EPJ Photographer's Portfolio Web Site Critique

http://www.martinparr.com/index1.html

Among all the photographer web sites I looked up, Martin Parr has the most unique web site. His photographic style overlaps with the design of his web site. The background image of the web site, the frame in the middle, where everything happens, and the bg image in that frame is consistent with his picture making style. I like how he has diffused "Martin Parr Style" on everything he produces, including his web site in this case.

Including the background, this whole website is designed in flash. I am not sure how it would be affected by different computers and browsers.

I think it is efficient that all the pages appear in one single frame. This way, you don't really travel between browser windows. Links to his blog and Magnum Photos are the only ones that take us to external windows. Other than everything is linked to each other. There is no death end in terms of navigation. It is pretty easy to move around on this web site.

Going back to visual consistency, the site uses different background for each link within the frame. I feel like there could be a little more unity in the visual language by making very little changes in the visual design.

Unlike many other portfolio site, Martin Parr has a FAQ link. I found this very interesting. But I guess this is something that comes with the fame of the photographer.

Advanced Techniques: Classmate Portrait

Michelle Kanaar, 24, was photographed for an assignment of Advanced Techniques class at MU photojournalism department. Michelle defines herself as goofy. So with multiple lights, I wanted to focus on this charracteristic.


Lighting diagram for the multiple lights.





Michelle Kanaar, 24, was photographed for an assignment of Advanced Techniques class at MU photojournalism department. For single light portion of the assignment, the theme was innocence.



Lighting diagram of the picture above. I had drawn two diagrams. I ended up using the second diagram(which has a check mark on the left). While shooting this picture I shifted the reflector to the left.

EPJ Media Organization Web Site Critique

http://www.noorimages.com/index.php?id=splash

When I go to NOOR Images web site, I come across with a beautiful photograph, used as the web site background image. Considering this is a photo agency, this back ground usage is quite efficient and appealing. The very first page we see is a sort of an over all page where there are two links: "enter site" and "buy pictures". They both explain what they are going to bring when clicked on. I think this is a good aspect. I like how they place these links in two separate, black boxes. Graphically, they are certainly eye-catching. I also like the NOOR logotype design and its unusual placement on this very first page.

However, this beautiful intro page and the rest of the page has some flaws in it. First of all, when I change the size of this first NOOR images window, it reloads the image, which is good. However size change causes lost from the images. I can't see the entire image when it is shrunk down.

If I click on "enter site" or "buy pictures", there is no way I can come back to this very first page. I can switch from "buy pictures" to home page by clicking on NOOR logo. I can't do the other way around. In the home page, there is "print sales"link. I am not sure if it serves for the same purpose with "buy pictures".Other than this part, I didn't see any dead-ends. However, there is not a back button on the pages, neither.

There is no visual consistency between the first page and the home page.
They don't use the same full-photo background idea. Among photographers, only Jan Grarup has the full background. This is another inconsistency. I don't think that the home page layout with two black blocks on each side is as good as their first page. Home page layout is certainly efficient and simple, but not visually good.

Home page shows the NOOR logo on the left top. But every other link, except for the "noorzones' and "archive" links, has the logo at the bottom left corner. "noorzones" doesn't have the logo at all. For some reason, "archive" opens up in a new browser window, while every other link is anchored to the top bar, which has the links.
My over all impression of this site is that every time i visit it, I get lost in it. The crowd in the site has a significant effect on that, as well as its layout design.

EPJ Final Project Outline

Final Project Outline

Last semester, in Fundamentals of Photojournalism, I started to photograph an old lady, whom I met at a nursing home. Her name is Gean Parker. She is 89. Her husband Dr. Parker lives in a nursing home, which is close by where Gean lives. She tries to visit Dr. Parker almost everyday. She actually makes it there as log as she has some sort of transportation.

When I photographed her last semester, we met couple of times and had long conversations. She is legally blind and lives by herself. For me it was fascinating to see a 89 year-old, blind woman living by herself. When I went to see her place, I realized she has some electronics made for blind people, such as talking watch, audio reader or talking computer. All these talking gadgets are meant to ease her life. I had this idea of a multimedia project that will emphasize the relationship between technology and an old person. However I could not finish this story due to the surgery she had at the time.

So EPJ, I would like to work with Gean again on this project. I already have some pictures but I need to shoot more stills in addition to recording audio and video. In my opinion, this would be a great multimedia story in terms of its content. As a fairly new medium, multimedia itself is about technology. And using technology to show how an old person can adjust herself to this age and its technological requirements sounds like a good idea to me. I have also been thinking about a title for this project, which is Digitized Anopsia. I am planning to record the sounds of all these talking gadgets and incorporate them with images that emphasize her blindness.

My only concern is about her current reaction. I still have her contact information but after she had the surgery, we lost the contact. I will call her as soon as I can and try to meet her one more time to talk about this project. I hope that things will work out this time.