Multimedia Reporting Fall 2019

Keith O’Brien

My photo proposal will focus on Liebmans Deli: an old school Jewish deli that is a cornerstone of the leafy enclave of Riverdale, NY located in the Bronx. It’s only one of two delis left in the Bronx and of the last few left in all of NYC. My piece will shine a spotlight on what was a cultural staple of NYC and why it is so hard for small, family owned businesses to survive in 2019. The photos will consist of a behind the scenes look into the deli life, testimonials from the long time patrons – some of which have been going since it’s inception in 1953!- and scenes from other delis across the 5 boroughs who have had to close and what they’ve become. A focus of the piece are the challenges faced by these businesses such as: rising rents, online and chain competitors, and other factors. 

Reminders

No class on Monday.

And if you haven’t signed up for a Photoville time slot yet but intend to, please do so ASAP at the Google link.

Caption writing

Just because photojournalism is a visual medium, it doesn’t mean you get to be any less thorough when it comes to names, facts, dates, etc. You need to always make sure you get the names, locations, professions, ages (if relevant) to include in your captions. The Who/What/Where/When/Why.

Washington Post guidelines:

Freelance Image Metadata Fields

“A caption should briefly and clearly describe in a complete sentence what is happening in the picture, including an active verb (‘someone does something’). This will allow our internal systems to take sections of the sentence and automatically create keywords. In many cases, a single sentence will suffice. A second sentence is acceptable if it adds additional information, follows the required formula and does not editorialize.”

Caption example:

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – JANUARY 11: Actress Kate Winslet holds her award at the 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 11, 2009 in Beverly Hills, California. Winslet won the Golden Globe for best supporting actress for her role in “The Reader,” as Hollywood set aside labor strife and a recession to honor the year’s best performances. (Photo by Rich Lipski for The Washington Post)

Notice how the first sentence is in present tense, describing what is literally happening in the photo, and the following sentence is in the past tense, giving background and context. 

In a photo essay, the captions play the additional role of shaping a narrative. So while wire photos and breaking news photos might all include similar captions because most likely they’ll only be used one at a time, your captions in a photo essay will need to follow a somewhat more narrative shape. Meaning, the first one will include a lot of that 5W’s stuff, while the additional captions might fill in the blanks some more.

In-class editing exercise:

• Practice using Lightroom for touching up photos.
• Choose your best pictures from the scavenger hunt and submit them to me in the Journalism Share folder.
• Screening and feedback on photos.
• Send via WeTransfer to emily.johnson@baruch.cuny.edu

There are a lot of stray cats in my neighborhood, so I think my photo essay may be developed around them. The people around the community, including my family, have also tried to feed them, some stray cats have been adopted, some cats are afraid of people so they are still stray. I might take photographs of how they survived and how humans influenced them. Or my photo essay topic might be about how a stray cat was adopted by humans and how it changed.

Seven years ago I would run into a duo of street performers daily for two years straight. Every morning we would get on the same train, around the same time, at the same station. The duo was composed of a man and a woman who walked around the subway car with a cap asking for tips while the played his guitar. After her rounds she would join him with a scrapper—a latin percussion— to enrich the sounds of their songs. What stood them apart for me aside from their age, was the style of music they were playing—Rancheras. Rancheras are considered Mexican folk music. Think of country music if it was mixed with gangster rap without the hip-hop rhythm. This type of music is unusual to be heard on that specific side of the city. When you think of the Latinx music of Up-Town Manhattan, merengue, bachata, or even salsa music come to mind. Music that is representative of that Latinx community. Rancheras are not rhythmically rich as Caribbean music.  They focus is more on the lyrics. So, to have Rascheras street performers roaming the train cars of Up-Town Manhattan in cowboy attire in contrast with the audience should make for a compelling story.

Along with the rise of islamophobia and xenophobia, has been a corresponding rise of fear in Muslim communities. After a bomb threat was detected at a mosque in Bergen County, New Jersey, and after the traumatic event of the New Zealand shooting, Muslims all over the U.S. have been experienced a heightened emotion of fear in what is supposed to be their most peaceful area of worship. I would like to capture a series of photos that capture the everyday lives of Muslims in this community, and provide shots of what goes on in the mosque, and how the community has been dealing with these threats by volunteering as security and organizing therapy sessions for the youth in the community.

