Commitment

I've been absent for soo long that its kinda hard for me to commit having a blog(I dont know how other people do it, I salute them!) since I ran out of ideas most of the times but here I am now! And here's more pictures that I took recently(I have them up on my instagram too, I'm mostly active there so go check out my instagram's feed ;p ). 

Abah(Dad), reviewing some of the arts at Kugha Kugha Kelate(Kelantan in Sketches) exhibitions which showcased arts made by my former high school art teacher, Adzran Omar.

Lutung, I photographed this during my documentary production at Bukit Malawati, Kuala Selangor.

Altinsburg lighthouse situated on top of the Bukit Malawati.

The inside interior of Altingsburg lighthouse.

Inside of Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra hall at Petronas Twin Towers.

Until next post, goodbye.

Thoughts

Hello beautiful soul!

I've been absent here because I have no assignment to post on this blog, yes this blog was made for one of my subjects I took for my fourth semester that is Photojournalism. Now I'm on my semester break, I still want to keep this blog alive but at the same time I'm thinking of creating a new blog but I don't want to change the URL (its my favourite thing ever!), but this blog is mainly about Photojournalism.. (there's a lot of buts there :/) So I might turn this blog into my personal ones if I'm not lazy to update about everything, once in a while. We'll see.. :)

Until then, goodbye.

Photo Story in Photojournalism

Photo story or also known as photo essay, is a compilation of photos taken by photojournalist. All of the photos taken are connected, its like an essay, but in visual form, since they cannot summarise the story they want to tell in just one photos. Making a photo story is not easy, because you have to make sure that each photos are carefully selected, in order to follow the narrative you want to tell with passion, care and most importantly, delivering the emotion.

Here is one example of photo story by Dima Garvysh, titled New York City Coffeehouses. Dima had worked as a documentary photographer for the past 13 years with major publications and news agencies such as Associated Press, Bloomberg News, and Agence France-Presse. He has also worked on multiple projects around the globe, including collaborations with Doctors Without Borders and the United Nations Population Fund and numerous recent embeds with the US Army in Afghanistan. Dima's work has appeared in a variety of international publications, including New York Times, Stern, Paris Match and Time. ( Source: cargocollective.com/gavrysh/Bio )

He had won numerous awards for his work, mostly the US Army in Afghanistan. Besides exploring the war through video installation, photography and data visualization, he is currently, working to publish his first book.

Awards:

• Tokyo International Photography Festival (Winner): 2014
• Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation - Space Program (Winner): 2013
• Magenta Flash Forward - (Winner): 2013
• PDN's 30: 2011
• Critical Mass - Top 50: 2011
• Magenta Foundation (Honorable mention): 2010
• PDN Photo Annual (Photojournalism winner): 2010
• AI+AP (American Photography + American Illustration): published in 2008–2010 yearbooks
• International Photography Awards – Lucie: honorable mention: 2008–2009
• PX3 - winner (portraiture): 2010
• PX3 - winner (travel) 1st, 2nd and 3rd place: 2008–2009
• XVIII Eddie Adams Workshop: 2005

Exhibitions:

Solo:

• Blue Sky gallery (Portland, OR) “Inshallah": 2015
• Davis Orton gallery (Hudson, NY) "Afghanistan", two person show with Andrea Camuto: 2014
• Circuit gallery (Toronto, Canada) “Embedded", two person show with Donald Weber: 2014
• Pictura gallery (Bloomington, IN) “Inshallah": 2013

Group:

• 4th Photoquai biennial at the Quai Branly Museum (Paris, France): 2013
• Annenberg Space for Photography (Los Angeles, CA) Slideshow Night "WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY": 2013
• Gelman gallery at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art (Providence, RI) “New Contemporaries 2012”: 2012
• Sol Koffler gallery (Providence, RI) "Flux Capacity": 2012
• Gelman gallery at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art (Providence, RI) “From This Point Forward”: 2012
• Cohen gallery at Brown University (Providence, RI) "Alternate Terrains: Photography Exhibition": 2012
• RING CUBE gallery (Tokyo, Japan) "PDN's 30": 2011
• RayKo Photo Center (San Francisco, CA) "Across the Divide": 2011
• Pelavin gallery (New York, NY) "A Field Guide To Getting Lost": 2011

Lectures:

• Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (New York, NY): 2011
• CUNY Graduate School of Journalism (New York, NY): 2011

Articles & Reviews:

• Quill Magazine "We Own the Future of the News": 2012
• Photo District News: "Our Choice of 30 Photographers to Watch": 2011
• The New York Times LENS Blog "In Afghanistan, a Personal Perspective": 2010
• Slideluck Potshow "Interview with Dima Gavrysh": 2009
• Popular Photography: "Holi Festival by Dima Gavrysh": 2009

Another normal day as the hustle and bustle in a coffee shop continues in Bluebird Coffee Shop, as the sound of the coffee machine grinding the coffee bean, cups clinging the saucer, people talking and laughing.
Photographed by Dima Garvysh.

