Photojournalism-Final Images.

And here are my final images.

I recently put these up on a social networking site to get opinions on my final choices, and was gobsmacked at the response I got.  I feel a little bit bad that I upset so many people and made them cry, but then I think about how many of those people had never heard of Derian House before they saw these, and I think it was worth it.  Several people have donated money to Derian, which to me makes it all worthwhile, and I look forward to donating my time and my photography skills to them in the future.

My conclusion is that no matter the grade, no matter what the people who assess this work think of it, whether they like it or disapprove, whether I get a pass or a fail, I am very proud of this set of photographs.  I've shed many many tears over the past few weeks but nothing has ever made me more thankful for what I have, and I am so so glad I did this.

The IPTC data for each image contains the captions and information about each picture.

Photojournalism-research & influences

When doing the research for this project, I found it quite hard to find any relevant historical examples of the type of work I was doing.  I didnt want to be too generic, and I wanted to specifically focus on death and mostly around children.

Victorian Post-Mortem Photography is something I have found fascinating for some time, and its history is very revealing.

With the invention of photography in 1839, many people who couldnt afford to pay for a painted portrait could afford a photography session.  Rather than a reminder of mortality, they were more a keepsake to remember the deceased, especially with infants and children.  Infant/child mortality rates were very high, and this post-mortem photograph might be the only image of a child that the family ever had.






Post-mortem photography has ceased in North America and Western Europe as it is considered vulgar, sensationalist and taboo, although it is still fairly popular in Eastern Europe.

Contemporary photographers who have death or the dead as their main themes include:

Andres Serrano-American photographer and artist who photographed morgue photographs of the dead in a beautiful, artistic way, including the bodies of the young.






 Sally Mann-American Photographer best known for her black and white photography of children, and landscapes of decay and death.

Her 5th book, 'What Remains' (2003) is in 5 parts;

• The remains of her pet greyhound 
• The dead and decomposing bodies at a federal forensic anthropology facility (or the 'body farm', a place where bodies are left exposed to the elements so scientists can study the effects off decomposition)
• The site on her property where an armed escaped convict was killed
• A study of the grounds of Antietam, the site of the bloodiest single day battle in the american civil war
• a study of close ups of the faces of her children.

Thus, the theme of mortality, death and decay throughout the book, is tempered by the theme of love and hope in the final part in the faces of her children.






Maeve Berry-An Irish photographer who created her series 'Incandescence' in direct response to the Victorian death photography.  In her words, "a series of images capturing the last moments of the human body in the material world." she has taken pictures of the cremator as it reduces the human body to ash, resulting in some beautiful and poignant pictures.














Pep Bonet-A Spanish photographer. In Petit-Goave, one of the suburbs of Port-au-Prince in Haiti, a hospice is hosting old and mentally challenged people. Following the earthquake, more people took refuge there. There are now 71 inmates while they were only 40 before the quake. The number is growing. The hospice was flooded during the earthquake and received no assistance.

In the series "Hospice" Pep Bonet portrayed the daily life of these patients in June 2010.

I found these images very inspirational, of course the Hospice I am photographing is nothing like this, but the plight of the sick never really changes. The conditions in this place really upset me, and made me really think about what was still happening in Haiti.

Haitian Hospice

Eric Lafforgue-A french photographer who travels the world photographing different kinds of people.  His photography I find incredibly beautiful, his portraits are so inspiring and full of life, I hope one day to do something half as good as his work.









Finally, I got inspiration from this set of images that, although they dont have a sole photographer, are still haunting, detailed and very intimate.  A Romanian prison gave its female inmates 6 canon powershots, and in the first 2 months alone they took over 14,000 photographs.  I have found these fascinating and have looked through them numerous times, it is an amazing look at the lives and relationships of these women, and they are surprisingly artistic at times and occasionally very poignant.


original source







this next one reminds me of 'migrant mother'

Photojournalism-image selection and editing

Below you will see the contact sheet featuring all the shots that I took at Derian House-I tried to use my camera sparingly, not shooting constantly but waiting for the right moment, so there isn't a large amount of images.