Favion Stennett

Multimedia Reporting

Photo Essay Project

Reggae music has had a profound impact on people and has become extremely popular over the years. My proposal is to analyze how much dancehall culture influence people’s attitude and behavior. The project will feature photos that highlight the influence of the music on reggae fans sense of fashion and capturing the dancehall behavior. Capturing the vibes, the food, and flavors of dancehall party life.  In addition, photos will try to capture how it affects people’s confidence and provide an avenue for escape.

 

 

My Photo Journalism pitch will be covering one of the largest names in body building today, Arash Rahbar. I will be following him on his journey to winning the coveted Mr. Olympia Title. I reached out to Arash through a mutual connection we have and he agreed to allow me to follow him around on his journey.  Bodybuilding is an extremely competitive sport, and a lot is on the line for these guys. Not getting in at least the top 3 could mean potentially losing sponsorships and part of their fan base. Since Arash Made it clear that he would be extremely focused on his training and diet I will have plenty of opportunities to catch him in action, and see what it takes to become a body builder.

 

 

The first Brooklyn Bagel Fest took place in The Bushwick Generator on September 8th. It was the first bagel festival in New York City. There were bagel themed activities, a bagel pinata and a bagel pool. I interviewed the organizer, Sam Silverman, and people who attended. The photo essay will focus on the story of the first bagel festival and Sam Silverman.

Announcement:

No class on Monday, Sept. 16; take that time and work on your photo essays instead! This is because I will be requiring everyone to pay a visit to Photoville at some point while it is open over the next two weeks. It opens this Thursday at 4pm and runs through Sunday. Then it closes for a few days and re-opens from Thursday through Sunday again.

I encourage everyone to sign up for one of the time slots when I’ll be visiting Photoville so I can introduce you to various photographers whose work is being shown. If you can’t make it for any of these time slots, that’s okay; you can go on your own at a time that works for you. Everyone will be required to do the same assignment regardless of whether or not you go with the group or by yourself.

Assignment:

Take at least three well-composed photographs of things you see at the festival. Pick an exhibition or an event (panel discussion, walking tour, etc.) to focus on. If the photographer or curator of the exhibition is there, interview them. If not, there should be plenty of background info about the project in the container itself or on the website. Write a short (2-3 paragraphs) blog post about the exhibition: what you liked about it, what you learned about the process, what it is trying to say, if anything, what issues the images raise. Please include any relevant links along with your three photos in the blog post.

Sign up for Photoville visit time slots here.

Here are its hours of operation—make sure you check before you go!

Class Discussion: Pitch workshop

We’ll workshop everyone’s pitches as a class. This is an opportunity for you all to put on your editor’s hats. Ask yourselves: Is this a good story? Why or why not? Is there a clear angle? Is it visual in nature? Is the photographer going to be able to get the access they need to pull it off? What would make it a more focused or stronger pitch?

Next class

We’ll be editing and screening the photos you took during your “scavenger hunt” last week, so make sure you have them accessible at the beginning of class.

Yasmeen Persaud

September 9, 2019

Multimedia Reporting

Photo essay project 

A more in-depth look at an ethnic enclave — how one West-Indian singer is building a life and career out of her own ‘Little Guyana’ in Queens 

In the heart of the uproar that is Queens stands Liberty Avenue — a neighborhood which advertises a long stretch of beauty shops, halal carts, grocery shops and lively restaurants. Upon the walls on the sides of buildings, and within the counters of mini pastry shops rests flyers that advertise local singers in the neighborhood. 

Singers within this community are often limited to small locations and small promotions, but one woman packs a powerhouse punch in order to gain more recognition — Sushila Devi. Devi has been involved in the promotion of many events and programs throughout the area. Devi has been singing Hindi music for many years, with her roots taking her back to Guyana. 

Devi can offer an inside look into the culture of West-Indian singing communities in Queens. The ethnic mix that this side of Queens offers seems to not be discussed as often as it should. A day in the life of this singer would include a beautiful profile of her singing at various events ranging from her religious singing efforts performed at temples, to her more upbeat performances at party halls. Devi will provide insight into the intense dedication and hard work that these singers must accomplish on a daily basis. 

Source 1: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/2014/10/02/38ec1260-4998-11e4-a046-120a8a855cca_story.html (This is a link to a Washington Post article that describes the culture that Devi is exposed to in her local community)

Source 2: Sushila Devi (Devi is interested in being interviewed and photographed for this project)