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Pictures of Pictures (part III – Paris)

2010/03/17 in Europe, photos, skill building | No comments

Going back to the subject of Pictures of Pictures – first broached last fall – let’s stop by Paris, which is absolutely full of museums – which means paintings, statues, maps, murals, and lots of photographs of all of it.

These pictures are from one of my favorite places – the Museé national du Moyen Age, also known as Museé de Cluny. My mom and I first discovered this museum, possibly because of the guide that came with our city museum passes, in May 2002. I think we went back at least once after our first visit. When my class was in Paris for about two days during study abroad, I didn’t make it there in time to go through the museum again, but I did slip into the gift shop to gaze through the first doorway towards the first gallery. I think I also managed to snap a few self-photos in the courtyard. My last visit was solo and very restful after nearly a month on the road.

It’s amazing how much craft can go into every day items from stained glass windows to combs, triptychs to paper, and the decoration that turned a cold stone building into something more.

The tapestries here are not the famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestries which are also at the museum in their own gallery. Instead, they’re a few of my favorites – at least, ones I was able to get both light and time with (no flash photography is allowed in the museum).

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Pictures of Pictures (part II – Journalism)

2009/12/14 in photos, skill building | No comments

Journalism doesn’t work without knowing your story, and knowing your story involves knowing your place. Since most of my class is new to Phoenix (and a lot of us are technically new to journalism) many of our first assignments were designed to get us moving through the community and building new skills – double travel. And of course, I got pictures out of experience.

Abstracts & Details

Many of my POP examples from Phoenix came out of class assignments, like the first one I mentioned in the earlier post. What was that first photo assignment for my media class? Abstracts. And how does that fit into pictures of pictures? Well, a few came out as micro POP examples.

From Abstracts
From Abstracts

Going Historical

One of our ongoing assignments this semester is researching historical neighborhoods. This project took me to the Historic Preservation Offfice which is located in City Hall – it’s an fantastic office with truly stellar staff. The two pictures below, the vertical ones, are from a 1915 Sanborn Map company book of insurance maps of Phoenix.

Shoot First

Another is called “shoot first” where we capture images that are interesting, then find out what’s behind them. The first set is from a downtown sculpture called “Release the Fear,” built out of weapons turned in by the community.

There’s local graffiti which turned out to be notices for a well-known visual artist and a local music movement.

And there’s this mural just east of Roosevelt Street, whose story I don’t know yet. (If you do, tell me in the comments!)

From Phoenix (2009)

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Pictures of Pictures (part I – Phoenix)

2009/11/30 in America Nord, photos, skill building | No comments

“Pictures of pictures” is my attempt at a catchy name for photos of artwork. In other words, any image I’m taking a picture of – a painting, a sculpture, a document, stained glass – sometimes even another photo. One reason to do this is to remember the information, though usually it’s to remember the image itself. This is probably the one I plan the least – often, I don’t realize what I’ve done till afterward. Plus, it’s not quite as clear cut a category as, say, people, or planes. At the time, I’m thinking, “Oh, wow – I want to see this again!” or “That is so cool, I want to remember it!” Some trips generate crazy amounts of “pix of pix” or POP photos; other trips, just a handful or none at all. Museums are great for this, and also graffiti, billboards, and even advertisements.

Surprisingly, I’ve already turned up a number of pictures from Phoenix, partly due to my summer photography class and partly to researching historical neighborhoods for class. There was even enough for a whole post just on Rosita’s. Many of the remaining POP photos fell into two categories – ones I’d taken for my summer photography class and ones I’d taken for class assignments in the journalism program.

Photography class

First, playing with a borrowed DSLR at night. I took an awesome online photography class from Karen Russell. I needed a DSLR to take the class, difficult on a student budget. In a deeply generous move that made taking the class possible, I was loaned a Canon Rebel. The experience was amazing. I learned so much from the class, the camera, and the combination. There’s a whole new photographic world out there I knew nothing about which now fascinates me! This is a downtown building, Trinity Cathedral, which lights up nearly every evening for at least a few hours. I wanted to try to capture the windows.

Another lesson of photography class (which also bled neatly into journalism) was to notice the details. That lesson had me taking a few pictures like these before I knew our first photo assignment for our media class.

From Abstracts
From Abstracts

Now, for me, photography’s a learning experience, one I’ve far from mastered! But that’s the thing about learning – it’s a journey itself, and for this case, the picture to remember it by are built right in.

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Where listening can take you…

2009/11/10 in event, skill building | 2 comments

radio

So the timing of this Must See Monday could not have been better – in the middle of the radio segment of broadcast, sound is a big topic on all of our minds lately. This week’s speaker, Susan Feeney is Senior Editor for Planning at All Things Considered.

