Category Archives: Reflections

Week 11 Reflection – Video

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Finally getting off the train after a big day. Sigh.

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How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I used my iPhone 8 rear camera to film this video. For this video however I decided to try the Instagram “boomerang” option, having never used this before I realised I had to install a separate app to allow me to capture the video and then upload it to Instagram. I’ve recently this is the same with doing a collage through Instagram, as it forces you to download a separate app to then upload to Instagram. I found this interesting because it kind’ve goes away from keeping everything on the one Instagram app like is done with the editing functions. Anyway, once downloaded I found the boomerang easy enough to film and then upload to Instagram. Getting the timing of the actual boomerang was a little tricky because the length of the video is shorter than I thought it would be, and as I wanted to film me opening the door to get off the train I didn’t have any practice shots. I was reasonably happy with how it turned out though. I had enough lighting and thus didn’t need the flash on, and after taking the video I decided editing wasn’t necessary and uploaded it as it was.

2. How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I practiced a couple of boomerangs with myself on random things when sitting on the train to get an idea of how long the boomerang would be and to have an idea of timing, but I had no practice runs with actually capturing the door. At first I wished I got more of the door opening wider but now I’m happy with the look of my finger appearing and pressing the button. After uploading I added a caption; rather than just saying something random in the caption I thought I should probably provide a little context and say what I was doing. I added hashtags in the comment section, like I did with the photo this week. I wanted the video to play automatically because, like a gif, I find a boomerang only interesting because of the movement – so I thought it would be more effective if it started playing as soon as it was scrolled upon. I didn’t add a location to this image because I didn’t really think it was necessary, however on reflection maybe it would have been a good way to try and generate some more traffic.

3. How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

I distributed this video on Instagram and onto Tumblr and Twitter through Instagram. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, sharing something from Instagram onto another app is not necessarily the most effective way to produce content. I feel like every platform has it’s own aesthetic and optimal method of use, and even if you wanted to publish the same video/photo on different mediums you would use different techniques for each one. Like I talked about in the photo reflection for this week, you could not do what I’ve done hear and comment hashtags if you wanted them to work on other platforms, because the comments do not translate to Tumblr and Twitter. Tumblr is also much more full of gifs than boomerangs, which are very much an ‘Instagram thing’ at the moment are a part of the Instagram aesthetic. I find this especially to be the case in Instagram stories (a boomerangs favourite and most natural habitat). I’ve also decided that I don’t love videos for the look of the overall grid, and if videos are to be effective they must have a cover photo that matches the rest of the accounts grid aesthetic. If I were to keep this exercise going, I would start to look for more square double doors like the ones in this weeks reflection (here) and last weeks (here). I feel like if I followed this kind of formula I could develop a nice aesthetic. As such if I were to do boomerangs, I would look for square sliding doors and do them opening and closing rather than a closeup of my hand pressing the door button like I did this week.
As far as publishing through Instagram on Twitter goes, it serves essentially as a teaser for your Instagram account rather than a direct sharing of the publication, and as such I don’t rate it that highly. I was recently introduced to an app called Buffer which allows you to link all your social media accounts and post the same thing to them simultaneously, or to post similar things but edited according to the apps without jumping between them all. I rate this highly as a better, more effective way of cross platform sharing rather than doing so through Instagram. I also find it interesting that if you share your Instagram’s like I have been doing through the app, the goal is still to bring the viewer to the Instagram app. You’re directly linked to the Instagram account on Tumblr and on Twitter you can’t even see the image/video without going into Instagram.

 

Week 11 Reflection – Photo

Posted on by under Instagram, Reflections

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The Cellar d00r

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How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I took this photo using my new iPhone 8 using the rear camera. Despite it being dark outside I didn’t want to use the flash as I generally don’t like the way it can wash out or overexpose the subject, particularly because the see-through door gave enough light by itself. I found this subject suited the square dimension of Instagram better than my previous subjects. The door itself is square, and I quite liked the look of the timber walls as it kind of fit into that more simple, bare Instagram aesthetic talked about in last week’s reading (Manovich, 2016). After taking the shot I added the “Clarendon” filter, but reduced it to about “40” so that it wouldn’t have the over-edited look. While going through this process I was reminded about how quickly and easily you can go through the whole authoring process, while still producing a decent looking photo. I took the photo in the app, once I was happy with it clicked next and then added a filter, reduced it, added a caption, my location and published it to Twitter and Tumblr by just swiping right on both and it was ready to go – all in less than a minute. This is obviously done deliberately to keep you on the Instagram app rather than using other editing software apps like VSCO. While the other apps may help to create a better looking shot, the constraints are more prevalent as you have to first save the photo to your phone and then upload to Instagram, and it definitely makes the authoring process longer and a bit more complex (still easy, but not as easy as doing it all on Instagram).

