In order to produce a photo essay on strangers, we were asked to paired up with our classmates and introduced our friend to each other. I was paired up with Rachel and I had had no idea on who was I going to introduce to her as I did not have many friends here in Melbourne. Thinking for a while, I decided to introduce her my hairstylist friend who came from Taiwan and I was introduced by Rachel to her friend who love filming and painting.

When everything was going smoothly, we encountered some difficulties. My friend was too shy to be photographed where he felt uncomfortable in front of the camera and same situation to Rachel’s friend where she was unavailable for us to have a photo shoot. We were really upset but we had to find new options immediately in order to finish our project on time. Thankfully, my hairstylist friend introduced us his colleague who worked in the same salon and was willing for us to photograph. Rachel also found a new option where her friend was a ballet dancer. One day before the actual shooting day, I was informed that Rachel’s friend was feeling unwell so we had to move to another day. Fortunately, we were able to make it before the submission day.

Collaboration plays as a significant role in this Project Brief 3. We ever had a lecture on collaboration in Media 1 where Rachel told us that communication is very important in collaboration. First I have to talk about how collaboration works between my partner and I. Rachel was extremely helpful during our shooting. Initially, we met the problem of the subject felt uncomfortable being shot. Rachel spent times to help me contact most of her friends and finally had this wonderful girl who was willing to be photographed. On the actual shooting day, Rachel helped me to communicate with her friend as her friend and I both felt shy to talk to each other at first. In addition, we were shooting in a dance class where there were lots of people, Rachel and I worked as a team to find out where were the best angle for photographing.

In collaborating with the subject, I have to first introduce this adorable girl. Linda, originally from Hong Kong, at the age of 20 came to Melbourne alone to chase her dream where dancing makes her dream. She has this never fading smile on her face that makes her so beautiful. She was super cooperative during the shooting. I was not allowed to photograph the team as they were making a dance production. Linda was so caring that she always looked for me during their rehearsal and made sure that I was able to photographer her. At the same time, I had to photograph carefully and made sure that I wouldn’t bother anyone in the team. In the end of the shooting, Linda did every pose that I asked her to do and gave me a warm smile after photographing. I was so fortunate that I was able to work with these two amazing girls and I think we really did a great job in collaboration for PB3.

My subject, Linda, is now participating in a dance production by Flare Dance Ensemble where they are going to perform an Urban Lyrical dance and the photo essay was taken during their first rehearsal. It is a serious dance production so I was not allowed to photograph neither the team nor the production. There were some limitations that I encountered during the shooting. Firstly, I was not allowed to take photos from the front where I could only be on the side or at the back. Therefore, it was hard to capture some facial expression. Secondly, the light was extremely dark in the dance class where I had to set the ISO up to 6400. In order to solve the problem, I made the photos into black and white and increase the exposure in Lightroom. Other than these limitations, I think I have got some great shots for the photo essay.

In week 6, Brian taught us a way to construct a story in 4 categories and I have applied the method into my photo essay. Here are the examples:

Establishing image – context and environment. Often recorded from a high vantage point.

Action image – medium-distance capturing action and interaction of people.

Portraits – often essential to any story people are interested in people.

Close-up or detail image – need to identify significant detail within the overall scene and then enlarge it to draw the viewers’ attention to it.

Overall, it was definitely an amazing experience for me to collaborate with the people that I didn’t know. As I have a pervious experience on photographing the strangers, initially I didn’t find it too difficult on doing the project. However, the most challenging part of this project is to use the photographs to tell a story. I had a bunch of photographs but I only allowed to use 10-14 photos to make a storytelling photo essay. It was a piece of hard work, however I have had so much fun during the production and I was so happy that I was able to meet a new friend.