Photo Essay

Photographic Essay with the aim to produce a magazine article

Digital Media Brief:

After I studied the definition of photo essay, and choose my subject “fuel less cookers” I thought how best to a create a photo essay.

Research

 I spent time researching the situation in Uganda

Between 2000 and 2010 Ugandans had cut down 1, 763,000 hectares totalling 37.1% of their total forests web site: http://rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation/



Picture of deforestation in Uganda

  Fuel less cookers

Charity involved in supporting this initiative

PETO - Education Fund for Aids Orphans - is a child-focused initiative that was founded in 2003 by Justine Ojambo, Robert Wanyama and Richard Bwire, three brothers who were AIDS orphans themselves. After the death of their parents, these three youths were mentored and assisted by Dutch Mill Hill Missionary Rev. Fr. Wynand Huys, who financed their education up to the university level.

Having benefited personally from expanded educational opportunities, the founders of PEFO were troubled by the difficulty that many orphans and vulnerable children in their community faced in accessing formal education, as well as their bleak living conditions. The founders believe that the most viable way to liberate the vulnerable children of Africa is to invest directly in their formal education, which will widen their horizons and opportunities in life.

Fire – the importance of fire in human civilisation, rights of passage, magic of fire

 Irish Traveller way of life

THINK BOARD – Variation on the mood board theme, but more appropriate for placing your ideas on to help you to think about what it is you want to say WHAT’S THE MESSAGE , Clarifying and generating ideas, especially if you are like me and have lots of ideas but selecting the ones or the one you want to pursue seems impossible!

Think board

During my research, I discovered that fuel less cookers have been used for centuries and are still being used in some parts of the Western world as well as the Global South . I found recipes, instructions, and whole web sites devoted to them. So, because I could not photograph the women in Africa making one or get my family to dress up and be on camera! my best solution was to make one myself. I used this for two projects

1)      Video essay – speedup film of making a fuel less cooker, “tongue in cheek” film to high light the simplicity of making a cooker using today’s materials.

2)      Comic strip photo essay about the idea, concept andproduct. The idea was to create a comic strip of me making the fuel less cooker and to place the images on to the box I had made the cooker with. This box then acts as a functioning product and photo essay in one, it  can also be used as a teaching tool. The comic strip is the magazine article.