The photo essay is being revived, thanks to online venues to post essays, create e-books and digitally printed books. Many professional photojournalists, due to a dramatically changed marketplace, have moved away from assignment photography to photo essays.
Essays are not picture stories or collections of travel images. They can result in a book, but often a book is not the end goal. In essence a photo essay is a brief but serious consideration of a single subject.
Whether you’re an amateur or professional, successful essays require that the photographer combine passion for his subject with significant intellectual and visual statements.
Bob uses examples and anecdotes to give you insights into the art of weaving pictures together to communicate a powerful message to the viewer. In this class, Bob will present and discuss:
• Classic photo essays
• Techniques used by essayists
• Pitfalls
• Modern photo essays and where to find them
He’ll also discuss the deep satisfaction that can come from moving away from a “one-shot” image mentality toward the world of essays and will encourage his class to take these steps.
Biography
As a staff photographer for National Geographic magazine for over 15 years, Bob Madden produced the photographs for more than twenty stories (he wrote some, too), and for several National Geographic books. Travels across all seven continents exposed him to an extraordinary diversity of cultures and customs, from the plains of the Serengeti, to photographing ethnic minorities in Shangri la, China and to the Chesapeake Bay, the area he calls home.
Bob has also been immersed in photography from another perspective: he served as Senior Assistant Editor and Director of Design at the National Geographic magazine and picture editor for National Geographic Kids magazine and National Geographic Books. He designs trade books such as Madagascar A World Out of Time, by Allison Joly and Frans Lanting (Aperture) and Sam Abell A Photographic Life (Rizzoli).
His long list of awards and credits include: Magazine Photographer of the Year (twice); College Photographer of the Year; and design awards from the Society of Publication Designers, The New York Art Directors Club, and Communication Arts.
A Midwesterner, Bob graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville with a Bachelor of Science (English, history). He studied photojournalism in graduate school at the University of Missouri. His home is on Kent Island, Maryland.