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to
Instagram?

The publication process for this photo was straightforward. I didn’t take many photos because I knew what I was trying to capture. My one concern was whether to try and capture the whole front part of the store (including the sign on the wall) etc and to not cut off any of the objects in the photo. However that could have thrown off the dimensions of the shot so I decided I wanted a shot that focused on the door and the light inside, and the cut off objects on the sides wouldn’t really matter as they were secondary to the focus of the shot. My caption was stupid pun, to be honest when I walked past the bar I wasn’t thinking about the name of it but after I took the shot and added the location I knew I had to use it. I added the location as well because I think that is one other significant way of creating traffic on your profile alongside hashtags. Particularly popular restaurants and bars will have Instagram accounts and will like photos they’re tagged in, and while it did not happen on this occasion I like this strategy. This week (for both the video and the photo) as an experiment I didn’t add any hashtags to the actual caption, but after publishing I added a comment with as many hashtags as I could think of. I really liked this result because if the comment is long enough, all you can see when scrolling is “view 1 comment” and not the ugly messiness of heaps of hashtags that can make the post look a bit tacky in my opinion. Also, I am able to add heaps of hashtags and hopefully create more traffic rather than just three hashtags like I did last week.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to
other social media services?

I published this photo on both Tumblr and Twitter which was again made super easy after I linked the accounts in the first week. What made this week different was how I added a hashtag comment to my Instagram account so to not clutter the actual caption and to be able to hopefully generate more traffic on the publication. However for obvious reasons this does not translate well when publishing onto Twitter and Tumblr as you can’t edit twitter posts to add hashtags and because Tumblr is just sharing a picture of the Instagram post I can’t add hashtags to that either. So While this is easily my favourite hashtag strategy for Instagram it doesn’t translate well with the other apps. My strategy of using hashtags and generating traffic over different platforms would then be determined by the importance of each platform to me. For example if my main target audience was on Instagram I would stick with this strategy, however if my main audience was on all of the platforms I may go back to my strategy from last week.

 

Week 10 Reflection – Photo

Posted on by under Instagram, Reflections

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New phone feels #doors #adoorable #reflection

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How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I took this photo on my new iPhone 8 with the rear camera. I tried stay at a distance that I could frame the photo so it was squared nicely around the square doors. I did not need and therefore use a flash for the photo as there was already more than enough light. After taking the shot I added the “Clarendon” filter and dialled it down a bit so it wasn’t too blue, but I didn’t dial it down that much. Other than that I did no editing however. In comparison to other editing software websites the editing process is easy and only takes a few clicks, whereas using other editing apps requires a bit more back-and-forth-ing. I have also noticed over the years that Instagram has increased the editing options in their authoring process, so there isn’t heaps that one can’t do on Instagram that one can on other apps. Well not too many mainstream photo authoring options anyway.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I took a few shots before I decided on this photo, as I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be in the reflection or if I wanted the doors to be open or closed. Once I decided to be out of the photo (as much as possible anyway) I settled on this photo pretty quickly. I then added a caption, a location, and 3 hashtags to stay with my formula.

