Choosing a subject

Learning goal

You will be able to choose a subject that will carry you for weeks for your capstone project, which will bring together what you learned in the program in a single original piece of work. You will turn a subject, that is, a general area, into a question, that is, something you truly wonder about in that area. You will draw up a curiosity list and eliminate candidates by the strength of the curiosity, by how easily and how often you can reach the subject, that is, access to subject, and by feasibility in terms of time, budget and permissions. You will ask whose story you will be telling, think about the difference between telling a community you are part of with an insider perspective and telling it as someone coming from outside, and, if you will work with people of different skin tones and different lives, plan what kind of relationship you will build with them. You will see that there is no single right subject, and that a good subject is born from a question whose answer you truly want to learn.

The question

The older member hands your friend a notebook: "You have four to eight weeks for your capstone project. What will you shoot?" Your friend immediately lists a few things: the neighborhood, the bakery, morning light, flowers. They say they love all of them and have shot all of them before.

The older member nods but asks one more question: "About which of these is there something you still don't know, something you'd get up at five in the morning to learn?" Your friend can't answer. They have subjects they love, but no question. Which story do you want to tell? And how does a subject carry a project lasting weeks?

Context

In the project planning lesson you learned to start a project with a project question that says what you are trying to understand, and a scope that draws the limits of place, time and subject (Lesson 23.4). In the personal style lesson you gathered the choices that repeat in your own work into a map (Lesson 26.7). In the conceptual photography lesson, too, you reduced a thought to a single concept statement (Lesson 26.8).

The capstone, or final project, is an original piece of work lasting weeks that brings together all the program's skills, that is, light, exposure, composition, working with people, selection, sequencing, editing and presentation, in a single body of work. This module's five lessons follow the project step by step: choosing a subject, planning, shooting and selection, presentation and evaluation. This first lesson takes up the foundation the rest of the project will rest on, that is, the subject.

Simple explanation

What is the difference between a subject and a question?

A subject is a general area to be photographed: the neighborhood, the bakery, morning light. A question, on the other hand, is something truly wondered about in that area: "By whose hands does the city open every morning?" or "Who works at which hours of a day in a bakery?" A subject takes you somewhere; a question tells you what to look at there. Your friend's list was made of subjects they love, but none of them was a question.

A good question is one whose answer you don't know yet. Shooting a subject whose answer you know can mean only showing again what you know; curiosity, on the other hand, pushes the photographer to see something new in every shoot. That is why, when choosing the capstone project's subject, the real measure isn't how well you can shoot a subject, but how much you wonder about it. This isn't a rule; some photographers return to a subject they know very well with a new question and find something new there. A question can also change as the project moves forward: the first shoots can take the photographer in a direction they didn't think of at the start. A question is like a compass; it shows the way, but it is reread along the way and corrected if needed.

How are candidates eliminated?

A curiosity list is a long list on which a photographer writes, without judging and without limiting, the people, places, events and questions they want to learn more about. The first step is writing at least twenty items; the first that come to mind are usually the most familiar, while the really interesting ones appear in the middle or at the end of the list.

Then the list is narrowed with three measures. The strength of curiosity asks: will this question get you out into the field for four to eight weeks, on tired days too? Access to subject is how easily, how often and how closely the photographer can reach their subject, that is, people, places or events. Being able to enter a bakery every morning gives a much richer project than going once to an event in a faraway city. Feasibility is the project being achievable within the set period in terms of time, budget, transport, weather, permissions and safety. Giving each candidate a score for these three criteria makes the choice clearer. If you can't decide between the last two or three candidates, doing a small scouting shoot for each on a morning or an afternoon helps; a few hours spent in the field often speak more clearly than the scores on paper and show which question really draws you.

Originality is also a question, but it comes up not as a separate criterion, but as a point of view. Other photographers may have shot the same bakery too; but your way of looking at morning light, hands and people, your question and the relationship you build with those people make the project yours.

Whose story are you telling?

An insider perspective is a photographer telling a community, place or life they live in, are part of or have been inside for a long time, with the familiarity and responsibility of a member of that community. An insider perspective makes it easier to earn people's trust, to see everyday details and to avoid stereotypes.

