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Billie Mandelbaum

Photo Essay: "The People You Meet at McDonald's" - 24 views

started by Billie Mandelbaum on 21 May 13
  • Billie Mandelbaum
    #1 Billie Mandelbaum on 21 May 13
     
    Could a lifestyles piece/profile captured the same feeling/mood that these photographs did? When are photo essays most effective?

    http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/05/05/magazine/look-mcdonalds.html?ref=magazine
  • Sonja Hutson
    #2 Sonja Hutson on 21 May 13
     
    I think that we could definitely do a piece like this, perhaps comparing a chain restaurant all around Marin. Photo essays are most effective when they tell a story and speak to something larger than their content. Including the stories about each of the customers contributed even more to the overall idea that all types of people eat at McDonald's.
  • Anna Vandergriff
    #3 Anna Vandergriff on 23 May 13
     
    I think that photo essays would interest a lot of Tam students because they are "easy" to look at and can be understood quickly without having to read something. It would also be great to put them up on the website. I think it would be interesting to do photo essays on the different "groups" at Tam, like the AIM students, the photo students, the Drama students. You could capture their process of creating their final product and even the teachers and students involved.
  • Morgana Sidhom
    #5 Morgana Sidhom on 27 May 13
     
    It would be cool if we did something like this on one of the restaurants in Mill Valley that tend to attract people from all walks of life, such as the Depot. It would be a great way to profile the eccentrics that tend to be a little elusive.
  • Riley Kuffner
    #6 Riley Kuffner on 28 May 13
     
    I think that photo essays are an excellent medium that we should explore. It is unique. engaging, and interactive, which is exactly what our audience needs. Although they can be used very effectively, there are also moments when photo essays don't portray a significant message. if we were to experiment with such a medium, we should focus on human interaction, which is best captured by photos, rather than event description commonly found in the news.
  • Daniel Carroll
    #7 Daniel Carroll on 30 May 13
     
    I believe that photo essays capture an audience's attention like no article can. If the Tam News did a photo essay featuring students, I think people would connect easily and definitely pay some good attention to the material. This gets me thinking about photo essays that we could do,something like People you Meet if you Eat Lunch on Campus.
  • Holly Parkin
    #9 Holly Parkin on 30 May 13
     
    I loved the casual yet weirdly poignant mood of all of these photos. Photo essays are a very interesting way to represent journalism, but I'm curious as to whether we would do this online or in the magazine. I doubt we would have enough pages to put the whole thing in print, but it seems that fewer people look online, so we wouldn't want the effort to go to waste. Going with what people have been saying about doing this kind of thing in Marin, perhaps with a local chain restaurant, I think it would be funny if we picked a stereotypical healthy-organic-etc. Mill Valley store/restaurant, like Whole Foods. It's kind of the opposite of McDonald's, but I think it could wield equally interesting results.
  • Jackie O'Boyle
    #10 Jackie O'Boyle on 30 May 13
     
    I think this was a really cool article. The photos were very interesting and made me laugh. I think that something like this could be really cool for the Tam News I really enjoyed browsing through the pictures and looking at all the different kind of people that go to McDonalds. The pictures even made me think more about each person and why they were there. I really really enjoyed this.
  • Emma Sandrolini
    #11 Emma Sandrolini on 30 May 13
     
    I think it's interesting that this photo essay provoked a lot of thought and definitely provoked a strong mood. What I like about photo essays is that it presents what's out there (say at Tam maybe) and lets you figure it out for your self. Most articles have a definite point/thesis but I like how photo essays make you step back and think about what is presented to you. I definitely agree with others who've said that the Tam News needs to include more photo essays either in print or online because I think it's an effective method of communication and journalism.
  • Chris Yip
    #12 Chris Yip on 30 May 13
     
    I agree with Daniel, I really like the use of photo because it will catch the reader's attention like nothing else, especially if it's of familiar faces. I like the use of the caption in this essay, but I wish there were more of them. If a TNewsie were to do this, I think a handful of photos with a paragraph or two of caption would make a really cool, original piece.
  • Aaron Newman
    #13 Aaron Newman on 30 May 13
     
    We should strive to do more photos; they're definitely "worth a thousand words" if taken well, and as Chris said, they draw readership. In print, we currently have pretty text-heavy formats; it might be cool to up the visual aspects of the web, especially by including more than one photo with a story.
  • jasmine caputo
    #14 jasmine caputo on 31 May 13
     
    I really liked this idea, and found it very captivating, however it would have been interesting to be able to read a little bit about these people along with the pictures. It would be interesting to make the point that the people you randomly see on a day to day basis actually have incredible stories that you would never otherwise assume.

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