Photojournalism: Ideas for story/subject

[riz]

<p>Hi,<br>

I live in Karachi, Pakistan. I am associated with a weekly newspaper & monthly magazine (print media) as Freelance Photojournalist.<br>

I was wondering if I get some ideas from PN community about the story/subject.<br>

It would be wonderful to get some from you :)<br>

Thanks and regards,<br>

Riz</p>

[starvy]

<p>Hello Riawan,<br>

You live in a fascinating and colourful part of the world with many opportunities for potential subjects. However, I do feel that certain subject matters might be a little too taboo. I have listed the following -</p>

<p>1. Photo montage of Qadiani communities and their daily lives<br>

2. Schooling for very young girls in northern villages<br>

3. Islamic madrasas in general would make a fascinating subject for photography.<br>

4. Teaching of religion in contrasting schools<br>

5. Friday players at the most historic mosques and whether the community actually care about the buildings themselves.<br>

The above are just snapshot of my thoughts.</p>

[riz]

<p>Hello Starvy,<br>

Thanks. Nice one :)<br>

My feedback:<br>

1. Well Qadianis live obscurely. I have never met one, knowing someone declared him publicly.<br>

2. Karachi in south most :(<br>

3. This could be a potential lead.<br>

4. In regular schools, the religious teaching is normal. Nothing extraordinary or striking in that.<br>

5. Potential lead. I don't think there is any historical mosque in Karachi. Well historical buildings are under government care except couple, that are in bad shape due to negligence.<br>

Looking forward for more ideas from you :)<br>

Good day!</p>

<p>Regards,</p>

<p>Riz</p>

[jtk]

<p>The decay/disrepair/destruction of historical buildings is a subject in itself: A friend is documenting that currently in Laos (Buddhist temple murals), though his primary purpose is to save a record of remaining historic work, knowing that it too will be destroyed to be replaced by "modern" developments.</p>

<p>His challenges include the government's conflicted interest in both communist-style modernization and foreign tourism as well as the traditional Buddhist lack of interest in architectural permanence and its preference for flashy new murals...so he's producing DVDs that depict what he thinks are significant surviving historic murals as well as exploring the conflicts and paradoxes.</p>

<p>How about contrasting village/tribal vs neo-Islamic/politically correct vs colonial contributions: bureaucratic/academic/commercial/cultural-artistic ?</p>

[AJHingel]

<p>What about the theme of <strong>women artists in Karachi</strong>, their work, their inspiration and artistic milieu starting from the <strong>Chawkandi</strong><strong> </strong><strong>Art</strong><strong>Gallery</strong> and the owner Mrs. Hussain.</p>

[mikael_karlsson]

<p>Rizwan:<br /> <br /> 1. Socio-economic situation for youth in the area. What are people dreaming about doing for a living when growing up? What kind of jobs are indeed available in the area? What is done by local (and other) government agencies and/or private interests to create new jobs? If nothing is done, why not?<br /> <br /> 2. The Western world will look at almost any Moslem country and feel that women are horribly oppressed. What do the women in the area/region themselves have to say? Do they feel oppressed? Why/Why not? Do people in general know much about the outside world so to understand why people in other countries feel/think the way they do about the region/area/country?<br /> <br /> 3. Young entrepreneurs in the area. What businesses do people want to start? Can they? What does the future look like for up-start companies in the area? Are there any obstacles to people wanting to run their own business? If so, describe.<br /> <br /> 4. Impact of technology in more rural areas. Do people have access to computers? The Internet? Compare more urban areas to more rural areas.<br /> <br /> Just a few ideas, I must admit I don't know enough about the region or the people to come up with any kind of detailed ideas.</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Good points, regarding internet entrepreneurs. The news has been full of stories from China, India and Brazil. On a BBC story last night I heard a Brazilian internet entrepreneur claim that his country had an advantage because of their telecommunications infrastructure. Your challenge, as a photographer, would be finding ways to illustrate that. Not easy but could be done.</p>

[LindaM]

<p>Rizwan, I think you need to come up with your own ideas. However, I do have a suggestion for you. Find a way to look at "your" world in a new or different way. Imagine yourself a visitor in your country. Sometimes when we live someplace, we don't really see what is around us. We get into habits and tend to live on auto-pilot, all the while something interesting is right in front of us.</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Ditto, Linda's advice. If your target readers/viewers are outside Pakistan, think like an outsider. What might outsiders find interesting, even if it's familiar and mundane to you? Is there something about your local culture that you find outsiders tend to misunderstand? And can that be translated into a photo essay?</p>

[sarah_fox]

<p>Here's my thought of something I'd like to do with my own photography. Perhaps you can do something similar with your photography:</p>

<p>The US has got to be one of the most misunderstood countries in the world. It is easy to stereotype us and to view us as a monolithic society. People from around the world often have some very bizarre notions of who we are and what we're about, and they often hate us based on those notions. Perhaps there would be fewer chants of "death to America" if people really knew who we are and understood the diversity of our society -- if they could look into our eyes and into our souls and see someone with hopes and ambitions and daily struggles not unlike their own. It's harder to hate someone you've seen or met than to hate someone who is little more than a faceless, mistaken concept based on government propaganda. It is all the harder to hate when one recognizes that common element of humanity.</p>

