My 2020

Photojournalism Final Portfolio

NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA 08/28/2020 PICTORIALS: Bill Caughlan and Reign, a cow at the Delaware County 4H Farm. Caughlan volunteers at the farm at least weekly with his daughter Isabelle. Caughlan had little experience or interest in livestock care until his daughter became involved in 4H a few years ago, now he looks forward to weekly chores at the farm. Photo by Emma J. Caughlan

NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA 08/28/2020 PICTORIALS: Reign, a cow at the Delaware County 4H Farm eagerly watching her dinner coming. Photo by Emma J. Caughlan

This is one of Caughlan’s first trips back to the farm after the property was heavily damaged by a tornado on Halloween night in 2019. Photo by Emma J. Caughlan

PHILADELPHIA, PA 09/16/2020 SCAVENGER HUNT: Tyrell, a Philadelphia local artist and vendor, stands on his favorite corner to showcase his art and to meet new people. Photo by Emma J. Caughlan

PHILADELPHIA, PA 09/16/2020 SCAVENGER HUNT: Catherine Cardone is virtually studying education at West Chester University. This is Cardone’s first time going into the city of Philadelphia since the Coronavirus pandemic shut everything down in her area. Photo by Emma J. Caughlan

DREXEL HILL, PA 09/06/2020 LABOR DAY: Portrait of Genevieve Massey, a stylist at Big League Haircuts in Drexel Hill. Massey has worked at Big League for the past 10 years, she is now a manager and the most requested stylist at the Drexel Hill location. Photo by Emma J. Caughlan

PHILADELPHIA, PA 10/10/2020 PHILLY TRANS MARCH: The 10th Annual Philly Trans March protesters march up Broad Street just three weeks before the 2020 Presidential Election. Photo by Emma J. Caughlan

PHILADELPHIA, PA 10/10/2020 PHILLY TRANS MARCH: The oldest black trans women in attendance steps forward as the speakers ask the ages of black trans women in the audience. The life expectancy of a black trans woman is 35, this woman is 67 years old. Photo by Emma J. Caughlan

HAVERTOWN, PA 10/14/2020 HAVERFORD HAWKS PRACTICE: Goalie Dylan Viera falls to his knees after missing the first goal of the practice, the beginning of a tough practice for Viera. Photo by Emma J. Caughlan

HAVERTOWN, PA 10/14/2020 HAVERFORD HAWKS PRACTICE: Sam Carluzzo quickly shifts his feet on the ice to reach the puck coming towards him. Photo by Emma J. Caughlan

PHILADELPHIA, PA 11/02/2020 KAMALA HARRIS EVENT: Singer John Legend performing at the Biden Harris Campaign event in Philadelphia on the eve of the 2020 Presidential Election. The event was streamed live on twitter which allowed the general public to watch as well as the people waiting in line to get into the event. Photo by Emma J. Caughlan

PHILADELPHIA, PA 11/02/2020 KAMALA HARRIS EVENT: Kamala Harris addresses the American public for the last time before Election Day. Avoiding speaking of her opponents and the current occupants of the White House, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, Harris instead speaks of her running-mate, Joe Biden, and his “exceptional character”. Photo by Emma J. Caughlan

PHILADELPHIA, PA 11/02/2020 KAMALA HARRIS EVENT: Kamala Harris addresses the American public for the last time before Election Day. Harris focused mainly on her running-mate, Joe Biden, his plan to bring the country together and to fight the COVID-19 Pandemic. Photo by Emma J. Caughlan

GERMANTOWN, PHILADELPHIA, PA 11/22/2020 ATTIC BREWING CO. : The survival of Attic Brewing Company has been reliant on the business’s ability to can their beer. The sudden shut down did not give Attic much time to create a canning system, but they established a simple yet effective way of canning and distributing their beer. Story summary: Attic Brewing Company opened its doors to the Philadelphia area in late January, 2020. Less than two months later, all Philly restaurants were shut down, as they were all over the world, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite being so new to scene, Attic Brewing has continued to thrive these last eight months. They adapted well to the sudden change and used their connection with the local Germantown Community to keep their business afloat as well as their own.

GERMANTOWN, PHILADELPHIA, PA 11/22/2020 ATTIC BREWING CO. : Attic Brewing Company currently has a single machine that assists with the labelling of their beer cans. Attic’s graphics are a big part of their business, their most popular being their signature “HE’S WAITING FOR YOU” cat graphic, inspired by the owners’ cat, Vader. Story summary: Attic Brewing Company opened its doors to the Philadelphia area in late January 2020. Less than two months later, all Philly restaurants were shut down, as they were all over the world, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite being so new to scene, Attic Brewing has continued to thrive these last eight months. They adapted well to the sudden change and used their connection with the local Germantown Community to keep their business afloat as well as their own.

Reflection

Photojournalism or JOUR 288 has been quite a journey for me these last few months. It took place during a very odd time for both myself and the rest of the world. There were countless events and constant unrest throughout the whole semester; and of course, the looming cloud over everything: the COVID-19 pandemic. Even with all of this, I do feel that I have somewhat improved my technique and my approach since September. Photography has been a hobby of mine for many years, but this was the first class I ever took specifically for photography. I enjoyed the course, very much, despite having to take it remotely. There were some setbacks and difficulties I had to endure due to the distance between me and Montclair State University’s campus, but I also got to do things I never would have done if I had not been home for the entire semester. I learned a lot and tried many different things which will ultimately help me to continue improving my photography skills.

