Introduction
The Photo Essay
What is a Photo Essay?
- A Photo Essay tells a story or conveys emotion through a series the use of multiple photographs
- There are two types of Photo Essays: Thematic and Narrative
Photo Story or Photo Essay? The Photo Story tends to be a narrative set of pictures that work together to present a single topic. The Essay often relies more on symbolism and subtle relationships among pictures.
Task
The Photo Essay
To better understand how multiple images work together to tell stories, you first must understand the concepts and principles of the Photo Essay and Photo Story.
Using good standards of writing, briefly describe:
- What is a Photo Essay?
- How does the Photo Essay differ from a Photo Story?
- What is the difference between a Narrative and Thematic Photo Essay?
- Some helpful tips or hints to creating a good Photo Essay?
You have the class time to complete your work. No extensions will be given. Your answers will be due at the end of the class.
Process
The Photo Essay
- Create a Word document. This should include your title (the Photo Essay), your name, date, and headings for the three task questions.
- Use the internet to research Photo Essays. Remember to use keywords and phrases like: "What is a photo essay?" or "examples of photo essays" when you are searching.
- Finally, search for an on-line Photo Essay and include the internet link at the bottom of your Word document.
- Save your work on the Home (H drive) and copy your file to the Shared drive (Shared > CP > Everyone > Photography-Bumstead > Grade 11
Evaluation
The Photo Essay
| Criteria | Exceeding | Meeting | Approaching | Not at All |
| Question #1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Question #2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Question #3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Question #4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Remember to use complete sentences to answer the four task questions.
Conclusion
The Photo Essay
Your major project will be to create a Photo Essay based on a topic of your choosing. We will be looking at selecting a topic, researching our topic, creating a shooting script, and editing and layout design.
As part of our study of the Photo Essay, I will try to get Tim Smith to return and talk to more about his Photo Essay work.
https://digital-photography-school.com/5-photo-essay-tips/