Character Profile: Tammy Kelliehan

Earlier, I posted pictures from my character profile of Tammy Kelliehan, a 41-year-old grandmother who has taken on taking care of her 5 grandchildren: Kayla, 5; Keya and Kyla, 2; and Eric and Erykah, 1. I now have expanded that project to include audio from interviews with Tammy. My story focuses on her role as caretaker for her grandchildren. (The music in the background in what the twins listen to every night as they fall asleep.)

Click here to view the project.

Thoughts About Chapnick

As the semester has progressed, I have been confronting this dread I possess regarding picture stories. What I mean is, I enjoy / admire / am inspired by personal projects that other photojournalists have created. But the idea of pouring myself into something like that - the vulnerability there, where you have to pour yourself into people in order that they reveal themselves to you - I have been fighting with myself about whether 'I want to do something like that.' A part of me is really inspired to dive into an issue, into people's lives, and starting with Staff, it's one of the things that I really love about being a journalist - getting to hear people's stories and getting to know them. Another part of me, however, doesn't relish all the 'extra' work that would go into something like that. The work I refer to is all internal and it can be so exhausting. I don't relish the work of having muffle the part of me that quakes in terror whenever I interact with most people, the part that anticipates the inevitable rejection by them that I 'know' most likely won't happen, but it's something that that I've carried around with me since I was 3, so it's hard to get over it. (Thank you to Hurn for his discussion about shyness!!!)

So, when I read "Throughout the world, photojournalists are working on personal projects. These are long-term, independent projects generally not subsidized by newspapers, magazines, or book publishers. They are often the projects that are closest to the photographer's heart; they can be the key to effective photojournalism and career advancement..." I groaned. (I have no choice!)

But then I read: "Every photojournalist can undertake an independent photographic project, but few do. You have to be self-demanding, self-motivated, and stubborn. You have to be willing to spend many hours, maybe years, on the project, and subordinate other pleasurable aspects of your life to it." Ah! So it isn't easy for anyone else! That's encouraging.

The thing I like best about Chapnick's chapter is how he described what people did to make their ideas happen. It doesn't take much to pique my interest, one my challenges is formulating that into something that more people would be interested in.

One-Day Story Re-Edit

In Photo Story, we have the opportunity, after receiving an assignment's grade, to re-submit with the potential of raising it by a letter grade. So, today I changed my focus on my one-day project to be a story about how the Pereras use the wool. I resubmitted it with these pictures:

Two of the Pereras’ Karakul rams wait to be fed on Thursday, February 12, 2010. Karakul sheep are possibly the oldest domesticated sheep, with carvings of the sheep found in ancient Babylonian temples.

Some of the more mature Karakul ewes peer out of the main barn of the Petite Saline Sheep and Llama Farm, owned by Rey and Dee Perera. The Pereras have a flock of over 90 Karakul ewes and rams, bred from the five major blood lines available in the United States.

Rey Perera scatters feed for his farm's rams on Tuesday, February 16, 2010. The Pereras keep their rams and ewes separate except during breeding season. The separation keeps the rams calmer and less likely to butt Perera or each other.

The Matchmaker

Tonight, as I convalesced with a painful migraine, I stumbled across one of my favorite episodes of Fraiser, "The Matchmaker." At least once a season, there was an episode in which the Brothers Crane were mistaken as being gay. In this particular episode, Fraiser has a new boss who assumes that he is gay and that they are dating. Fraiser, clueless, thinks the guy is perfect for his father's PT, Daphne. This pleases Daphne but doesn't please Fraiser's brother, Niles. Although Niles is married and committed to his wife, he's been in love with Daphne since they met. Hilarity ensues.

Even though I felt obligated to embed the first part of the episode, it starts getting really good in the second part.

“Uh, Niles, can I speak with you a moment? I was wondering. Did I do anything that offended you?”
“No.” [throws dishes in the sink]
“Oh, it must be all in my head. But I sensed that you had a problem with me dating Fraiser.”
“Well, if you must know‒ [pause of recognition] I’m sorry, what was the question?”
“Do you have some problem with me dating your brother?”
“No.”

EPJ News Multimedia Project Critique

As part of EPJ, we've been asked to critique a multimedia project from a news organization's website. I chose to critique "disabled in Vietnam" by LiPo Chung, on the San Jose Mercury News website. (Alternative link here.)

As you might be able to tell from the screen capture, the project, etc., was a little bit larger than what was allotted for viewing on my screen. When I scroll down slightly, I can view the whole thing, but not the whole page.

This, I think, is poor planning on the Mercury News's part, because in order to see the controls, the user has to scroll away from the identifying logo for the site. Yes, they may have gotten there, by choice, specifically choosing the website before the multimedia project, but often times links to articles or multimedia stories are forwarded. Having that name recognition there for the user to see, without having to work at it, is important. Most people are lazy and will find it irritating to have to use the scroll bar to simply see something very simple.

Character Profile Outtakes

Editing my character profile was hard! There were so many images that I liked, but how to tell my story? So I thought I would post some of the other ones here...

Motherhood, the Second Time Around

A character profile of Tammy Kelliehan, a 41-year-old grandmother who moved with her husband to Columbia to help care for her daughter's 5 children: Kaylah, age 5; twins Keya and Kylah, age 2; and twins Erykah and Eric, age 1.

(This took work! to figure out how to embed this in my blog, but I finally did it! yay.)

