Samples

In researching the photo essay, I found my favorite examples of the craft. Here are links to the photo essays that were most helpful to me in the immersion and understanding process:

• Hungry Planet:  Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio went around the world to capture families with their pantries laid out on the counters and tables of their homes. They researched what the items cost, broke down the weekly food budget for each of the families, and documented the project in a book called Hungry Planet. Their work was exhibited at The Nobel Peace Center.
• Sit and Stay: Iconic images of Hollywood stars and their dogs: Capturing celebrities with their dogs paints them as common even with the spotlight clearly on them. The photos aren’t particularly special, but each illustrates the bond between pooch and owner. Pet lovers would enjoy this photo essay, but so would historians, those interested in old cinema, Hollywood gossips, nostalgic old timers, and even those with an appreciation for fine, simple, black-and-white photography.
• A Photo Essay on the Great Depression: Photo essays can be a compilation of separately taken pictures depicting the same event, as in this example documenting the Great Depression. Many of the photos were snapped by Dorothea Lange, Jack Delano, and Russell Lee, but the project is a mixture of pictures from many photographers in various places with numerous types of people and historically significant signs, all to depict the direness of the times. The captions are noteworthy. I liked the quip at the end of the first caption: “Cynical New York hotel clerks asked incoming guests, ‘You want a room for sleeping or jumping?’”
• Humans of New York: This one is interesting because it is ongoing, a project that developed from a jobless young adult deciding to move to the Big Apple in 2010 to conduct a “photographic census” of 10,000 New Yorkers. What resulted is a blog with two million followers, a New York Times bestselling book, and an intriguing story about a hub describing the human experience through images, quotations, and narratives.
• The Uprising:  This photo essay uses photos and sound captured by Time Magazine photographer Dominic Nahr to make a compelling and urgent account of the chaos on the streets of Cairo, Egypt. The screams, sirens, gunshots, and battle cries add a chill to the presentation that music and pictures would lack.