This work of art by Dima are different than his previous work, especially the American war in Afghanistan, which he used black and white photos, because he wanted to depict a dark fairytale full of fears and dreams. The coffee house series used a warm tone, I think he wanted to portray everyday life through his lens. Just like Bazuki Muhammad said before, "the best lens is our eyes". Each pictures are connected to one another, he also made us feel connected to it! Its like we were passing by some coffee shop but the smell of the fragrance coffee made us stop to catch a glimpse of what is happening there, its the view that is common in our daily life.

The reason why I chose it because of my undying love for coffee, hence the name of this blog's Uniform Resource Locators (URL), drinking coffee with some sinful chocolate muffin, while reading books, is my favourite pastime hobby. Other than that, I can relate to the photos by imagining that I am actually at the coffee house! I can feel the warm welcome of those aromatic smell of coffee and freshly baked pastries. I have a quite experience myself when I was in Busan, South Korea, during my exchange student period, I had the chance to actually experience all sorts of coffee shops there. Me and my friends would refer to it as "Cafe Hunting" as we would hunt every coffee shops they have in Busan. Its like one coffee shop a day, but too bad I did not took a lot of pictures though!

Well, enough of me rambling, lets get to the best part, that is the photos of Dima Garvysh:

I can picture myself as the girl in the photo above, sitting on the stool, figuring what the man outside trying to say, or whether just daydreaming, one of those happy days.

   

Maybe the waiter is trying to transfer the cups by carrying them all at one time. Save time, save your energy.

Those time when I went "Cafe Hunting", I usually went there with my friends but at times, I went alone. Yes, I am that brave, walking down the street alone is like an adventure itself, I used to get lost when I cannot find the "Cafe Street" they have in Seomyeon, Busan, and a lot of walking around there, being lost, was not that scary actually. 

Here is some of my photos of the coffee shop in Busan, that I managed to captured during the "Cafe Hunting" session I had, most of the time I went alone, so there are no pictures of me or my friends. My photos do not have emotions as there are not a lot of customer or people since I went during weekdays or office hours. I let you be the judge, from your observation, are these photos of mine qualify to be a compilation of a photo story?

Smores Cafe at Cafe Street in Seomyeon, Busan.

Various choices of cakes at Smores Cafe.

This little quaint coffee shop is situated at Gamcheon Culture Village, one of the many Busan tourists attractions.

Another coffee shop at the Cafe Street, named Road 209.

This is actually a photo booth at the Cube Cafe, which is an entertainment company whose produced Kpop artist. This coffee shop was the only one that I managed to go when I was in Seoul.

One of the best coffee shop in town, as they served good coffee and delicious dessert with great hospitality.

Hot chocolate latte to feed the hungry soul!

One of my favourite coffee shop in Busan, the Charlie Brown's Cafe! I am not an avid fan of Snoopy, but I did enjoy watching the cartoon when I was a child.

Charlie Brown's Cafe is full of colours and illustrations!

Most of the coffee shop here provides photo booth for their customer.

The entrance to Charlie Brown's Cafe.

Obviously I fail in an attempt to make my own version of photo story above, since most of it just showcase the environment of the place only, so its more to me promoting the coffee shop! Well, Dima's photos above are a bit tempting for me to visit those coffee houses in America making me to add another country to my list of countries to visit for their coffee.

Nowadays, there are a lot of people who document their life event for personal experience through Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. But now there are websites build specially for non-photojournalist to showcase their work or they just want to be heard or share their experiences through photo story like Pictory and Cowbird. As of now, Pictory do not accept submissions of photos anymore, but you can still view other peoples version of photo story.