My photo interestingly got 5 likes in just half an hour (I suspect it was the #reflection hashtag that brought the traffic). It’s interesting because my video this week in comparison got very little attention. I think the photo, as opposed to the video, may have a little more of that “Instagrammism” (Manovich, 2016) aesthetic about it, with the photo having a certain filter and sparseness that I think represents that look a little bit more than the video does. I’m not sure whether this photo got more traffic through the quality of the photo or through the different hashtags. The location is the same and so are two of the hashtags, so perhaps it was the “reflections” hashtag. I suspect it was a bit of both, but I think a definite reason is the quality of the photo and the better Instagram aesthetic it has in comparison to the video.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

I added this video to Tumblr and to Twitter with very easily. One thing I did notice on Tumblr was that the video doesn’t play automatically like it does on Instagram. You have to physically press play. I think this means that if you really wanting to make it work on Tumblr you would need an affective caption that sums up the video and the cover image of the video must draw people in. While scrolling I don’t think people will want to click play on a random video with a vague caption that doesn’t look interesting, even if it does contain something interesting within the video. I also dislike how Twitter does not show any kind of preview, and as such the descriptions must be interesting to gain any kind of traffic through that platform because you cannot speak to the audience through images like you can on both Instagram and Tumblr.

Week 10 Reflection – Video

Posted on by under Instagram, Reflections

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Slowing down #doors #adoorable #revolvingdoors

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How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
My iPhone SE died last week (RIP) so I bought a new phone (iPhone 8) and these were my first Instagram uploads using it. While the phone screen is bigger I found the dimension constraints annoying to frame the video in particular. I couldn’t figure out a nice way to frame it, and uploaded the video as a reminder to myself of how not to frame videos like that on Instagram. I used the front camera without a flash, and I also decided to mute the video to remove unnecessary, distracting background noise.  After I was happy (enough) with the video I chose a filter “Inkwell”, which makes the photo black and white. Unlike last week when I reduced the filter, I just went with the preset Inkwell filter as it was because I wanted it to look black and white the way it was shown; I thought this could not only make the video a bit more interesting but it could also mix up the colours and aesthetic of my profile feed/grid.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
It took a few goes to get a video I was happy with as I decided I wanted one without any people going in or coming out of the revolving doors. While the ability to record a video on Instagram with different parts (it allows you to press record then stop, then press record again so that you can keep the video going) I found this frustrating to re-shoot a video I wasn’t happy. It was only a couple of extra clicks to get out of the video I was filming but it felt fiddly and was a bit annoying to go through. If I were recording videos for my personal account I would still probably do this on the camera app rather than in Instagram unless I wanted to use that specific function. After getting what I wanted, I added a caption, a location and three hashtags like last week. I’m still deciding whether I like the look of this or whether it’s still too crowded.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
Like last week I distributed this video on my Instagram and to the linked Tumblr and Twitter accounts. Toggling between the accounts is very easy as I just have to go to my profile screen and click on my name, and Instagram remembers the linked accounts so all I have to do is select “Tumblr” and “Twitter” and it was ready to go. I maintained the three hashtags for this video.

 

Manovich, L 2016, Instagram and the Contemporary Image, University of San Diego,  US, <http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/instagram-and-contemporary-image>

Week 9 Reflection – Video

Posted on by under Instagram, Reflections

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I recorded this video on my iPhone SE with the rear camera. My phone camera has this weird spot on it at the moment so that affected how I was going to frame the shot, but also trying to frame a door from so close was really hard. However I was more going for the noise/action of the video rather than the aesthetic of it. I didn’t use any flash, but added the “reyes” filter to it and dialled it down a bit. I only did one shot and didn’t segment the video as I wanted it to be one continuous flow to show how annoying the sound of the door is, however on reflection it could have been cool if I just added together lots of little videos of the moments it was squeaking. I kept the audio on this video because it was the main point of the video, however after this I feel like similar videos like this aren’t especially suited to Instagram because it’s such an image based platform. Everything is competing for your eyes so basing your post on sound would not be an effective method unless it had nice imagery attached. It just won’t have the same reach. Also in terms of quality of the video – it must have been my dying phone making all those annoying noises in the wind and it really took away from the effectiveness and listenability of the video. I tried several times but couldn’t seem to solve this problem.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

It took me a few goes before I actually could time the video to capture the annoying noise of the door, so there was definitely more than one take getting this right and the curation process was simple – get a video that has the sound right. I didn’t feel the need to add the location but because it was just my suburb (even though I added it for the photo, I’m just experimenting), but I did add a singular hashtag. This is more the kind of hashtag you would find on a personal account though, as it’s a joke rather than a hashtag that generates any amount of traffic. I configured the video to play immediately so the viewer would understand what the post was about rather than forcing them to click on the play button on a boring looking video.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

I’d set up the linked Tumblr and Twitter accounts for the photo this week, so as well as on Instagram I easily published the video onto those platforms as well. To be honest I like the look of no location on Twitter better, as it doesn’t seem to make the Tweet so cluttered and unreadable. However it may be less effective in the way that locations can serve as a way of generating curiosity and making viewers want to see the Instagram photo/video. As such I’m undecided on what’s best here. Sharing the video on Tumblr is more effective but in comparison to other published tumblr videos and pictures I still don’t love the look of “see more on Instagram” and the doubling up of hashtags in the caption and down the bottom, as well as the URL being shared in the caption.

