Composition 9/11

Overview Like great pieces of art, great photojournalism shots are well composed. The photographer carefully places the elements of a photo within a frame in order to tell a story in the most visually powerful way possible.

Unlike art, the content of photojournalism is not, for the most part, controlled by the photographer.
This was never more true than during the attacks of September 11, 2001. This has been called one of the most photographed events in history. Most of you weren't even born when this event happened, but it is still a very important moment in the collective memory of most Americans.

Imagine being a photojournalist on that day, running into this disaster while most people are running away. In the midst of this misery and chaos, it is your job to capture the the human side of the story in an orderly and effective way.

Assignment

You will learn about some composition techniques and find examples of how photojournalists applied them to the chaos of 9/11.

First - Everyone must read about the the rules of "Simplicity, The Rule of Thirds, Lines, Balance, Framing, and Avoiding Mergers" on the following web site:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/192HfRA92dE7FSuc3UNKx8eswGOvWk4loZv2jcsrTE8M/edit?usp=sharing

Next- Go to the four websites below, and find excellent examples of photos shot on 9/11 that follow each of the rules.

Post one example of each of the techniques from the composition web site.

The title of the post should be the name of the technique.

For example- Post a photo with "Framing" as the title. You will need to do a post for each of the composition techniques. Which means you should have 6 posts today.

Here are the websites - they should be clickable links, if not copy and paste then into a new browser window.

http://www.news.com.au/world/pictures-of-911-that-show-you-why-you-should-never-forget/story-fndir2ev-1226717187453

http://www.thepowerhour.com/911_analysis/911_photo_gallery.htm

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/09/pictures/110908-about-911-september-9-11-twin-world-trade-center-towers-indelible/

http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2013/09/11/iconic-911-photos.html

(for the website above, there are 25 pictures make sure you find the clickable link labelled NEXT and look at all 25 photos.)

It may be hard to get these images to right-click and save to your folder on the server. If you want, you are welcome to do a google search for specific images and save those images. The important thing is that you are picking photos that show me you understand the six composition rules in the power point presentation.

When your done - you might be interested to read this story - if you post your reactions to this story in a separate blog, I will give you extra credit points. This is graphic and not the easiest thing to read, so if you are squeamish, you might want to skip this one. Once you click the link, hit continue and it should redirect you to the website.

http://www.news.com.au/world/the-story-behind-the-most-powerful-image-of-911-the-falling-man/story-fndir2ev-1226717247792

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/long-fall-the-most-famous-9-11-photo-is-still-suspended

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1596786/posts