Telling a community as someone coming from outside is also possible and can be valuable; but it calls for more time, listening and relationship. When telling the story of people of different skin tones, different cultures or different living conditions, someone who comes and goes a few times can easily fall into stereotypes: showing them only through poverty, suffering or "difference." The way to prevent this is to spend time with people, ask them what they want told, show them the photos and, if needed, bring their voice and their words into the project.

Visual evidence

Your friend writes a twenty-two-item curiosity list in the notebook. At the top of the list are the subjects they love; toward the middle other questions appear: who wakes up before the morning call to prayer, to whom does the bakery's first bread go, where does the florist get the flowers, who opens the neighborhood's shutters.

They give each question a score for curiosity, access and feasibility. The question "By whose hands does the city open every morning?" comes out high in all three: this question truly makes them curious, they already know the baker, the florist and the tea stall, and in the mornings they can reach all of them on foot. A harvest festival in a faraway village, on the other hand, comes out high in curiosity and low in access.

They explain their chosen question to the bakery's dark-skinned master, the light-skinned apprentice and the master at the tea stall, and ask them what they would like photographed in their mornings. The master suggests the dark hour when the dough is first kneaded; the apprentice suggests the moment the first customer arrives. Your friend writes these suggestions in the notebook.

Common mistakes

Summary

The capstone project brings together all the program's skills in a single original piece of work lasting weeks, and starts not from a subject but from a question truly wondered about in that subject. A long curiosity list is drawn up and candidates are narrowed with the measures of strength of curiosity, access to subject and feasibility; originality is born from the photographer's way of looking and relationship. It is asked whose story is being told; an insider perspective makes trust and detail easier, while someone coming from outside spends time, asks and brings people's voice into the project so as not to reduce people of different skin tones and lives to stereotypes.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will choose the subject and question for your capstone project.

1. Write, without judging, a curiosity list of at least twenty items: people, places, events and questions.
2. Turn each item into a question; mark the questions whose answer you already know.
3. Give each remaining question a score on a five-point scale for curiosity, access and feasibility; set aside the three questions that score highest and describe in a paragraph why each draws you.
4. If your chosen question includes the story of a community or other people, write how you will meet them, what you will ask them and how you will bring their voice into the project. Write your final question in the notebook in a single sentence.

Check yourself

• Were you able to turn your subject into a question whose answer you don't know yet?
• Is your chosen question one you can reach and carry out for four to eight weeks?
• Did you think about whose story you will tell and what kind of relationship you will build with those people?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What is the difference between "Neighborhood" and "By whose hands does the city open every morning?"

• A) There is no difference
• B) "Neighborhood" is a subject, the longer one is a question wondered about in that subject
• C) The second is shorter
• D) "Neighborhood" is a type of photography

2. What does access to subject measure?

• A) How famous the subject is
• B) How expensive the subject is
• C) How easily, often and closely the photographer can reach their subject
• D) Whether the subject has been shot by other photographers

3. Why can a one-time festival in a faraway village be a hard candidate for a capstone project?

• A) Because even if curiosity is high, its access and feasibility are low
• B) Because festivals can't be photographed
• C) Because there is no light in villages
• D) Because one-time events are always boring

4. How are stereotypes avoided when telling a community as someone coming from outside?

• A) By shooting as fast as possible and leaving
• B) By shooting from a distance without talking to people
• C) By choosing only moments of suffering
• D) By spending time, asking people and bringing their voice into the project

Answers

1. B — A subject is an area, a question is a real curiosity that says what to look at in that area.
2. C — Frequent and close access enriches a project lasting weeks.
3. A — A capstone project requires repeated shoots; a one-time and faraway event isn't suited to this.
4. D — Relationship and listening allow telling people without reducing them to stereotypes.

Summary card

• Start not from a subject, but from a question.
• Write a twenty-item curiosity list.
• Score curiosity, access and feasibility.
• Originality is born from your way of looking and your relationship.
• Ask whose story it is; bring in people's voice.

Bridge to the next lesson

The question is written in the notebook: "By whose hands does the city open every morning?" But when your friend goes out into the field the next morning, they don't know what to do. The bakery, the florist, the tea stall? On which day, at what hour, in what light? When will they get the permissions, how many shoots will fit into four weeks? The older member smiles as if asking a question: for a question to turn into photographs, a plan first has to be put on paper. How do you get from a plan to a photograph? The next lesson takes up the shot list, the location, the light, the permissions and the schedule.