"Light and Shadow"
17th International Photojournalism Workshop led by Tamas Revesz, Salzburg, in co-operation with “Salzburger Nachrichten” Austria, June 30-July 6, 2012 Organized by The Austrian journalism training association Kuratorium für Journalistenausbildung.
Earlier workshops were led by: Tom Ang from London/New Zealand,Peter Korniss, Andrej Maximishin from St. Petersburg, Andreas Herzau from Hamburg/Germany, John Smock from New York, Jan Grarup from Denmark, Jay Ullal/India, Andrej Reiser/Prague, Terje Eng/Norway, Nina Rücker/Germany, Micha Am Bar/Israel, Erich Lessing/Austria, Sabine Sauer/Germany, Volker Krämer/Germany, Makoto Sugaya/Tokyo and Paul Hosefros/USA.
Light and Shadow by Tamas Revesz
About Photojournalism: QUOTES AND THOUGHTS FROM BRIAN HORTON
(Associated Press Guide to Photojournalism Written by AP photographer and photo editor Brian Horton)- Photojournalism is telling a story with picture.
- The mission is to inform, to report, to carry a scene to the readers, to show them something they might not have a had a chance to see themselves. With a camera you are the eyes of your readers.
- To grab a moment of history and preserve it for the future. Cartier-Bresson called it the decisive moment.
- The skill “seeing a story”, and providing meaningful content requires education, experience, desire, knowledge, insight and talent.
- Old saying is true: Chance favors the prepared mind.
- Passion and commitment for photojournalism is a key element to be successful.
- Think first as a journalist, second as a photographer. Some photojournalist even say that that their goal is “to make a difference”, to present the life of people, their joy and sadness, to tell the world what is going around.
- You approach should be about treating the subjects with dignity without preconception. Be a strong anticipator of human nature and be in the right place at the right time. There is no rule but you have to feel when you should leave the people alone.
- Your ability to empathize puts heart into your photography.
- The role of photojournalist, to get the picture is important, but is never more important then the people you photograph, ever.
- Photographers have to be prepared.
- “Luck, that is where preparation meets opportunity.”
- You need to be critical of your work. You are as good as you are today. Tomorrow you have to do it again.
- Covering news assignments calls for curiosity, sensitivity, emotion, thinking, patience, persistence and instinct. When the action is important, sometimes the reaction is even more important. You are looking for emotion and peak moment. Go back later following the story.
- Planning always improves your chances to getting the picture.
- There is a difference between anticipation and preconceived notion. You go and anticipate because you know something is going to happen. You put yourself in a place where you think it will happen. Anticipation is a key word.
- You have to think about your story but you have to be open what is going on around you.
- Features: Seeing the world around us, seeing something that others don’t see. Making something special out of ordinary.
- Picture has to express some kind of information that is useful. It just can’t be a pretty picture.
- Composition, style and cropping control the look of your photograph. Composition is the collection of elements in the picture that compete for the reader’s attention. Composition makes the eye move, or stop.
- When your composition is consistent, you develop a style that identifies those pictures as yours.
- Shooting in new and different way is not for art’s sake. Your photograph may be artistic, looking good on the wall, but as a journalist you have to communicate, tell a story. Of course when an image is pleasing that will draw attention.
- Photography ethics: Pictures must always tell the truth. Only the established norms of standard photo wet lab printing methods such burning, dodging, toning, cropping are acceptable. The content of a photograph will never be changed or manipulated in any way. It can be artfully shot but nit manipulated.
- You can improve impact; buy using different lenses, different perspectives, varying horizontal and vertical shooting. Still photographer ought to think like film director, making close up, medium and overall views. That would result in a visually more appealing picture story.
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