Doing My Best

I present to you my photojournalism capstone project, “Doing My Best”. It’s about Derek Underwood, an 11 year old boy that suffers from cystic fibrosis. He has frequent lung infections, he sits in a vest that shakes loose the mucus that clings to the organs in his body for over an hour every day, must take dozens of pills, has a feeding tube feed him nutrient-rich formula directly into his stomach overnight, and is smaller than his teammates and classmates. Despite all these conditions, Derek is also a leader on his little league baseball team, the Columbia Starpath.

This project is the culmination of my college eduction, and was, to say the least, daunting. It only took until 4 am the day it was due to finish it, but finish it I did! Please, enjoy.

Doing My Best from Robert Bratney on Vimeo.

Job Profile – Mike Reynolds, Principle and Superintendent Glasgow Schools

Superintendent and Principle Mike Reynolds of
Glasgow Schools in Glasgow, MO makes calls in his
office on a friday afternoon after the students were
dismissed early for a music competition going on at the
school. With all the kids gone, he said, he was able to
make some phone calls he otherwise could not have.

Superintendent and Principle Mike Reynolds of
Glasgow Schools in Glasgow, MO straightens chairs
in the commons area of the high school. The nature
of his dual positions make Reynolds wear many hats
throughout the day, and a daily routine and yet to take
hold in 22 years of educating.

Superintendent and Principle Mike Reynolds of
Glasgow Schools in Glasgow, MO asks about the status
of a student’s homework after school Friday, March
18, 2011. After sending him to a class room to study,
Reynolds sent one of his daughters to check on him
and make sure he was making progress.

Glasgow Schools in Glasgow, MO walks around
the high school locking doors after a district music
competition was held in the school. He had not wanted
the janitor staff to have to stay unusually late on a
Friday, and had sent them home assuring them he
would do their job of locking up once everyone else
had left.

Superintendent and Principle Mike Reynolds of
Glasgow Schools in Glasgow, MO walks through a
group of students during a district music comeptition
being held at the school. These were not Glasgow
students, so Reynolds did not greet them as he usually
would his own students.

Superintendent and Principle Mike Reynolds of
Glasgow Schools in Glasgow, MO watches one of
his students perform in a district music competition
Friday, March 18, 2011. Reynolds was sure to catch
the performances of each one of his Glasgow students
throughout the day, including several solo musicians,
choirs, and the marching band.

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/21384276″>Job Profile – Mike Reynolds, Principle and Superintendent Glasgow Schools</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user5958116″>Robert Bratney</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>

This is not a traditional multimedia piece, as it is basically very few selects going by over an interview. I hope you enjoy.

see ya

-Rob

Single Day Selects – Glasgow Boys Basketball

Here  are the final 5 (with one bonus image) edits from my single day story on Glasgow High School’s boys basketball team.

Small town Missouri, small high school, long tradition of basketball.

Caption: The drum set of the Glasgow High School Pep Band sits in the vacant Glasgow High School gym minutes before an end-of-the-day Homecoming pep rally Friday, February 11 2011. The pep rally was to signify the boys’ and girls’ basketball games against rival New Franklin later that night. Photo by Rob Bratney.

Caption: Glasgow fans cheer for the boys’ basketball team as they pull ahead with a just slim margin in the final minutes of a game against rival New Franklin Friday, February 11, 2011. The Glasgow Yellowjackets beat New Franklin 52-41. Photo by Rob Bratney.

Caption: Cousins Mitchell and Reid Littell (number 10 and 54, respectively) of the Glasgow Yellowjackets run up onto the court at Glasgow High School Friday, February 11, 2011 to face rival New Franklin. The Yellowjackets beat the Bulldogs 52-41. Photo by Rob Bratney.

