Genre Analysis & Research

            The general conventions of a photo essay include a series of pictures that are related either through a narrative or theme. Other than that, the genre is fairly flexible. Words can be included if they add something to the series, and the length of the photo essay can vary based on the author’s preferences.

            One successful model of the genre I am choosing to pursue is the Humans of New York blog, which takes pictures of people on the streets of New York City and asks them specific questions or to tell a meaningful story about their life. Their words are then placed to accompany a picture of either their face or, if they choose not to have their face in it, another detail of them that stands out or makes them unique. Humans of New York is unique in that it lets people tell their own stories and records them exactly how they are told. Also, each subject of the blog has a very engaging story to tell, which I believe everyone does, but they are asked questions in a certain way where that story can come out.

            Another model of a similar format is The Dogist blog, which is a collection of pictures of dogs from all over the world, often categorized into groups of photos under one title connected by a theme. Like HONY, there is usually a quote attached to the image, although not always. The dog’s name, age and hometown are included with the image.

            To deepen my ability to engage with this genre, I looked into the best way to approach strangers in asking to photograph them and have them be a part of my project. In an interview, Brandon Stanton, the creator of Humans of New York, explains that the only way to get better at making these approaches is to do them over and over again. People do not respond well to strangers asking to take a picture of them if the person approaching them seems threatening or nervous.

            In terms of my subject matter, gratitude was something that was not widely talked about or publicized until fairly recently when there was a surge of interest in positive psychology. Now there are a lot of recent articles that have some out in the past few years such as “50 Ways to Show Gratitude for the People in Your Life” and “13 Most Popular Gratitude Exercises & Activities.” Easy ways to buy into the trendy idea of gratitude are very much mainstream, but there is not much of a discussion about what it is in specific that people are grateful for. My experiment would work to expand on this conversation of gratitude and make it more meaningful than just a lifestyle trend.
            There are also a number of scientific studies that have been conducted demonstrating a correlation between gratitude and happiness. A 2003 study by Watkins, Woodward, Stone & Kolts demonstrated a positive relationship between gratitude as measured by the Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test (GRAT) and subjective well-being. There are multiple other studies focusing on this relationship with similar results. With this research in mind, maybe this experiment will improve the happiness both of those who participate in the interview process and those who read the responses. By showing real people talking about real things in their life that they are grateful for, hopefully this would encourage people to actually thing about integrating this into their life on a long term and personal way.