 

Week 9 Reflection – Photo

Posted on by under Instagram, Reflections

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My front door. #door #doors #adoorable #frontdoor

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How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
For this photo I used my iPhone SE. Typically iPhones don’t take great photos without a lot of light, and I found this to be the case here. While my phone is relatively outdated I can still often take some decent photos with it, particularly if I use the rear camera as I did here. However I feel like the the quality of it is impacted by the low level of light. This, combined with the square/size restriction of the Instagram app meant that I struggled to find a position to take a photo I was really happy with, and thus reduced the overall quality of the photo in my eyes. In terms of editing, all I used was the “Gingham” filter but I reduced it so the shot didn’t seem overly edited, pixelate more and further reduce the quality. There was no flash used in this shot. Generally I use my camera app to take the photos before I import them into Instagram. I do this mostly because I feel like it gives me more flexibility with the size and framing of the shot. I’ll take a few and decide which one is best for Instagram. With this shot however, I took the photo in the Instagram app with the sole purpose of uploading it to Instagram, and while the shot sizing suits the app more I didn’t like that restricted feeling as much.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
The publication process for this was a relatively simple one. I didn’t take many photos in the last week, nor did I take many when I decided on my subject. Generally, however, my curation process is based on primarily the quality, lighting and size of the pictures. I added a location of my suburb before upload to maybe get some local following, and I also added 4 hashtags. The number was determined by the number of door-related hashtags I could actually think of, however now I think I’ll stick to three hashtags as the optimal number. Maybe I’ll go with doors, adoorable and one other that something to do with the specific door I’m documenting. My text caption is merely to give the photo some context.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
When I made the Instagram account I linked a Tumblr and Twitter account so that they would be ready to go as soon as I wanted to post. Once I did this it made it super easy to just select both apps when editing/publishing my photo onto Instagram so that then they automatically were published to Tumblr and Twitter as well. In relation to hashtags this transition seems to work well Twitter because, like Instagram, it uses hashtags as a way of categorising and archiving posts. However on Tumblr it’s not quite as neat. While Tumblr does use the hashtag function in a way, it doesn’t remove the useless hashtags in the caption. Instead it just doubles up the hashtags down the bottom, making it look a bit more cluttered in my opinion. I also don’t love the look of the  “(at Ringwood North, Victoria, Australia)” for Tumblr and the “@ Ringwood North, Victoria, Australia” on Twitter when I’ve added a location to my Instagram post. I think this again makes the post a little cluttered and I’d rather that the viewer finds out the location after clicking onto the Instagram post. While I didn’t distribute this photo to Facebook, I have found in the past that this is probably the most seamless cross-platform publication method.

Online Videography – Rachel Ryle

Posted on by under Online Videography, Reflections

This week we’ve taken a look at online videography, particularly in relation to Instagram. The subject I have chosen is Rachel Ryle. While she isn’t a traditional videographer in the sense that her videos are primarily animations and illustrations, it is an example of how artists and influencers are using the Instagram video function to gain audience leverage and sell their brand. Today she has 1.1 million Instagram followers, and while she uses other platforms Ryle says that Instagram is still her “main focus”.

The video I’m discussing is below.