Caption: The chalkboard in the boys’ home locker room at Glasgow High School stands with play diagrams drawn by coach Mick Cropp during halftime against rival New Franklin Friday, February 11, 2010. Glasgow and New Franklin were tied 20-20 at the half, making for a tense atmosphere in the locker room during the break as Coach Cropp tried to rally his team to victory. Glasgow went on to beat New Franklin 52-41. Photo by Rob Bratney.

Caption: Coach Cropp of Glasgow High School diagrams play schemes during a time out in the second half of a gave against rival New Franklin Friday, February 11, 2011. Glasgow would go on to beat New Franklin 52-41.

And the bonus image that I liked a lot, but could not find room for as part of the story.

Glasgow High School head boys basketball coach Mick Cropp (right) tries to rally his team during halftime of a tie game against rival New Franklin Friday, February 11, 2011. Glasgow would go on to beat New Franklin 52-41.

Thanks for looking! Glasgow folks, if you’re interested in buying the rights to use these photos, or in buying a print from me, please feel free to email me at robbratney@gmail.com. Thanks again.

-Rob

Single Day Story First Edit

For my single day story, I went to lovely Glasgow, Missouri to photograph a Glasgow High School basketball game. Glasgow is a small Central Missouri town with a long tradition of competitive basketball.

Glasgow High School is a school that, in an age of school district consolidation, is becoming a rarity. I believe the school houses K-12 all under one roof, and that there are roughly 150 students between grades 7 through 12. The gym that the basketball team plays in has been used since the 1970s, surviving a fire in the early 90s which consumed the rest of the school. Banners commemorating championships at the district, state, and national level hang for not just boy’s basketball, but also from girl’s basketball, and boy’s and girl’s track.

So I have it narrowed down to 19. A far cry from the 5-7 I need for the assignment, yes, but a far cry too from the 350 or so I originally shot.

You see, I’m having trouble picking a story line. I shot the pep rally at school earlier in the day as well as the actual game, which as it turns out was their homecoming (some schools too small for a football team call homecoming what some would call court warming). I’m having a hard time finding the story I want to tell with the photos. Do I want to focus on the day as a whole, and include pictures from the pep rally and cheerleaders and crowd shots, etc.? Sort of a “day in the life of a small town basketball game” or is are “days in the life of” overdone these days? Would that make the team itself feel too distant? Or do I want to focus solely on the game the team played – their close call in a rivalry game that they were supposed to handle with little problem. They won, but it was one of the closest games they had had in years (so I’m told). Does that story neglect the interaction the team has with the community and student body? Is that interaction worth showing in a one day story? All important questions I have yet to answer.

You photogs be nice – these are untouched straight out of camera images, and I used WordPress’s image uploader because I didn’t want to copy and past 19 embed codes from flickr (although they ARE available on my flicker here).

-rob

Reading Response 2/8/11

Jay & Hurn

This reading I enjoyed a lot. They said a lot of things I wish someone had said to me when I had started taking pictures, and that I wish I had thought say to newer photographers (or most of the “art” photographers I know). In particular, I feel that their quip about photographing the homeless should be posted in bold letters at the head of every intro to photojournalism class from here on out.

“You are not contributing anything to the issue of urban poverty by wandering back streets and snatching pictures of derelicts in doorways. That’s exploitation, not exploration.”

Brilliant.

What I most took away from this reading was not how to find a subject (which was still very helpful – the making a list of interests, making cuts, following those ideas – I liked that!) but rather how to find your own style. I’ll paraphrase here, but they said something like only by ignoring the desire to take pictures like other photographers and focusing on your subject does your own style emerge.

I think that’s important to realize. I remember in my photo fundamentals class sophomore year, one of the grad students (it’s ALWAYS one of the grad students) asked “how will we find out our style?” David Rees said something suggesting putting a Hogwartsian sorting hat on each student and listening for “Bresson… Rosenthal… Frissell… Leibowitz…” etc.

What is important about that is that it tells me that even some experienced photographers still have no idea what “style” is or how it is supposed to come about for them.