I have only included one contact sheet from the shoots but the other 5 can be found on my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zinjada/

Next came my initial choices, I narrowed down my picks to these images



And then another run through, to get my final 16 images

I

I spent some time trying to decide which images to convert to black and white and which to leave in colour, but eventually I got there.  I am pleased with the decisions and think they work well as a set, and hopefully Derian House will like them too.

Photojournalism-IPTC data.

IPTC data is a method of storing textual information in images defined by the International Press Telecommunications Council. It was developed for press photographers who need to attach information to images when they are submitting them electronically but it is useful for all photographers. It provides a standard way of storing information such as captions, keywords, location and captions. Because the information is stored in the image in a standard way this information can be accessed by other IPTC aware applications.  It was developed by the International Press Telecommunications Council which is a consortium of the world's major news agencies, news publishers and news industry vendors. It develops and maintains technical standards for improved news exchange that are used by virtually every major news organization in the world.

http://iptc.cms.apa.at/site/Home/About/Membership_Q&A

The details are filled in via Lightroom, either at the import stage, or later on by filling in all the relevant information in the 'library' module.  Below is a screenshot of an example of some IPTC and metadata I have filled in on one of my final images.



Included in the IPTC data is the EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) data of the camera, lens and settings used.   Below is an example of EXIF data taken from an image file, showing all the cameras settings from the time/date right through to whether the flash was fired.



Unlike the IPTC data, the majority of which is manually entered, the EXIF data is electronically generated by the camera at the moment the shutter is pressed and is automatically embedded into the image.

Photojournalism-research-photographic practise & styles

 Photojournalism or Documentary Photography

• a particular form of photography which is concerned with the collection of images to tell a story.
• used to chronicle significant and historical events.

Photojournalism is distinguished by the qualities of:

• Timeliness-the images have meaning the context of a recently published record of events.
•  Objectivity-the situation implied by the images is a fair and accurate representation of the events they depict in both the content and tone.
• Narrative-the images combine with other news elements to make facts relateable to the viewer or reader on a cultural level.

 Whereas documentary photography seeks to:

• accurately describe otherwise unknown, hidden, forbidden or difficult-to-access places or circumstances.
• The photographer attempts to produce truthful, objective, and usually candid photography of a particular subject, most often pictures of people.

Social Documentary

• is a critical genre of photography which is dedicated to the life of underprivileged or disadvantaged people.
• Became known after the FDA commissioned photographers to document the lives of the poor farmer, resulting in some of the best known photographs in the world today.

Ethics

Works within the same ethical approach to objectivity that are applied by other journalists.  Because the reporting is mainly image-based, photomanipulation or false/misleading captioning is a very fraught subject, with the 2006 Lebanon war photograph controversies being some of the more publicised misrepresentation and photomanipulated images of recent times.  Freelance photographer Adnan Hajj was fired by the Reuters news agency for admitting to using Photoshop to add and darken smoke in a photograph of Beirut to make the damage appear worse.


the doctored photograph

a comparison of the original and doctored photograph


To be perfectly honest, I don't actually know how Hajj thought he would get away with this very inept example of Photoshopping an image-its quite clearly been edited with the clone tool and the use of photoshop is basic at best.

The U.S. National Press Photographers Association, and other professional organizations, maintain codes of ethics to specify approaches to these issues.