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I love when I gain inspiration from talented people that I've met on @Instagram. Even better, I love when I find ways to collaborate with them & get the opportunity to point my spotlight their way! I've been a fan of @chrisburkard's account for years, and I created this piece out of my adoration & respect for his work. His adventurous spirit and ability to capture the places he goes is inspiring & captivating. Last year he released a stunning documentary about an Icelandic surf trip that recently got picked up by Netflix! The moment I watched it I was inspired to make this animation. Within this piece I did my best to retell his story through the world of my art. It took me nearly a month to conceptualize & complete, with a lot of attention to detail & tricky parts to figure out along the way. The whole time I thought about his dedication to his craft, and how it's always worth pushing yourself to new limits in the effort to make something new for others to enjoy. My hope with creating this piece is that it will encourage you to follow his awesome account and that you'll go watch his film, "Under An Arctic Sky" (available on Netflix & iTunes)! I promise you'll be inspired…& if you are, give it a good rating! A huge thank you to the team at @ChrisBurkardStudio for providing me with the footage & to @juliancisneros for the film's original music! Here's to supporting other creators & their creativity! #stopmotion #animation #illustration #art #instavideo #instavid #surfing #travel #iceland #UnderAnArcticSky #chrisburkard

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Who is the practitioner (what is their name and their Instagram handlebar?) and when were they practicing?
Rachel Ryle (@rachelryle) is an award-winning animator and illustrator. While she has illustrated for a long time, it was only in 2013 that she started animating. Her first attempt (which she posted to YouTube) that was made in 2013 is miles away from the quality she produces now.

With the photo you are examining when was it produced ?
The video was published in May of 2018, however she says the video took nearly a month to conceptualise and produce. She says that on average a 30 second clip will take 4 to 5 days of conceptualising, illustrating, filming and editing before completion.

How was the video authored and published?

While I’m not completely sure of the process or the camera she uses, Rachel illustrates and cuts all the objects in her videos and then animates them together in a sequence, kind of like stop-motion. I love the way she makes her videos a loop, so that the last frame of the video is the same as the starting frame, making it really aesthetically pleasing.

The video was published on her Instagram @rachelryle page.

How was the video distributed?
The video was distributed on both YouTube and Facebook, as well as the Instagram page. Interestingly, despite Ryle’s already large following, she still sees the need to add 11 hashtags to this particular video to create further circulation and wider distribution of the video.

Online Photography – Konsta Punkka

Posted on by under Online Photography, Reflections

The photo being examined can be found here.

Who is the practitioner (what is their Instagram handle?) and when were they practicing?
Konsta Punkka (@kpunkka), a 23 year old Finnish wildlife and landscape photographer. Konsta bought his first DLSR at 17 years old and began photographing his friends skateboarding and local bands. It was only after awhile that he began to really take an interest in wildlife photography, particularly focused on the local wildlife in Finland.

He talks a little about himself and his passion for wildlife photography here.

With the photo you are examining when was it produced?
It was produced on July 28, 2018 during “the aftermath of the blood moon”. He was in Northern Norway at the time almost missed it, but managed to take this shot before the moon went down for the day.

How was the photo authored and published?
This photo would have been taken on a DLSR of some sort (he often uses Nikon and sometimes Olympus cameras), however there isn’t a way of being sure of what the exact camera was or what editing software was used. Interestingly, I found a YouTube video that gives a Lightroom tutorial on how to make your photos look like Punkka’s here. Whether Punkka actually uses Lightroom I’m not sure, but I found it an interesting point that someone felt that he had a distinct enough editing tone to make a tutorial on how to replicate it.
This photo was published only on his Instagram page @kpunkka.

How was the photo distributed?
This photo was only distributed through the Instagram page, however this isn’t the case for a lot of his photos. As outlined on his website, Punkka often collaborates with or does work for various companies such as National Geographic, Greenpeace, ICOS, Sony, Huawei Smartphones, OnePlus, Nikon, SanDisk, Volvo, Adobe, Olympus, Icelandair, 66North, Yleisradio, Visit Switzerland, and Visit Canary Islands. Certain photos will also be published by media publications that contact him and thus will be distributed that way as well, so his Instagram is a mixture of commissioned photos that will be published and distributed elsewhere and photos just for his Instagram.
An example of him doing commissioned work can be found here, as he went to Namibia with a group of other photographers sponsored by Olympus.
This may change however when, as he mentions in the interview linked above, he publishes a book of his work and will therefore diversify the distribution of some of his photos.

Legacy Video – TV Garden by Nam June Paik

Posted on by under Legacy Video, Reflections

After looking at legacy video this week, I was inspired to look into one of Nam June Paiks signature art installations – TV Garden, which now lives in the Guggenheim Museum, New York.