Why is this relevant to travel? Well, I probably inherited the itchy feet and restless nature, but I might have gotten the idea that I could tie this into making a living from somewhere else. As I listened to the clips Feeney brought as examples, I was transported back to how I felt when I was a kid and the radio, especially NPR, first started to take me places. Growing up without reliable television reception meant I spent a lot of time listening to radio in the house, as well as in the car; I heard news long before I got older and interested in newspapers. The drive to school, five minutes early on but, as I got older and switched around a bit, up to half an hour, meant morning updates. Road trips meant frantic searches on the radio dial for the next public broadcast station, because static and station boundaries always seemed to hit just at the good parts.

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One of the reporters I remember most is Sylvia Poggioli – her stories and, even more, her frequent signoff from Rome, sunk deep into my memory and imagination, even as she continues to broadcast.

Now, I still put radio on whenever I’m in the car. However, a bike commute means I drive much, much less and the unexpected (and probably only) downside means much, much less radio.

It was startling, after just a semester, to see how differently I could listen to a radio piece. Feeney’s discussion of each piece, and radio in general, really made the presentation even deeper. Information, like behind the scenes information like what happened to the journalists reporting on the earthquake from China, how their stories got put together, or the reaction afterward made good listening. But they helped us understand how reporters operate in tense, emotional, possibly dangerous situations and still get their jobs done. These examples also illustrated some of the differences between radio and other formats, especially the discussion of whether the family’s search for their son would have been different in print or television.

RadioAntennaes

Feeney played a piece on Hurricane Katrina by Robert Siegel to discuss accountability journalism, a piece which also happened to have very little natural sound, but a high emotional impact for many listeners.

She also played two pieces from a series by Melissa Block that took place in Sichuan province, China. The first actually recorded the 2008 earthquake that hit Sichuan province and the second documented a couple’s search for family members. A third piece, which I came across on NPR’s website, has Block’s follow-up work one year later in pictures as well as sound.

Overall, while I wish I had more time in radio this semester, an evening listening to/with Feeney is the perfect way to keep me interested in sound – and set the bar very, very high for anyone who wants to get involved.

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Nice work – and advice on how to earn it

2009/11/04 in event, skill building | No comments

HopgoodSite

So for this post, I borrowed the base from my Cronkite Conversation, expanded, and still feel like I only scratched the surface of all the ideas that came up. Anyway, journalist and author Mei-Ling Hopgood was on campus early this week. She currently lives and works in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, and talked about living between the challenges of changing journalism as well as the challenges of living abroad.

Hopgood spoke several times over the last few days, including a Monday lunch, an evening discussion and in at least one class. I really appreciated her stories, thoughts, and insights on journalism, working from abroad, and on transitioning to writing books. For freelance journalists (whether by choice or circumstance), Hopgood advised keeping busy with projects and ideas so that you “always have something and something coming.”

For those who want to go abroad, she recommended going less comfortable, where you can find under-covered stories and stand out from the crowd. Technology has made it possible to write and keep up with media almost anywhere, and really opened up new places (and therefore new stories, to go along with the new platforms and traditional reporting skills taught at places like the Walter Cronkite School). In Hopgood’s case, location is Buenos Aires. When pitching stories from abroad, look for local connections so that your story becomes “local news abroad.” Those who work and report from other countries get a different experience than a tourist gets, Hopgood said, emphasizing that it’s important to learn as much as possible before going. The reward is that reporters are “licensed” (whether officially or by curiosity) to go ask questions and may end up in places they wouldn’t see if they were just visiting. She also emphasized how much learning the language of the area you want to cover will make an impact – without it, the language barrier will make finding some things out tricky.

Hopgood2
Hearing how the transition into books began, with Hopgood applying her journalism background to her own personal story, really painted a picture of how to approach a very personal story and a very different project than newspaper or magazine articles. Hopgood said she knew the basic facts of her adoption from Thailand all her life, and wrote about it for the first time in an article around the time she began to learn more about her birth family. For the book, there were longer outlines and a lot more writing, but also the usual fact checking. There were extra ethical dilemmas when working with sensitive material and her own personal stories, but Hopgood said her experience kicked in again to help her navigate challenges and get the story. Her portfolio of writing didn’t hurt when it came to getting her book picked up, either, by showing her award winning skills to a new audience. Now part of the publicity tour includes – writing articles that cover new angles of her book material (as well as planning much of her own publicity and logistics – probably familiar ground for most freelancers!).

Perhaps most importantly from Hopgood’s advice – write regularly!

All in all, I’m really looking forward to reading “Lucky Girl” and the next book Hopgood is working on, about parenting around the world. Luckily while I wait for one to arrive in the mail and the other to be released, I don’t have to wait to get started: check out this in-depth piece for Dayton Daily News, Casualties of Peace.

For more on Hopgood’s thoughts on Argentine media, check out Alyssa at The World Beat.

And here’s Hopgood’s home page.

For more amazing photos including Buenos Aires, check out lrargerich on flickr.
buenosaires3

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