When everything goes wrong, blame the Nain

For my final project I decided to do my photo story on the March of Le Nain Rouge. In my story I wanted to show what the march is and how it is important to the City of Detroit. Overall this final project was not easy. I did experience some bumps along the way but thats expected when learning how to do a photo story. The key to pull off this project is time management because without it you could be left with a lot of work to do with only a little amount of time.

The story of a Russian, how he came to Michigan

Pawel Iwanow,  age 94

What is the first think you think about when someone says portrait photography? What I think about are wedding photos, city skylines, and school photo days back when I was in high school.

I decided to do my assignment on a WWII veteran I used to work with. He fought on the Russian side under Stalin reign in the 1940s.

When I got to his house the smell of cinnamon consumed my nose. I have never been to his house before and while looking around all I could see were Old Russian newspaper and mixed with medicine throughout the kitchen.

Before I begin telling you my experience about this assignment I want to tell you about the person in the photos.

Pawel,or Paul Iwanow, is not your typical grandparent. He came from a wealthy family of professors and doctors, but when Stalin came in control he took their wealth away. Despite having graduated from Moscow University with a degree in engineering and fluent in six languages, he couldn’t find a job because of Communist control.  In 1941, at the age of 20, Iwanow joined the Red Army. During the time he was at war he was hit twice in the leg, saw a lot of his country men die, and heard news from his mother that his father had been taking to the Gulag, which was a forced prison and labor camp. Finally in 1950 he got his chance to leave the Soviet Union by sneaking over to the American side in Germany. He used forged papers to get to the United States. He applied for citizenship in 1955 and got it. He is retired, from the Detroit Golf Club.

 Iwanow next to the tree he planted in remembrance of his wife.Oksana Iwanow died in 2009

Overall, this assignment for me was somewhat difficult.  When we were talking on the phone he said that he had a picture of him in the war but when I got there he didn’t have one. He was  hard of hearing so I had to speak very loud when talking to him. Other then that I knew how to set my camera controls and to get tight on his shoulders. I liked this assignment very much

The First Amendment and why you should love it

For aspiring journalism students, there is one Amendment they should know, The First Amendment.  

The First Amendment is in the United States Constitution, and one of the 10 Bill of Rights.

It reads: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

            Now for myself, I came to the understanding that it is a lot more then just putting simple captions to nice photos.

Journalists need to know when they have crossed the line when dealing with other people.

We need to understand when we are invading someone else’s privacy.

Another thing I learned is that journalists have to tell the truth. They cannot print anything that is a lie. Doing so would be unethical and should be cause for the loss of their job or worst, their credibility.