Thursday, October 18, 2018

"My Rochester" Fall/Winter Photo Essays & Portfolio





For all your major Fall/Winter photography assignments/projects, you will be creating a series of  photographic essay projects representing Rochester through your eyes. Over the course of several assignments you will photograph landscape photosstreet photosportrait photos and even journalistic photos to culminate in the creation of a Portfolio and Essay of your photographic work. You should photograph your neighborhood, family, sports team, favorite after school hangout, friends, neighbors, events etc., all with the purpose of developing your own creative eye for photography, light and composition. Take as many photos as you can! – the more options you have to choose from, the better! At the end of each project, you will post 10-12 photographs that you feel best show your vision of Rochester. Oh, and...along with that...a 250 word artist statement to your blog. Yay! :)

Today we will:

Introduce the new photojournalism Photo Essay project:  "My Rochester"

You will: Create a new Project Proposal blog post with the following:

A few sentences describing potential ideas and subject matter that you may want to photograph for 
landscape photos, street photos, portrait photos and even journalistic photos of Rochester for the My Rochester Photo Essay Series, as well as how and what you plan to photograph for these projects. You may post a few google photos of Rochester for your project proposal posts if needed.


I will:

Post a few sentences analyzing my current strengths and weakness regarding photography, and how I will use these to my advantage in my photo essay
.

My Rochester: Landscapes

Project Requirements:




  • 10-12 quality, edited (if necessary) Landscape photographs united by the theme “My Rochester”
  • Photos must be in black & white
  • Photos must fit all criteria of a good photograph discussed up this point (proper lighting; interesting angle; clear subject that is in focus; tells a story; background adds to, rather than detract from, the subject of the image)
  • Photos should clearly label the vantage point used. (ie. worms eye, birds eye ect)
  • 250 word artist statement in the same blog post as the final 10-12 edited photos

Any photos you took for previous assignments this year that you think may work well as part of your “My Rochester” photo essays. (You should plan to take new photos for the majority of your photo essay, but for now, it is ok to post 2-4 ones you may potentially use.)

The Speech that Inspired the Project

Shortly after taking office in 2014, Mayor Lovely Warren referred to Rochester as “a tale of two cities.” Here is a brief excerpt from that speech (you can read the speech in its entirety here):
“In his State of the State address just a few short weeks ago, Governor Cuomo candidly and accurately described Upstate New York as being in a “cycle of decline” — and the evidence of this is clear to see in Rochester.  The Rochester of today is far different from the Rochester of just a generation ago. Rochester is a tale of two cities.  One city is vibrant, hopeful, wealthy, and highly livable. The other suffers from escalating poverty, dysfunction, unemployment that is higher today than it was during the Great Depression — and a deficient educational system.  This divide has both immediate human consequences and short and long-term economic consequences.
The Mayor’s challenge — our community’s shared challenge — is to bridge these divides so that all people feel there is hope for them and their children; and we all feel that we have an equal stake in the future.  A recent report by the Rochester Area Community Foundation outlined the harsh reality we face; and the findings are a call to action that cannot go unanswered.
Rochester is the:
  • Fifth poorest city in the country among the top 75 largest metropolitan areas;
  • Second poorest among comparably sized cities in those metro areas;
  • Ranked third for highest concentration of extremely poor neighborhoods among cities in the top 100 metro areas;
  • Poorest urban school district in the State.”

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