On the link below there is a picture of the installation that Guggenheim have put up, however there are many more photos to be found on Google.

Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practicing?
Nam June Paik. He rose to prominence in the early 1960s, but remained so until the 90s as he produced a great number of works. He’s widely considered to be the father of TV art, or at the very least a highly influential pioneer of it.

With the photo or video you are examining when was it produced (date)?
It was originally produced in 1974, before being moved or recreated many times around the world.

How was the photo or video authored and published?
TV Garden is an arrangement of live plants with video monitors of all different sizes scattered throughout. Every TV is playing Paik’s Global Groove (1973) on repeat. Global Groove features montages of performers dancing to musically funky and visually eye-catching mix. The installation allows viewers to immerse themselves in the piece by walking around and alongside the plants and TV screens. The original was featured at Documenta 6, an art exhibition in Kassel, Germany.

How was the photo or video distributed?
While the instalment was originally published to the public at an art exhibition in Germany, it has been shown and recreated at many different museums and galleries around the world since. Each of these times Paik’s estate would have received royalties from those showcasing the piece and would have required in the past either himself (he is now deceased so he is no longer able to) or a representative to ensure the recreation was in line with his original vision. For example, Tate Modern Museum in London is already advertising their exhibition in October 2019 that will feature TV Garden (see here). Interestingly, the photo shown on the advertising page is of TV garden when it was featured in a museum in Dusseldorf, Germany in 2002. TV Garden sure has bounced around.

I like the installation because of its ambiguity, and whether it’s commenting on how nature and technology are now forming some sort of symbiosis, or whether technology is as chaotic and structureless as ‘the jungle’ or nature can be.

See you next week!

Legacy Photography – Starving Child and Vulture by Kevin Carter

Posted on by under Legacy Photography, Reflections

 

The image being referred to can be found on this link:
http://100photos.time.com/photos/kevin-carter-starving-child-vulture

 

Kevin Carter took “Starving Child and Vulture” in 1993 when he was in famine-ravaged Sudan. He started working as a photographer in 1983 and worked until he took his life in 1994.

While I’m not sure what camera was used to produce the photo other than that it would have been an analog camera, it was published less than a month later by The New York Times. It’s unclear whether he had the photos developed before sending them to the US or whether he just sent film rolls. Regardless, the fact that it was published so quickly by the New York Times after being taken in remote Sudan shows how keen the Times were to get it out. In terms of framing Carter apparently took a few photos of the child and the vulture, this one ended up framing both subjects in a way that tells a haunting narrative of the vulture waiting for the child to die.

Being the New York Times in 1993 meant that the picture was published in print. One main difference between such a photo being published in 1993 compared to modern times is that there was relatively low information surrounding the photo when it was published, as the photographer had sold it to a publication in another country. Furthermore the fact that Carter could not explain or defend the action of taking the photos and not directly helping the child meant that he received severe public backlash after the photo was taken. After the event Carter did explain that he chased the bird away and waited for sometime hoping that the child would make it to the food centre, and that he was instructed not to touch any of the children because he could contract infectious diseases. Nowadays, people can publish photos anywhere and on their own terms, explaining and justifying the reasons and background behind them when publishing, rather than having to explain after the event.

The fact that the New York Times, one of, if not the world’s biggest print news publications published the photo means that it gained worldwide notoriety, much more so than if it was published by a newspaper in his native South Africa per say. While Carter did receive plenty of backlash, he also received significant support – particularly in the form of winning a Pulitzer Prize for the picture.

The Times is an extremely highly regarded news source that markets itself on reliability and demonstrating journalistic pride and integrity. As such Carters’ photo fits the Times’ general style and was taken by its readers very seriously. However it could be worth noting that Carter, who was from South Africa, may have had more knowledge about the political and social context in Sudan as he was geographically closer to the country than The New York Times’ main audience in the US. They may have potentially had less knowledge about the condition of life in Sudan and the complexities of disease and famine, as well as the difficult circumstance Carter found himself in. This may help to explain some of the backlash he received from many New York Times readers. It’s an example of what Zylinska (2016) talks about how photography used to be: “photojournalists dispatched to the world’s remote corners that few of us could regularly access” and “advertisers trying to sell us chunks of that world”. How things have changed.

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