Photojournalism is a critical subject at this time; it is a major component of modern news and media. The saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” is absolutely true; photographs are crucial to any story. This has been intensified by social media and modern technology, making it so that everyone has a tiny camera in their pocket, giving anyone the opportunity to be a photographer. This puts a certain pressure on professional photojournalists, We can no longer just take simple pictures that just give context to a written story; we must capture moments and incidents that are compelling as well as newsworthy. Our pictures must stand out in a crowd of amateurs.

I have acted as a photojournalist in the past for my multimedia class but I had never covered anything too intense until this course. I learned that I had to be tough and confident in my decisions. It’s not about being an observer but rather an active documentarian. You have to be in the middle of the action without becoming a part of it. I practiced this when attending the Kamala Harris event in Philadelphia. I had to pretend that I was supposed to be there. It definitely worked for my benefit and gave me some really nice photographs.

There were times, like the Kamala Harris Event, where I would feel that thrill of being successful and taking a shot that I knew was going to be great before I even pressed the shutter. At the same time, I found some of these situations to be very stressful and draining. There were times where I felt that getting close would be too intrusive on someone’s moment or sometimes I simply wasn’t feeling mentally up to putting myself in the action. This was the hardest part for me, getting past my own mental blocks. The sports photography assignment was an example of this, it took a lot of searching and planning to find a sports event near me that was allowing people in, and by the time I did find something, I already felt tired of the assignment. This lack of interest showed in my pictures from the hockey game. This is something that has improved as the semester progressed but I still need to continue to build up and preserve my motivation.

Last night my parents and I were looking through the NYTimes article “2020: The Year In Pictures”. Although this wasn’t something that was discussed in class, this was a great way to reflect on the many events of this year and to review some of the analyzation skills I learned in class. Several of these pictures were very personal pictures of people in very personal moments, which is what made them some of the best pictures of the year. The article was a reminder of the importance of putting myself in the midst of action, even when the action is unpleasant This was something that was discussed in class. The closest I ever got to an unpleasant situation like that was photographing the Trans Pride March in October. There was a lot of emotion and anger that could have turned violent or dangerous. (Hyperlink) Despite this I really enjoyed documenting the event and I’m glad I was able to witness their stories as well as document them.

New York Times “2020: The Year In Pictures”

Storytelling has always been a part of my life and it’s something that I really enjoy doing. It’s only been within the last year and a half that I’ve used my camera as a means to tell a story. I’ve been exploring storytelling through a lens since then, but after COVID-19 hit and everything shut down I began exploring more creative endeavors with my camera. I started a series of portraits based on each color of the rainbow. I have not been able to finish the blue or purple portraits but the red-green sets are finished. I got better and better the more I did it and I am finding that I really enjoy it.

I recently did a set of self-portraits inspired by one of Taylor Swift’s newest songs, it is definitely some of my best work so far. (Examples of these are below) I’ve only been able to practice within the limited space of my house, backyard, and the parking lot across the street on one occasion, but I plan to continue working on and learning more about this type of photography.

This type of photography is very different from photojournalism but I don’t think I would have felt comfortable doing more creative work without the basic camera skills that I utilized in my photojournalism class. Another career option that I am interested in is broadcast journalism. I have not had many opportunities to work on this in my first few semesters at Montclair, but a crucial part of being a TV personality is creating well-developed and professional social media accounts. If I choose to pursue this career I have the skills to take decent and newsworthy photos to share on my social media.

I would definitely say that this semester has been successful for me despite the isolation and limits. I think my understanding of my camera and what my preferences are in regards to it have grown considerably. I’m looking forward to exploring my skills and creativity in photography.

Portraits

DREXEL HILL, PA 08/22/2020 GREEN PORTRAITS: Maddy Scott posing in the ivy bush in my backyard. Green has always meant nature to me. What I really wanted, was to take the Green Portraits in an actual forest, but that didn’t happen, However, he giant ivy bush in my backyard worked just fine in the end. I knew I wanted Maddy to be the subject from the beginning. She shares the same love and appreciation for nature that I have, she also has the perfect eyes for it.

DREXEL HILL, PA 09/21/2020 YELLOW PORTRAITS: Julia Scott posing against my garage with some balloons that I found floating around my neighborhood. Yellow is one of my favorite colors and it’s a color I often use to express confidence, This is what I wanted to capture in this series. Oddly enough, Julia was my most unsure subject, but she pulled it off perfectly. This was also somewhat inspired by Beyoncé’s Lemonade album, one of my all time favorite records.

DREXEL HILL, PA 08/22/2020 MIRRORBALL SELF-PORTRAITS: This series was inspired by these old stick-on nails I found in my drawer as well as the song “mirrorball” by Taylor Swift, a track on her new album “folklore”. I struggled a lot with actually figuring out what I wanted the look to be and how I was going implement it, but I was very satisfied with how it turned out.