Lamott

I’m liking this book the more I read it. I have a friend who fancies himself a writer, and I am going to loan him this book once we’re done reading it.

It took me a little bit to see the connection between this book on writing and our photo-journalistic intents.

Lamott suggests to writers to write about their school lunches from middle school. This is an exercise in finding out interesting things to write about. It’s almost like what Jay and Hurn were talking about in trying to find a subject in that it all comes down to you just having to start working before you can get anywhere. You need to start writing to discover a new character or idea you were unaware of, and you need to start photographing to discover where and what your story or subject is.

So that clicked today.

Finding your story can be like watching a Polaroid develop, she says. I suppose that’s true. You’ve got to start talking pictures before you can know what your story is.

But I am a broken record. It is late, and I am sleepy. Good night.

-Rob

Editing Assignment

For my capstone class, we we given about 500 images (NOTE – I did not take these pictures!). The photos were from a story on a father who is loves putting his toddler daughter in child beauty pageants. What is interesting is that it is the father – not his wife and their daughter’s mother – that is steering his daughter to these pageants. The mom doesn’t really care for the pageants.

Our task was to, in groups of two, edit the 500 images down to 5-8. Below are the images Eric and I chose in a slideshow, along with our spread sketch.

Headline: Her Father’s Little Star

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Rob

Shoot

I was with my band in the studio all yesterday, finishing our album. We added organ to a few songs and started mixing on others. In short, I haven’t read for my photo class yet. Soooo Imma do that tonight. I’ll be back in the studio again, but hopefully afterward I’ll be able to focus on it.

SHOOT.

 

peace, love, and whatnot,

-rob

Value of a Dollar, The Poverty Line

I’m sure many of us, to make a broad generalization, have said, “What can a dollar buy these days anyway?”

Photographer Jonathan Blaustein asked himself that question when, at two separate fast food restaurants in New Mexico, he noticed that a single and a double cheese burger both cost $1. He wondered why, with the extra patty of meat, the extra slice of cheese, the price could remain the same. So, set about he did to see just what could be bought for a dollar in New Mexico.

This story, by the way, came to me through my twitter feed from the good people at Good Magazine (@GOOD is Good Magazine’s twitter handle, and you should follow them), who actually tweeted this story today, which is by Stephen Chow and is very similar to Blaustein’s story, just replace New Mexico with China, and one dollar with 49 cents.

I started with Blaustein’s story, which is actually from last October, because I felt that “What can you buy with one dollar” is a little more common of a phrase than “What can you buy with 49 cents”.

Here are some of Blaustein’s photographs.

Organic Grapefuit

Grapefruit from SuperSave

Side salad from Burger King with ranch dressing

And here is the only photograph of Chow’s I can link to (his site is all flash).

Peanuts

There is no caption provided, but it looks like maybe a pound of peanuts? Be sure to check out the rest of the project here.

The backgrounds the two photographers chose is important to contrast. Blaustein apparently painted the walls of his apartment white and started photographing, changing angle and position for each photo. He wanted the food to be the stars of his photographs. Chow, on the other hand, is clearly trying to make a comment on the wide class divide in China by making the newspaper – surely a symbol of the workingman – as the background.

I like the projects because they are so simple to execute, yet they speak to a larger social commentary. As photographers we can get caught up in thinking a complex story can only be complex to tell. These photo essays prove otherwise; they can be the simplest of ideas.

peace, love, and whatnot,

-rob

Self Initiated

Very, very inspired by the master, Mark Weaver.

It’s a little darker here than I intended it to be. Anyway, this is just something I decided to whip up spur of the moment at work today.

peace, love, and whatnot,

-rob

Andre and the Giants poster

One good thing (or should I say, one of the many good things) about being in a band is that is gives me another outlet for design work.

My band, Andre and the Giants, is releasing our first cd, an EP called “That’s the Jam ep”. We’re very excited.

If you’re in Columbia, Missouri on May 8, I hope to see you there!

peace love & whatnot,

-rob