Analysis of Speaker: Frank Van Riper, photographer and journalist

When Frank Van Riper came to talk to the class along with a panel of photographers I was really excited. They talked mainly about the positive and negative aspects of modern day photo journalism and journalism ethics. I feel very strongly about this subject because I think that with the Internet available now for almost any job it is easy to steal work from others. I liked that they pointed this out because with billions of images on just Google alone are enough to supply many with work that they have not done.
Technology is all well and good, until someone gets hurt. It is easy to get lost in cyberspace, but there needs to be something that brings us back to reality. We, as humans, have become more perfectionists and in doing so technology has facilitated hours of work that it could have taken in the field. Photoshop, one of the most popular photo manipulation programs, makes it easy to crop out that one thing in the background and to make that picture front-page worthy. The problem with that is morals.
Photography used to be something more, a way to visually tell a news story. How can we tell stories and place them in newspapers and magazines if they are not true. Journalists get a lot of heat for fraudulent material, as should photo journalists. Although technology is awesome and can do many things, when it comes to photo journalism, it just is not ethical to change and manipulate photos.
Journalists, of all kinds, should be accurate and tell the truth. Photo journalists must be digitally truthful. There is further pressure to get out new and exciting images and ideas, but a person can only work so hard. Sometimes Photoshop is the means to doing so. With newspapers and other publications putting out more than one issue a day, including online news, it is hard to keep up without the help of the digital materials that we have available to us.
I enjoyed the subject and what the panel had to say. I think that morals and ethics in journalism is a huge issue and should not be taken lightly. One false image could equal thousands. What are we if we are just reproducing others’ work? We have then lost all originality and authenticity which is what papers and publications pride themselves most on.