<p>So I think that is one of my goals -- to photograph who we Americans are and to display my work, so that others might understand us a bit better. It's a simple thing, and many of my photographs will appear very mundane and uninteresting here at home. It is my hope that others from other cultures will see my work as a small window into our cultures.</p>

<p>It is also my hope to capture a bit of who we are in this time for the benefit of future generations, and the same photographs will serve that purpose. I'm fascinated by photographs of day-to-day life in times past. I'm not talking about the posed shots of people lined up and smiling into the camera, but shots of normal daily life (which are all too rare). I hope to do some very ordinary photography today that will someday hold the same sort of interest in the future.</p>

<p>Rizwan, I would really be interested in catching a glimpse into your world through your eyes in 2010 Pakistan, and I would likewise love to catch glimpses into the ordinary lives of other photographers throughout the world. This "getting to know each other" is, in my opinion, essential for world peace, and I hope I and other photographers can play some small role in making it happen. (I hope that doesn't sound too grandiose.)</p>

[AJHingel]

<p>Not to start a discussion on "misconceptions" of the US, I think, Sarah, that the US is actually the country in the world that has done most to inform others on its merits, dreams and intentions (Hollywood, burgers, healthcare, foreign debt, military power, wars and occupations, migration, the American dream, handguns, PCs and the Mac I write on, internet, oil, global warming, evolutionists, abortion, research and education standards, financial crisis, Christen fundamentalists, doughnuts, Californian wine, ignorance of the rest of the world, outside the US etc etc) just to mention a few such "information" that is shared by all foreigners across the World. The perception of the US of the rest of World is to a large degree simply a reflection of American intentional or unintentional communication efforts. We foreigners might know too much about the US and not too little.<br>

<br /> Sarah, I admire your project but you are up against much stronger and long term communication efforts of your country that clearly have made their effects accros the world.<br>

<br /> You might be right that the best thing Rizwan can do is simply to shoot the daily life around him and make efforts to make other people around the world see them in order for foreigners to improve their understanding of life in his country, just like you do - or I do with modesty. Photonet is a good starting point for sharing in that respect.</p>

[sarah_fox]

<p>Anders, you've pointed out something very interesting to me -- something I hadn't really considered: I'm up against Hollywood. I think what non-Americans don't understand is that Hollowood is bigger than life -- much bigger. It's no wonder people don't understand us if they pay that much attention to our films! I assure you that nobody living in my little town bears any resemblance to anything coming out of Hollowood, maybe except for the box-office sleepers that very few people ever watch.</p>

<p>Anyway, my efforts will probably be a drop in the ocean, but a drop is still something.</p>

<p>Peace,<br>

Sarah</p>

[AJHingel]

<p>Sarah I join you in your final message to us all. The problem of the image of American is that it cannot be corrected or changed just because it has nothing to do with the daily life of most American citizens. Each our countries are always bigger than the individuals and even bigger than the sum of them. For most foreigners the US is in fact the unhealthy burgers on the street corner whether you eat them yourself or not.</p>

[sarah_fox]

<p>Anders, it's true that our countries are bigger than all of us. However, I place my trust in the people, not the governments. Before the fall of the Iron Curtain, I was one of a growing number of people who were willing to look past all the politics and the propaganda to try to understand something of the people on the other side. Some of them were my colleagues in the sciences. I remember being greatly encouraged and honored when one of my Russian colleagues requested a reprint of one of my papers. I reciprocally requested any papers he and his colleagues might have in my field of study, and he sent me an entire anthology -- very humbly printed and in Russian. </p>

<p>The book still sits on my shelf. I can't read a word of it, but I felt very privileged to have had that rare exchange with him. I've still never met the man, but having that brief connection with someone on the other side of an enormous geopolitical divide was an encouraging reminder that the USSR was, at its core, multitudes of everyday people much like myself. </p>

<p>It was not long after that when Mr. Gorbichev rose to power and achieved such popularity over here that he polled better than either of the presidential candidates in our next election. I swear all this happened because of the glimpses we got into each others' worlds, including through a week of PBS's re-broadcasting of Russian television and the airing of the Russian film "Letters From a Dead Man," which depicted Russian fears of an American-instigated nuclear exchange, from the vantage of the Russian scientific community. We could see in their message to us that they were as afraid of us as we were of them. I think we could recognize the danger of our situation and yet the irrationality of our distrust. It was a powerful moment.</p>

<p>This was a time in which we were weary of the Cold War and wanted to become friends, but had a hard time trusting each other. I feel in my heart of hearts that it was through countless little of glimpses into each others' lives that we were eventually able to come together -- countless little drops in the ocean, as it were.</p>

<p>Every drop is important. :-)</p>

 

[jtk]

<p> There are no such people as "Americans." My impression is that the same applies to Pakistanis and Russians.</p>

