Lecture 4 Picture Stories

A photo is worth a thousand words.

 That's the magic of  a single still image that has conveyed meanings inside it. A great photo can capture the emotions of the subject at that moment and share it with the viewers. Great photo can even affects the viewer's emotion and give a visual idea of what is happening.


Bruce walked us through the history of picture. From the ancient cave painting to glass paint in church, from the one of the oldest pictorial book - Book of Kell's to the first illustrated newspaper, and now, all with digital. 
He also mentioned nowadays how fast photojournalism has developed from the first printed photo on newspaper to people can capture an image an post it online within a second. 

He also discussed the good and evil of digital manipulation (Photoshop) and showed us a video about faux-tography. That is my first time watching it and very interesting! With the help of technology advancement, we can now manipulate the photo digitally with photo editting software. I have to say the freedom of journalism in my hometown is not publicly known especially when comes to politic. News and photos of major media are often twisted and biased to what their boss wants them to write. For an example, the 20,000 people anti Lynas rally back in my hometown, the photographer took a whole view of the events and cut off half of the people, replacing it with green field grass. This photo was printed on main press and it gave the public a wrong impression. 

So what makes a great photo? Bruce taught us some basic technique of photography to make the photo looks more interesting and captivating such as the framing, focus, angle & POV, exposure, shutter speed, rule of third 

and last but not least, being able to capture 'The Moment'

Capturing the moment is so important that it made the photographer a good one. Is it so important? What about all the skill that mentioned above? 

Let me show you some photos that captured my attention and I always remember it. 

At 1951, Arthur Sasse took a photo of the legendary Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out. Not only it showed the playful side of him, it also told us he is not some serious science maniac. If Arthur doesn't know how to capture it in that second, Albert will keep his tongue back and people will never see this side of him.

Next on, 'The Kiss' taken by Alfred Eisentaedt. It became of the most memorable photo of post WWII. In thie photo the soldier and the nurse doesn't even know each other and he randomly kissed her. As a good photographer, Alfred managed to capture that moment with a perfect pose! The pose might have changed the seconds after that!

Therefore, being able to capture the moment make you a good photographer.

When Bruce showed us this quote "If it makes you laugh, if it makes you cry, if it makes you rip your heart out, then that's a good picture." this photo came up to my mind. Taken by Kevin Carter during the Sudan Famine. A vulture was behind the skinny and helpless children, there's a thousand message in this photo such as desperation, hunger and hopeless. It did ripped my heart out. I can never forget the first time I saw this photo. Sudden emotion wave rushed into me and I almost cry.

Show you a photo I saw recently that almost ripped my heart out, taken by unknown photographer.

Didn't it made you think deeply what has global warming done to them? And what can we do to help them?

Great photo makes you think.

Nowadays capturing 'The Moment' is more easy than ever. With the popularity of smartphones, people no longer has to carry a camera with them. Photojournalism is now very advanced and easier with the social networking. Now everyone can snap, upload and share.