Code of Ethics

Visual journalists and those who manage visual news productions are accountable for upholding the following standards in their daily work:

1. Be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subjects.
2. Resist being manipulated by staged photo opportunities.
3. Be complete and provide context when photographing or recording subjects. Avoid stereotyping individuals and groups. Recognize and work to avoid presenting one's own biases in the work.
4. Treat all subjects with respect and dignity. Give special consideration to vulnerable subjects and compassion to victims of crime or tragedy. Intrude on private moments of grief only when the public has an overriding and justifiable need to see.
5. While photographing subjects do not intentionally contribute to, alter, or seek to alter or influence events.
6. Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images' content and context. Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects.
7. Do not pay sources or subjects or reward them materially for information or participation.
8. Do not accept gifts, favors, or compensation from those who might seek to influence coverage.
9. Do not intentionally sabotage the efforts of other journalists.

Ideally, visual journalists should:

1. Strive to ensure that the public's business is conducted in public. Defend the rights of access for all journalists.
2. Think proactively, as a student of psychology, sociology, politics and art to develop a unique vision and presentation. Work with a voracious appetite for current events and contemporary visual media.
3. Strive for total and unrestricted access to subjects, recommend alternatives to shallow or rushed opportunities, seek a diversity of viewpoints, and work to show unpopular or unnoticed points of view.
4. Avoid political, civic and business involvements or other employment that compromise or give the appearance of compromising one's own journalistic independence.
5. Strive to be unobtrusive and humble in dealing with subjects.
6. Respect the integrity of the photographic moment.
7. Strive by example and influence to maintain the spirit and high standards expressed in this code. When confronted with situations in which the proper action is not clear, seek the counsel of those who exhibit the highest standards of the profession. Visual journalists should continuously study their craft and the ethics that guide it.

http://www.nppa.org/professional_development/business_practices/ethics.html

This is the code of ethics that I will endeavour to adhere to with this assignment, it is incredibly detailed and a very good set of rules to go by, teaching photographers how to treat their subject professionally, sympathetically and honourably.

As for equipment, the traditional tools used by photojournalists are:

• 35mm film camera 
• Black and white film
• 50mm prime lens (usually F1.8 to capture scenes in low light)

I was toying with the idea of going with film for this assignment, but in the end decided against it as I have very limited experience with film and thought that this assignment was too important to risk getting it all wrong.  I will be using a Canon 5Dmk2 and primarily a 50mm F1.8 lens-all the portraits will be done using this lens, with a few shots, mainly the exterior and a couple of the interior shots, using a 28-105mm F4.0 to get a wider angle.  I wont be editing any of the colour images, being used direct from camera (apart from lens correction) and the black and white shots will be unedited apart from the colour conversion.









Getty Images' editorial policy.

Photojournalism-initial ideas.

Photojournalism has never been my strongest point.  After our assignment briefing, to which I made many notes and sketched out lots of ideas.  I eventually decided to try and do something that meant as much to me as possible-something that would make the viewer think, feel, and even face things they might not want to think about.


My initial ideas included photographing the birth of a child, which I have already been invited to do, but I decided that it would be too risky given the short timescale of the assignment, I couldnt guarantee that the person/s I had discussed it with would have their baby before the hand-in date.  

(in hindsight it is a very good job that I didn't go with this idea, as out of the 4 women who I had in mind for this project, not a single one of them has had their baby, the day before the hand-in date!)

Then I thought about visiting Woodhead Brothers, an abbatoir very near to my home.  Apart from being a visual blot on the landscape, the smell that eminates from the building is disgusting, all pervasive and very distracting when you are doing your shopping at the Asda store next door.  I eventually discarded the idea after discussing it with someone who used to work there who said that it would be difficult if not impossible to get permission to photograph inside the premises as the owners are notoriously hard-faced and disapproving of such things.