<p>Some of us may buy a stylized television/cinema propaganda/marketing image, but the New Mexicans around me are, in their various cultural identities, wildly different from the various cultural identities I know about in Manhattan, different from the various Northern Californians among whom I grew up, who are in turn little like the images that are promoted about Southern Californians. However, everybody in Columbus, Ohio is interchangable, just as everybody is in Tehran and Hong Kong :-)</p>

<p>Seems to me that Rizwan A asked for ideas he could explore in Karachi, rather than an argument about hamburgers, fantasies etc. Working concepts, angles to explore, perspectives...not prejudices.</p>

[jtk]

<p>Rizwan, I suggest you visit <a href="http://www.soundslides.com">www.soundslides.com</a>. Take a look at the portfolios (and turn up the volume to hear the audio). Most midsized and larger American newspapers and magazines are now using similar technology to attract online audiences...its one of the journalistic justifications for DSLRs and digcams with video and sound capabilities. Magnum is deep into online video, slide shows, and sound. Might be fun to explore that in Pakistan....Al Jazeera's been doing it for a few years.</p>

[AJHingel]

<p>John, we have already proposed many subjects for Rizwan and are waiting for his reactions. You might also appreciate that noone has been discussing "Americans" as a people, but the difference between the image of the US (of foreigners mainly) and the life of individuals in the country. Words are important. Try to shoot a photo of "Americans" and you will give up and be in tears. Take photos of people in America, or for the sake in Karachi, might be to our reach.</p>

<p>I fully subsribe to Sarah's: "Every drop is important" but I just warn about the challenge we are up against. You notice that I write "we" because basicly I think we are in agreement on how we as photographers can contribute. What those of us, as amateur photograhers, are able to do in our professional work is another story and depends on the position of each of us. Here, the experience of Sarah is a good example of what happens when we open up and try to better understand the "others". Too many do not do the effort.</p>

[riz]

<p>Hello all.<br>

Thank you for your ideas, suggestions and diversions :) Well what I think about US really not matters to me. But I am sure it certainly would for those people who are losing children, women, and elderly people in drone attacks. Given that we presume that missile is going to hit the 'actual terrorist/Taliban/Al-Qaida', it (missile), unfortunately is not that advance that it could discern and pardon the other family members - women, children, elderly.<br>

As a person belonging to middle-class family I have nothing against American people, nothing against at all. Personally I believe that inspirations and miseries of common man is same; living here or there. Its basically evil and mean governments those indulge in sheer heinous, adventurous and diabolic scheming. Our governments are no exception to that.<br>

OK lets get out of this seriousness.<br>

I have two ideas:<br>

a) Project focusing on families who collect garbage, and<br>

b) Mentally and/or physically handicapped childred<br>

Whats your say in this.</p>

<p>Lastly, in my opinion, what I believe that our photographers' community is above all this differentiating factors. And we should have unbiased, unprejudiced and emotional tilt towards the problems of common man.</p>

[missi_ali]

<p>I like "a" above very much......This is a huge industry especially in the cities and many families livelihood. It would be interesting to find out who actually benefits from the garbage collecting. I wonder if you could get the guy with his cart buying old newspapers, and other recyclables. (teen tapper wala)</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<blockquote>

<p>I have two ideas:<br /> a) Project focusing on families who collect garbage, and<br /> b) Mentally and/or physically handicapped childred</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Rizwan, both projects sound good. The second project interests me because I have no idea about the challenges handicapped children and their families face in your country. I can't remember reading any stories about medical care, social services, education, or whether any outside agencies are available to offer any assistance.</p>

[sarah_fox]

<p>Rizwan, I like your two ideas, and if you're passionate about them, then either of them would be good to pursue. However, at the risk of getting too controversial on this thread, I'll suggest still another idea: Here in the US, it is our government that decides to go to war and continues these wars even when they are often extraordinarily unpopular. I regret to say we don't really see or hear much about the civilian casualties in Pakistan. We pay our taxes, and our government spends that money to send in the drones, often killing innocents in your country and elsewhere. Most people here simply don't think about it.</p>

<p>It will never be personal to us if we don't see it.</p>

<p>Find a way to show us, because if we don't see it, we won't care. And if we don't care, we won't pressure our government to stop doing it.</p>

<p>... just a suggestion! However, I think you'd be making a difference.</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<blockquote>

<p>"I think you'd be making a difference."</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Agreed, wholeheartedly. If you'll include your photo essay on your photo.net portfolio it will help to promote awareness of the topics you cover. Photo.net offers an advantage that many of our photographers don't recognize: we're among the most prominently Googled websites around. Virtually everything posted to photo.net is Googled almost immediately. As a photojournalist you can use this constructively.</p>

[riz]

<p>Thanks Sarah. Your comments proved again that American people are truly democratic, have sensitive heart and they believe in humanity.<br>

And being part of photographers' community we are ONE....</p>

[riz]

<p>Missi yes. If you are from Karachi then you must know the NIPA Chowrangi. On back of that there is setup, their tag line is "Kachra Do, Sona Lo" (Give garbage; get gold).</p>

[sd_woods]

<p>I was wondering if you'd do your job.</p>