that lines up with the photograph, and the streets below. I like how the photo and hand are in focus, since that is the main subject of the picture, while the streets and surrounding buildings are not. You see this a lot photography – the subject is in focus while the background is not – but rarely is the subject a photograph itself!

I think talking about pictures I like is a lot more fun than talking about pictures I don’t like, but I came across this picture when someone posted the story on my Facebook, and I thought it was a pretty good example of a picture I don’t like. This picture shows J.K Rowling reading Harry Potter in what looks like a park, but I think the picture was taken at a really unfortunate time for Rowling. She looks kind of crazy in it – I get that she’s reading, which is why her mouth is open, but I really think the photographer could have gotten a more flattering picture of her. I also think the background is very busy. The colors are pretty, and I think it was a good idea to have the background out of focus, but I think the background is still a little distracting. I think the light is very pretty, and Rowling looks pretty, so I think another shot of the same scene could have worked better.