My Brief

What is Photojournalism? - Brief

My aim is to take a series of images based around mystery and what the story behind the image could be. I chose to do mystery as it allows me to be creative with what I can find on the streets because everywhere you look someone will be doing something, but what exactly? The majority of street photography style images will include people in them and it’s not always clear who they are or what they’re doing, so this then leads to a mystery behind the image. The majority of photo-journalistic photos will show a story or meaning behind them, even if they weren't intended when the image was first taken. When different people see an image, they will all have their own ideas of what is happening and who that person is. This is one of my main outcomes for my brief - for people to have different ideas about the mystery behind image.

Mystery gives me a wide opportunity of photographs to take and I can express my opinions of everyday life. When taking the images I will try and use compositional and framing techniques such as leading lines, rule of thirds and reflection to make the images look more interesting and appealing to look at. I will then turn the images into monochrome (black and white) in later production to make them stand out better and give them a simple mood as the images will be described in different shades of one colour. Also the majority of photojournalists take their photos in monochrome.

An artist who has influenced me in this theme is American photographer Diane Arbus because when she was out taking photos, she focused mainly on what people were doing in their everyday life. Like most photojournalists she wouldn't ask people to pose, she just walked the streets and took images of people she thought looked interesting. Another artist who has influenced me is Australian photographer Trent Parke. His images tend to include just one person, whether they're just stood on the street corner or crossing the road, this shows mystery because we ask why they are alone, what they're doing or where they're going.