Final Project Paper: Digital Campaign Poster

I chose to do a digital imaging project. When I started out with the project, I had a few goals and objectives in mind. I knew that I wanted to do something involving human relief or the environment. I feel very strongly about the world hunger crisis, and I wanted to be able to deliver the message that people can help and that it is just that, a crisis. I wanted the images and the typography to blend together so I chose bold colors in order to catch attention but also to encourage people to take action.
The trials and errors of design are many. Knowing this, I wanted to make sure that I had a concrete idea in my mind before I started. I did some research on world hunger and what the world was already doing to advocate feeding the hungry. I learned that children are the most captivating when trying to gain viewers and responses in a campaign. The ONE campaign works diligently towards gaining awareness about the world hunger crisis, and gaining volunteers and donations. I realized that it was important to read through their website in order to see what they were doing for their food program and how I could visually represent that in a poster.
I chose the ONE campaign because they work very closely with college campuses and people my age are changing the world one program at a time. I thought that their views on world hunger and individual contributions were really interesting and full of gratitude and gratification. The ONE campaign works for many issues. However, I feel that since enough grain and land and nutrients exist to feed every person on this planet fairly, that world hunger is a major cause that I would love to be a part of. “Under-nutrition contributes to almost half of all child deaths and more than 20% of maternal deaths.” (ONE website) That fact alone is enough to draw me in.
It turns out that the main focus or idea is to feed people! When I was thinking about images to use the first thing that came to mind, aside from the children, was a bowl. What better way to represent hunger or lack of food than an empty bowl? I got the idea of putting the children in the bowl in order to further emphasize that these children live with empty bowls and that there is something people can do to help. Although there is no main genre that influenced my style of design, the cause spoke to me and the images I chose are the ones that first came into my mind when saying world hunger.
Knowing just the minimal amount of technical skills that we learned over the semester, it was difficult for me to start out. I knew the size had to be 11in x 17in and that was about it. The rest I learned by trying. Getting the images set up and using Adobe Illustrator to change some of the images was also a challenge. It took a while for me to have all of the things I wanted to put on the poster in place. I got the contact information from the http://www.ONE.org website and the rest of the typography just came to me.
The production took me about three days each consisting of six or more hours. My first attempt was not a complete failure, but it got me going and thinking. My first project consisted of the image of a bowl, a starving/dying child in the middle, the text and the phrase “help fill empty bowls” repeated along the background. The colors I chose ended up not working and the image of the dying child was not hopeful at all. For the next attempt I took out the text from the background because it was too distracting to the eye, and I changed the color of the font to mainly red and some black. I chose red because it worked well with the bold font and the message that I was trying to send out. The background went through a couple of phases as well. From the repeated text I went to a light blue solid color. This looked good, but I found that with a more purple color, the bowl and even the text stood out more, which is what I was going for. Lastly, I changed the image of the child to two hopeful looking children looking out at the viewer and it ended up being more captivating because the viewer was able to look the children in the eye and feel as though they can help.
Color is a huge issue when speaking through images and tight text. I first had my text not bolded and in a navy blue. It was not grabbing my attention and my eye went directly to the chaotic background, which was in green. Although I may have been going for earthy tones and for scare tactics with the shriveled body I had initially placed in the bowl, I found that using a more hopeful image and bolder colors for text such as black and red was a lot more effective. The red said to me “take action.” The black was bold and made a statement, and the purple or light blue background pushed the text and images off the page a bit more. The contrast was greater with the purple, which is what I ultimately decided to go with.
The location was mainly my apartment and the computer lab in the Mary Gradon Center. I used mainly Photoshop for the manipulations and to create the layers of images and typography. I also used Illustrator in order to change some of the images that I chose to use. I played around with the opacity on Photoshop along with colors, fonts, textures and shading. I found that I worked better at home though.
I feel that I was able to visually convey what I wanted to. With the technology I was somewhat limited, but I think overall, the message that I wanted to put out there can be gained from the images and placements that I have chosen. There are a few minor techniques that I could not quite work out because of my limited knowledge on the programs, but I like how the project turned out. The final result is ultimately what I had first envisioned before I started the project. However, it is only slightly different than the beginning piece. Other than the background, colors and image of the children, the total project did not change that much. However, I do believe that the message changed from beginning to end. The beginning was a bit scattered and had too much going on. The final result contained boldness where necessary and captivating images that really send out the message: “we need help now!”
In order to improve the poster I may have learned a little bit more about how to play with texture and color for the bowl and the background. After exploring Photoshop for three days I have come to know quite a bit, but I still think that there is a lot more to learn. I think I would have added more texture to the edges of the bowl and done more to make it stand out more dramatically from the background. The text wrapping was also a little difficult. I think that if I were to start over I would try to position the top text so that it was going straight across the page.
I really enjoyed this project because it got me to think and really play around with things. I have learned a great deal about how to visually convey a message and I think that in such a fast-paced world as we live in, it is important to be able to convey a message quickly and concisely. What better way than visually? We are an increasingly more visual species so it is crucial to use images and text in an effective way. I think I would really enjoy making advocacy posters for an organization like the ONE campaign. I would love to try and come up with different ideas for all of their causes and issues that they advocate and work for.

Analysis of Aspect of National Museum of Natural History

The exhibit of the Hope Diamond at the Museum of Natural History really caught my attention.  I noticed that there were not many other pieces displayed in the room.  The other pieces were much bigger and kind of set off into the corners.  I thought that this kind of took away some of the importance of them.  When entering the room, from either entrance, it was clear what the main exhibit was.  The diamond was encased in a glass box with a rotating stand.  As soon as I entered the room, there was a large sign displaying an introduction to the story of the Hope Diamond.  It was intriguing and in effect caused me to read on to find out more about this gem. 

The placing of the piece was important and it really sent out the message that it was the main attraction.  It had a historic storyline that was really interesting to follow.  It brought up more questions in my head and made me stop and look at just that one thing.  I also noticed that people love stories.  From the time we are children during story hour to entering the adult world.  Stories are something we, as humans, can relate to.  It humanizes objects and makes them come alive.