Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Diversity Week 2010

Tara Brooks, social justice specialist/WVU Extension Service, says "Diversity is all inclusive, everyone is diverse and everything is diverse".

Diversity Week 2010

West Virginia University has always the fascinating activities. Diversity Week 2010 is one of these activities. Sharon Mallow, program coordinator, who is going to hold a veteran's breakfast on November 11th, 2010, said that about 60 activities is currently now on in different rooms in the Lair along the whole week. Mallow added "the President's Office is more happy to keep bringing the events to people to let them aware of the richness and diversity of the community that we have." Every flag represents the country from which the students come to our university.

People without People

Life is continuous no matter what

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Ruin Porn

I think that these photoessays have not been showing the reality about Detroit. As an international student, I am surprised why would an American (If he/she is American) photographer present such thing.
Detroit is a great city in a great state. It is better to show every aspect about the city to be close to accuracy and truth which are important facts in Journalism.
I wounder why there such a negative framing about Detroit! I wish I could know.
The term "Ruin Porn" was shocking to me. I couldn't figure out its meaning from the dictionaries. I think it is obscene word.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Photojournalism is not dead

Photojournalism is not dead at all, it is an Art, a Craft, and a Profession.

Death of Photojournalism

I agree completely with what was written in the article that is defending photojournalism.


(I don’t think that the photograph is threatened — it’s the economic model to sell it that is changed,” Mr. Slaby said.)

Reflection about photography

    Being photographer gives me the feeling of weakness and power.
 Photography is an art and it is a nice thing to do.

 I used to take pictures with different cameras that I had. This time is different; I felt that there must be a kind of responsibility towards the quality of the picture that I should take. This class “introduction into photojournalism” makes feel how deficient I am with regard to photography. The most difficult idea the professor of this class said is that what is related to the idea or the story behind the picture. The photographer should put in his mind the targeted audience of the photograph, the effects that the picture might produce and the content of the picture itself. At the same time, being a photographer gives me the feeling of power.

Practice makes perfect. With hard work and continuous practice in taking photographs, the feeling of power may develop. Pictures lead to documenting events, people lives and places. The choice is the photographer’s choice. In this way the photographer is the shaper of the world. The photographer would document the history with the subjects and the topics  that are his/her personal choice.

Photography is nice as it is and art. Photographer can reveal the beauty even in the ugly scenes in nature.

Being photographed gives the feeling of fear. With traditional photographs, anyone can feel safe as there would be ample time for careful preparation to appear in the picture in the best outlook. Now, with the new sophisticated small cameras “sometimes hidden cameras”, anyone has the fear of being photographed in undesirable way with a miserable outlook.

For my classmate, it is well known why he/she is taking the picture. However; I would like to know what does he/she expect from photography as a profession, is my photograph would be of interest to his/her audience, would there be any publishing for my portrait, and what is the best thing that he/she likes about my story?

Dealing with a digital camera made a lot of obstacles for me in taking the pictures. The most difficult is the use of manual settings. In all the previous cameras that I used before, I didn’t need to change the aperture or the shutter speed. All the cameras that I used before, they were automatic. The other difficult point is the meter reading issue with regard to 18% gray areas. I haven’t understood it very well. The story for the portrait the I did was not well planned, I need to plan for the story in the future. I need to read the manual of the camera, check the story sources that have been suggested by the professor and read some other library sources about photography.