JMI - Amman
Students of the 11th cohort at the Jordan Media Institute completed a training workshop in cooperation with the Norwegian Institute of Journalism on narrative photography. Throughout three days of the training program, which is being implemented for the seventh time in a row, they applied practical skills to create a “live framework” that transmits feelings and reduces excess details.
The students took story narrating photos in the downtown area, Iraq al-Amir, as well as other areas of Amman. Their work was supervised by the instructor and Norwegian photography expert, Tom Egil, along with the former Institute director, Frode Rekve. Participants were provided with instructions regarding the characteristics of an attractive image, snapshots for media productions, photography ethics, as well as the development of photo-story angles.
In turn, Egil stressed the importance of thinking about the image before taking it and the interaction between the photographer and their surroundings. He also highlighted the necessity of activating the imagination to capture photographs with vitality and value. He added that developing the students’ skills comes from “thinking before taking photos and practicing taking interesting shots to document scenes in different environments using the techniques explained in the lectures.”
Rekve explained that these workshops provide a unique and distinct experience, since they utilize learning through practical application rather than traditional theoretical explanation, providing students with the opportunity to interact with their surroundings as if they were in the field at the moment of the event. The students expressed on their part that the training encompassed the different circumstances a journalist may encounter, so that the journalist can cover different events in professional and innovative ways while adding value to the news piece. They noted that visuals and images are currently spreading faster than text-based news, especially with the prevalence of visual content on social media.