Multimedia Reporting – Spring 2014

For my photo essay I would like to cover Valentines Day. Being a full time college student, with a sigOth (significant other) it can be difficult sometimes to keep up with all the holidays, birthday, and month-aversaries. I would like to see how other college students will spend this oh-so-important day.

What I am planning on doing is interviewing people at random at Baruch College and asking them about their plans. I am hoping I get diverse answers (the one that always spends Valentines Day at home alone with their cat munching on Ben&Jerry’s, the one that goes all out, and the do it yourself kind of person). As far as the photos go, I will be taking snap shots of my interviewees and captioning their plans.

At the end of my story, I would like to include suggestions as to how to make Valentines Day that much more special if you are on a tight budget, by including do-it-yourself gifts and recipes.

Gabriela Calogero

For my photo essay I want to cover the Roseland Ballroom closing down. This venue closing is going to have huge impact on the music scene in New York City. The Ballroom has been open for over fifty years and has been home to countless events and concerts. This is not a typical venue because not only do the artists vary in genre but in popularity as well. The Roseland’s stage has been filled with the elite of the mainstream music world as well as the underground. Not only will many artists lose a substantial platform to get their music out there but also many people will lose their jobs once the venue closes.

The Roseland Ballroom is considered by many to be a historic and legendary venue. As a result pop phenomenon Lady Gaga will be playing three consecutive shows before the venue closes its doors for good in April. Lady Gaga’s performances are following teen sensation Lorde who will also be playing three consecutive shows.  The fact that this venue has the ability to book artists like Lady Gaga and Lorde make make one wonder why it is even closing down. I really want to do some more concrete research to find out why it is that the historic venue is no longer going to serve as the musical platform that it has been for over fifty years.

I am still trying to figure out what angle I want to use for this story because I feel there are so many different ways and angles in which I can approach this story. The Roseland Ballroom closing down is going to affect the city in so many ways. It will first and foremost directly impact the people that work there because they will be losing their jobs. It will also impact many artists who would otherwise be able to use the venue as platform to reach there fans and gain new ones.  Lastly it will impact other venues in the city that may potentially take on shows the Roseland Ballroom would have. Essentially posing the question: what will be the new Roseland Ballroom?

So for my photo essay assignment I wanted to focus on Immigration. I am interested in immigration because my family and I are all immigrants. I moved to this country when I was just five years old and its been part of my identity for as long as I can remember. Now a days we see that Immigration reforms is slowly creeping into the forefront of today’s politics. I often follow the news about any new immigration legislation and any debates that involve this topic, however when they do talk about immigration only three words often comes up: the U.S borders, deportation and amnesty. And these are the three things that either parties can never seem to agree on.

With being an immigrant myself, I have to say that this topic hits home and those three words don’t beginning to tell our story. With this photo essay I want to open the doors to stories about the things that many immigrants leave behind. Most of the times it is our family members that we leave behind and it is the hardest thing to forget, often times we we will never forget.

My main objective is to show how many of us try to stay connected to those we are so far away and showcase the ways of how we do this. Also to hear and retell their history before America and their journey in the “New World”.

Stephanie Ortigoza

For my photo essay, I plan to do it on Little Brazil which is located on 46th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Manhattan. This small neighborhood is only a block catered to  Brazilian restaurants and other businesses. Although many are unfamiliar with this neighborhood, nonetheless, it is the destination for many Brazilians. Personally I have never tasted Brazilian food before and I can only assume some New Yorkers have not done so as well. Other Latino neighborhoods such as Dominicans, Mexicans or Puerto Ricans are well known, but Little Brazil seems to be blurred out of the picture.

I would like to focus more on the cultural aspects of this block like the food, people and products and the difference between the” old Little Brazil” and the “new Little Brazil.” This vicinity seems interesting and according to zonalatina.com, there are about 76,257 Brazilian Americans living in New York City. Little Brazil was an important place for Brazilians in the past, but many of them moved to other parts of the city like Astoria, Queens. I wonder if many of the restaurants found in Little Brazil today were the ones originally established in the neighborhood. I think this neighborhood matters because it is an important place in the city and deserves some acknowledgement.

I am going to tell the story by taking pictures of the restaurants, interviewing customers, managers, employees or just anyone who would contribute to my story and find old pictures of Little Brazil from a long time ago. I plan to do some research on who the neighborhood belonged to before it became a Brazilian spot.

I should tell the story because I am fascinated by all the diversity in the city and am curious as to what Little Brazil is all about and how is it different from before.

For my photo Essay, I would like to do a profile on Siria Alvarez, an incredibly driven young woman who entered the world of fashion as a model at age 16 and now has become a freelance visual artist/editor, photographer/videographer and emerging creative director. I thought this would be a perfect news peg with Mercedes Benz Fashion Week just around the corner.

Siria owns a small company called Strut & Destroy where she help aspiring models develop a high fashion image. I thought this would tie in perfectly with the fact that some models that are chosen for the fashion shows of up and coming designers are models who have been trained in companies like Siria’s. She assists her clients by not only booking photo shoots by other fashion photographers in her company, but also taking the pictures and videos herself.

My angle for this story was to show basically the behind the scene images of her as she takes on these different roles. I plan on definitely taking pictures of her preparing a room for a photo shoot and teaching a model how to walk on the runway, but I also want to get an outlook on her as a photographer as well. I want to really capture what she sees through her eyes, but also what she sees through her lens. I think that taking these images of her as she takes on different roles will definitely make for a great photo essay.

One topic I am interested in covering is the underground house music scene. I can go in different directions with this topic: how local DJs are expanding and gaining enough popularity to play at after parties for huge events such as Winter Music Festival in Miami and BPM festival in Mexico, how and why house music is becoming mainstream and popular, and crimes that happen at these events and how clubs/venues try to sweep these situations under the rug.

Another topic that interests me is food. In Manhattan alone, there are over 3,500 restaurants and counting. With that said, it is obvious that it would be difficult for new restaurants to compete with the ones that already exist. I would like to write about new up and coming restaurants.

One final topic that interests me is politics. With there being talk about legalization of marijuana in New York, a new mayor, and the Chris Cristie scandal, there are plenty of stories to be covered.

Gabriela Calogero

I would like to do a story focusing on 3 different music acts that perform at Union Square. There are about 3 or 4 main areas where people choose to do performances in the station so at anytime there are multiple artists giving shows. My intention is to spend an hour or so with each of the performers and observe them doing at least 2 or three sets. Talking to them and witnessing how they interact with onlookers, MTA workers and even other artists should give an interesting profile of these artists.

It would be interesting to find totally different types of acts, that congregate in different areas and garner different types of crowd. The diversity of images and information will show the wide spectrum of entertainment that gathers to show off there skills at “The Square”. I would most likely go about doing this project by hanging around Union Square for a few hours on Friday and Saturday and talk to a few different artists. I would snap a few photos initially before meeting them, then use that as a way to strike up conversation with them after their first set. Then I would stick around for a couple more sets getting different, more intimate and detailed angles of the performer and audience. I would then pick out the best photos that fit into the image that I am trying to paint of Union Square.

So many people pass through Union Square everyday not noticing the amount of culture and entertainment that the station hosts at any given time. I think that this hub of culture deserves its story to be told.