If you read newspaper a lot, you may notice that there are several different editing choices when it comes to photojournalism. An photo editor has to decide either to use one giant facial close-up picture or 5~7 photos shot from different angles with different sizes.

There are some common rules for photo editors when they have to choose which photo to use, which not to.

1. Lager images draw viewers’ attention and show more details, which can increase the number of readers.
2. Running different sizes can add contrast and change the pace of the story.
3. Pictures in pairs: Don’t use 2 or more pics when one can sum all up. But when pics complement each other, 2 or more pics will say more about the story.

Here are 2 major different types of photo editing for newspapers or magazines. One is photo story, one is photo essay.

Photo story is defined as visual narrative with beginning, middle, ending. Images are interrelated with each other.

Photo essay explores a situation and expresses a point of view. Each photo makes its point, and together they make a larger more significant statement.

Today, we will talk about one of my favorite photo stories (a multimedia project)–A Mother’s Journey.

A Mother’s Journey is a documentary photograph work started by Renee Byer in 2015. It recorded the final days of a tumor patient Derek Madsen and how his mother Cyndie French spent the rest of his days with Derek.

This project has won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. The Photography Channel helped to make a multimedia piece, including Renee and the mother’s interview.

Cyndie is a single mother of 5 children, and she quitted her job after Derek was diagnosed a cancerous tumor in his abdomen in 2015 when he was 10. Cyndie tried everything she could to comfort her son.

The interview of Renee’s is basically her telling stories behind these images, their conversations and their feeling at that time, which strikes a chord with the viewers and amplifies sadness of whoever is watching this.

This is a well established example of multimedia, including interview audios to enhance the impact of still images. It would be better to include interviews of Derek, if he wanted to share his thoughts. From the story telling perspective, I do want to know more conversations or even quarrel between Derek and Cyndie, environment sound in the hospital, etc. But we all know, that this is a heart wrenching story, and we all should show our respect to Derek and Cyndie.

Zhang Jingru (22), a Chinese transfer student at University of Missouri. She transferred to Mizzou when she was junior after an exchange experience in New York. She majors in strategy communication and will be graduating in December 2016.

I met Jingru in Tokyo, where she had her first oversea internship there. She is a huge fan of Japanese culture.

Jingru had spent 2 months in Tokyo this summer, 2016. “Before I even came to Japan, I really had no idea that I would fall so deeply in love with Japanese culture”. Growing up in China, Jingru heard a lot of negative stories about Japan because of the war. Fed with propaganda and negative news stories on a daily basis about Japan, people in China usually neglect the sophisticated part of Japanese culture and good traits of Japanese people. But when the first time Jingru visited Japan, she didn’t fall asleep for 30 hours. “There is so much to see, so much to feel. I’m so excited.”

Traditional Japanese design is always her favorite. “Tokyo is the capital city of design.” Her house is decorated by Japanese art works, from calligraphy, cloth wrapper, and post cards. “I was very attracted by how well the traditions are preserved. And they are alive, not just preserved in museum, but alive in people’s life.”

Yanshu Wang (21) is one of the Chinese students I met in the Fundamentals of Photojournalism class. All these pictures are from my Classmate Assignment, and thanks to this assignment, I met a good friend and her friends, a bunch of great people.

The first impression of Yanshu for many people, is a strong image of independence. She looks super cool if you haven’t had the chance to talk to her, but once you knew her, She is the kind of person who is enthusiastic about life, said Li hanchen (21), Yanshu’s boyfriend.