Just for a Smile - "Deduce, You Say"

Complete with removable Daffy beak :)

[There used to be a YouTube video here, but it was removed because the poster violated YouTube's terms of use. Bummer, because it was a funny video.]

(After falling down as if dead, but really tripping on the front stoop) "You'd best have that fixed, guv'ner!"

"I've solved it!!!" "Have you, Holmes? That's ripping."

"Your name? Speak up, man!" "Shropshire Slasher." "Your occupation?" "Shropshire Slasher."

More to Love

As mentioned in a previous blog, the First Place winner the Freelance/Agency Issue Reporting Picture Story category was a project entitled "Love Me." Somehow, I stumbled across Zed Nelson's larger essay in Issue 8 of Visura Magazine. The fuller project is even better.

Left caption: Jackeline Padilha, 22. Bikini wax. J. Sister’s waxing salon. New York, USA.
Right caption: “We live, as Naomi Wolf once observed, in a surgical age. Everybody’s doing it. Soon, the only people who won’t have any kind of cosmetic surgery will be the poor. Money will be the last barrier to the scalpel when allothers – gender, ideology, morals, politics – have gone.” Maureen Rice, writer. Ox and Angela, plastic surgeon and wife. Rio, Brazil.

 
Nelson's statement regarding the project:

Beauty is a $160 billion-a-year global industry. The worldwide pursuit of body improvement has become a new religion.

We live in a society that celebrates and iconises youth, where the old, the aesthetically average and the fat seem to have been erased from the pages of our glossy magazines, advertising posters and television screens.

Left caption: “Men’s Health magazine (USA) hasn‘t had a hairy chest on it’s cover since 1995.” Wall Street Journal. Copacabana Beach. Rio, Brazil.
Right caption: “I’m competing with men 20 years younger than me.” Anthony Mascolo, 46. Liposuction to chin and abdomen. New Jersey, USA.

Spencer Tunick

I guess there's a project for everyone. While browsing Life Magazine's website, I came across Spencer Tunick, an artist who creates art by arranging naked people.

It's Never Too Old

For those of you who think that starting a new career is for the young, meet Patricia Lay-Dorsey.

She started out as a social worker in 1966, moved on to art in 1978, became an art therapist in 1991, developed MS and started a blog in Feb. 2000, and since 2008 has been publishing photo essays on the NY Times' Lens blog, and in LensWork, New Mobility, and Burn magazines.

As a way of feeling comfortable in her own skin, and comfortable with her MS, Lay-Dorsey set out on a self-portrait project. She photographed herself nude, up-close, and set about photographing her daily life. In the process, she "began to feel more beautiful."

Stephane Halleux, Sculpteur

When I was in Paris in 2001, I discovered that one of my favorite artists, Picasso, also made sculpture.

Courtesy of Life Magazine.

Picasso's sculptures, like his art, were interpretations of objects rather than replications. So when I saw the work of Stephane Halleux, it reminded me of him.

Halleux is French-speaking Belgian. His type of sculpture is called steampunk. Rock on.

A Photographer's Interesting Website

I came across the website of Chris Buck. A very interesting way to provide navigation appears on the screen when the site opens:

Click on an icon and go to either a set of portfolio pictures, his biography, or video.

And as I browsed his portfolio, I found that I liked his eye. Here's some of my favorites:

POYi - News Story - Multimedia

Usually, I can get behind the judges choice for First Place in a category, even if I like something better. But with this category, the News Story (Multimedia), I just don't get it.

The category calls for: a multimedia story or essay based on coverage of general news or breaking news. This category will recognize outstanding multimedia reporting utilizing fresh material. Each entry should be a
single news story or essay of about four minutes in length.

I just don't get it. Why did this piece win First Place in the category?

I realize that I'm partial to the story that was awarded Second Place, but I just don't get it. It's like everything that I've seen at POYi and CPOY in the last 3 years was thrown out when awarding the winner.

1. The story starts out with introducing Stamper. How many times have previous judges railed on that? Yes, it wasn't him introducing himself, but the narrator did that for him. Within the first 5 seconds. Named him right off the bat. Aren't we supposed to be slicker than that?
2. I really hated having the story narrated, with all of its flourishy language. Maybe if I was in a better mood, I might not be so grouchy about it, but I don't think so. Every time I think about this story it bugs me. I want the story and the ambient and the images to give the drama, not someone describing it for me. The narrator seemed to have nothing to do with the story, other than being a nice emotional story teller. And all her extra flourishes and extra information didn't make me care about this guy or his situation. 
3. The story was all video. I thought this was a photography contest, not a video contest. Are we considering video as multimedia now? What's multi about it? How is it combining different content forms? Because it was narrated?
   

EPJ Photographer Portfolio Website Critique

There are some photographer's websites that I like. Such as:

http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/ - Easy to navigate (menus stay on the left) and you see the pictures as you go, so there's no guessing. Very user friendly! And image information is provided.

http://portfolio.joemcnally.com/ - Easy to scroll over links, the menu remains at the bottom. The top right shows which portfolio you're looking at, thumbnail images in a pop-out menu show you your choices.

http://www.uwehmartin.de/ - Menu remains at the top, scrolling over images gives their caption information, bottom right provides a way to scroll through images (although I like being able to pick and choose out of order better), top right provides story info, font is readable

But here's one that I came across that I didn't like, the website for photographer Todd Hido.