Cowbird main website. Source: Retrieved from http://cowbird.com/

Pictory main website. Source: Retrieved from http://www.pictorymag.com/

Photojournalism: Types of Features and Portrait Photos

There are two types of photos in photojournalism, one of it is Features photos, this one is mainly used by photojournalist since features photos are evergreen, timeless, and will never go out of style, and this types do not have to be something new like news picture, it can be an old one. So, photojournalist can create new idea because they have more freedom in doing what they love and they can connect with the audience through the photos they took since the photos can be about our daily life which can be a significant moment to some of us. It can be about sports, entertainment, arts, global issues and many more, as long as it touch peoples heart. Simply put, a feature photos can be categorized as a feature when we see a photos that can bring happiness, laugh, or just a warm and fuzzy feeling. Here are some example of the photos with captions:

HRH Prince Harry, was seen smiling on his early arrival at Sydney, Australia, for the soldier's training  that will took place for four weeks. Source: Sinar Harian Online, 8 April 2015, Retrieved from http://www.sinarharian.com.my/global/putera-harry-tiba-awal-untuk-latihan-ketenteraan-1.376707

Families are enjoying some quality time together at Sungai Kroh waterfall, which became quite a tourist attraction at FRIM. Source: Kosmo Online, Retrieved from http://www.kosmo.com.my/kosmo/content.asp?y=2015&dt=0416&pub=Kosmo&sec=Horizon&pg=ho_01.htm

Hidayah (picture above), showing off her design of the Cipela Shoes, a signature design using Batik with Songket Kelantan and Songket Terengganu. Source: Kosmo Online, Retrieved from http://www.kosmo.com.my/kosmo/content.asp?y=2015&dt=0407&pub=Kosmo&sec=Stailo&pg=st_02.htm

Thailand's Prime Minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, was seen praying and he stated that he is ready for the upcoming election. Source: Sinar Harian Online, 8 April 2015, Retrieve from http://www.sinarharian.com.my/global/pilihan-raya-thailand-tahun-depan-1.377474

Media students were shooting a news coverage as one of their assignment, standing on the far right, Nadzirah, was the director, said that it was such a great experience for the whole team.

Mostly parents will send their children to swimming lessons as early as the kids reach 12 months old.

Besides Features photos, Portrait photos are also one of the photojournalist favourite style of taking pictures. Portrait can be different than Features photos, even though the message photojournalist want to convey remain the same, through this style, the pictures show a lot more emotions than Features since the subject focus on the face or head until shoulders only making people easy to examine the subject expressions whether they are happy, excited, or tired, but most importantly Portrait deliver emotion that most photos do not. Here are some example of Portrait photos complete with captions:

Theo Walcott, 26, playing under Arsenal, have attracted another club that are willing to pay him more than he earn now. Source: Utusan Online, Retrieved from http://www.utusan.com.my/sukan/bola-sepak/walcott-putuskan-nasib-minggu-depan-1.81264

The officer, Hafidz Rahmat (picture above), are excited with the amazing view that the guest can enjoy at Zoo Hilltop, Zoo Negara. Source: Utusan Online, Retrieved from http://www.utusan.com.my/berita/nasional/zoo-hilltop-sasar-8232-tarik-lebih-100-000-pengunjung-setahun-1.77747

Saina Nehwal, became the first badminton player from India to be on the top ranking, beating athletes from China. Source: Sinar Harian Online, 8 April 2015, Retrieved from http://www.sinarharian.com.my/sukan/india-rai-kejayaan-saina-duduki-ranking-no-1-dunia-1.374015

One of the Media student, looking tired after the 3rd Screening Night of 2014 finished.

One of the writer's friend from Mexico, Fabiani, enjoying the last day of autumn around the campus of Dongseo University, Busan.

Bazuki Muhammad's Exhibition, Photojournalist.

Internationally known, Bazuki Ahmad, is an award-winning photojournalist who has covered many assignments from notable media, namely for Reuters, Maryville Times, Knoxville Journal, Daily Reveille, and News Strait Times for 30 years. He had won the Publish Asia's Best in Sports Photography for two consecutive years in 2002 and 2003. An exhibition for Bazuki Ahmad's works, entitled "Art of Seeing", was been held at the main lobby of Balai Berita, Bangsar, until 27th of March 2015.

The latest exhibition of Bazuki Ahmad was too small and "short" but the photos he put up still managed to captured a vast of humanistic value despite being mainstream. I think that most of his pictures are common because he stay true to his roots, his subject are normal people we had seen in our daily life. Even though his photos can be too simple for some people, I found his style of taking pictures a bit different than the other photojournalist out there. He portrayed sympathy in humanity instead of showcasing hatred. Lets take an example of some of his work, like the photos of Prime Minister of Malaysia, be it Tun Dr. Mahathir or Dato' Sri Najib Tun Abdul Razak, he portrayed that they are loved by many despite in real life, many of us condemning them. Bazuki himself wanted us to respect these very important people of Malaysia by portraying them in a positive way. 

The only thing that I would complaint was that his photos did not come with captions as I was left wondering what, why and where of the event happened, since the main aspects of the five W's of journalism was not stated in every of his photos making this exhibition less than a photojournalism one. In terms shot, there are three main types of shot that he used from close-up shot, midrange shot, to an establishing shot, which applied to most of his photos like below: