Wednesday, March 21, 2007

After thoughts on The Montgomery Bus Boycott: A Story in Pictures

After my brief foray into the world of photo essays I came to one cliché, yet all too true conclusions. It's a lot harder than it looks. I didn't initially think that the grown up version of a photo book would be all that difficult to put together, until I attempted to sit down and do it myself. I think I had the most difficulty choosing a topic that I'd be able to find at least 5 pictures for that I could connect and be able to tell a little history about each and how it plays into the topic. I tried to stray away from topics that I already had strong backgrounds in but it came to a point that denying my previous knowledge and acting as a complete newbie to some topics only lead to frustrations when trying to set up a lay-out for the essay.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was far from my first topic, but after many failed attempts to being too creative for my own good I settled on a topic I knew I'd be able to meet all the requirements. Even then this was far from an easy process. Finding the right pictures and verify who’s in them and when they were taken was a bit of a tedious process but I respect the necessity of it.

On the positive side when all is said and done I believe I’ve put together a brief yet informative summary of a major turning point in American society in a non-typical manner that is easy for all ages and education levels to follow. An online photo essay is one of the fewer types of internet publications that are able to cross the gap in terms of audience receptivity. For someone with no background in the subject this photo essay serves as an informative jumping off point, and for someone who already has knowledge in the subject they are able to view 5 relevant pictures in one place saving them the trip of having to scour the vast internet to pull each photograph individually.

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