So finally I came to my final idea, which was photographing Derian House Childrens Hospice.   I had been planning on doing some photography at Derian House for a short while anyway, I have a close friend who had a baby that passed away in the care of Derian and its become a bit of a personal cause, but the photography I was planning was more beautiful and pretty portraits of the families for their own personal use, more what I do as a paid photographer but donating it to these families for free.  After discussing this with my friend, she put me in touch with Jean, the bereavement counsellor at Derian and they kindly agreed to let me photograph there for a few days, with the permission of the parents.  I was a bit concerned that they would be hesitant as the photographs might show the sadder side to life at Derian but they were incredibly enthusiastic about it and the prospect of using the photographs to help raise awareness and funds.  Derian House costs upwards of £1.8 million PER YEAR to run, but only get £40,000 worth of funding from the government.  I'm very pleased with the progress of this, and don't think I could have come up with a more moving and personal idea.   

http://www.derianhouse.co.uk/
http://www.justgiving.com/derianhouse/ 

People-Fine Art-My Work

Because i had already used natural and artificial light in my other People portraits, i decided on this one to use studio lighting.

i used 45/45 lighting with an umbrella to the right and a softbox to the left.

Because i wanted these images to be a homage to victorian photography, but done in a modern style, i used a damask patterned background and a lensbaby to create a soft focus effect around the model.

I wanted the photographs to depict different types of people breastfeeding my winged doll, and i thought long and hard about who to include.

My first model was Hazel, who is an experienced model and has photographed with me many many times.
2nd was Leroy, a drag queen who dresses as a woman most of the time (and a very glamourous woman too!) who did 2 portraits, one as a woman, complete with fake breasts exposed, and one as himself.
3rd was my daughter Mia. Mia's was the only portrait with no nipple exposed as she is only 9 years old. I did debate quite a lot with myself whether i should use her at all but in the end i decided that 1) its not a sexual pictures and 2) if Witkin can cover the subject matter he does, then i can do this. I am pleased i did as i think her portrait turned out really well.
4th was my best friend Dan, who has a distinct look of jesus/charles manson about him, i think his portrait is probably my favourite.
5th was Molly, a good friend who isnt adverse to making herself look very unflattering on photographs! We smeared her makeup, and i love her pose, to me it creates a very uncomfortable picture.
7th was Natalie, a goth girl who has never posed before, i emphasised her dark tendancies by smearing her black makeup down her cheeks and asking her to widen her eyes to give it a creepier feel.
and finally 8th is Kylie, who is another who has never posed before, and who is also a breastfeeding mother. I decided when I thought of this idea that i wanted a breastfeeding mother to take part just because of the symbolism involved and i was very pleased when Kylie agreed to be involved.

Contact Sheets


These are the initial picks from the shoot, where i started whittling down the many photographs i took and picked the ones that stood out from the others.


my final picks for the 8 portraits, chosen for their composition, pose and focal point.



and my final pictures with 4 different editing styles, I wanted the photographs to have a vintage feel to them so i edited them in 4 vintage-style ways, firstly a black and white, then brown-tinted, then a colour wash and finally a desaturated green-toned image.

I finally went with the 4th option of the green-toned image as i felt it gave more of the sinister edge i wanted to the photographs. The lensbaby i wanted to give a blurred edge to the shot, which meant that in some of the photos the baby wasnt in focus-which i am happy with, as it makes the images less obvious-you have to look closely to see whats actually going on. The only negative thing about this is that on a couple of the photographs, the focus is actually ever-so-slightly off the eyes which is down to 2 things; 1) my inexperience with a lensbaby (this shoot was only the 2nd time i have used one) and 2) the screen on the back of my camera makes it very difficult to see whether its in perfect focus or not, but i'm not overly worried about it as i dont think it detracts from the images at all, as you can see in my final prints.

I also included a photograph of the doll itself, photographed by a window and given the same green-toned editing as the others to act as an anchor image to the other 8. The doll is much more visible (albeit with a shallow depth of field of F1.8 with the focal point on the wings) so you can see exactly what the subjects in the photos are breastfeeding.



All in all, i am pleased with the outcome of these photographs, I think the aim of paying homage to an older style of photography has been successful, the images are clearly modern in time but with elements of the past being brought in with it.
I love the concept behind them and i am satisfied with my fulfillment of the 'Fine Art' part of this brief.