Stuart Freedman

Photo Journalism

  • Recommended

    $200

    Includes personal feedback and tuition. More

  • $75

    Learn in an online classroom with no more than 20 classmates. More

Course Description

Award-winning photographer and writer Stuart Freedman teaches you how to capture photo journalism stories and create your own portfolio of reportage photography.

What is reportage photography or photo journalism?

Reportage photography, including photojournalist and documentary traditions, is one of the most challenging and demanding of the visual professions. It includes capturing the story and the atmosphere and emotions of an event in your photo.

It requires technical ability, social skills, persistence and an instinct for a story.

You'll be creating your own photo journalistic portfolio of photos as you learn with Stuart.

Choose Expert option for personalised feedback on your photos from Stuart.

You'll learn:

  • what makes compelling images
  • composition and framing devices
  • equipment
  • techniques
  • best practice for photo journalists
  • real-life scenarios and challenges for photographers
  • story construction

Stuart will explain how to place reportage photography within an historical context whilst also examining contemporary practice and trends.

The course is clear about a documentary tradition that is allied to good journalism in print and film and is based around the construction of the classical photo essay rooted in the Humanist Documentary tradition.

The course covers equipment and technique but more importantly, the ballet of shooting reportage that concentrates on the ebb and flow of narrative, anticipation and the mechanics of actual story construction.

The course is heavy on best practice, ethics and using difficult real-life scenarios that examine the challenges facing working photographers. It tries to challenge the visual cliché of some photojournalistic work as well as some of the clichés about photographers themselves.

Stuart will show his work alongside great classics of the documentary tradition and at the end of each lesson he'll set an assignment that will push your practice forward.

You'll need:

  • a camera
  • 50mm lens

This photography course is aimed at keen amateur photographers and aspiring professionals.

The course includes:

  • 4 on-demand video lessons - presented by Stuart Freedman
  • lifetime access to the video, notes and interactive class
  • flexible classes - join and learn when and where you like
  • downloadable lesson notes
  • practical (optional) photography assignments
  • access on your mobile, PC, Mac or laptop
  • small interactive online classroom chat online to students from around the world

Time to complete this photography course:

Every student is different but in general we think the whole course will take around 11 hours 30 minutes to complete including:

  • Video lesson: 1 hour 30 minutes in total
  • Assignment: at least 2 hours per lesson
  • Interactive classroom time: 15 minutes per lesson
  • Tutor feedback review (Expert level): 15 minutes per assignment

Ready to get started?

Just add the course to your basket above - choose the 'Expert' option for personal feedback from Stuart on your photos.

Any questions? Contact us by clicking on the orange speech symbol - we'd love to hear from you.

CPD Accreditation

Course activity has been accredited by the CPD Standards Office (CPDSO). The course equates to 13 hours, 30 minutes of CPD learning.
The CPD Standards Office. CPD Provider: 50276.

Course outline

  • Lesson 1: The history of Photo Journalism

    In the opening lecture we investigate the potential for photographs to tell a story examining the history of the medium from its roots in early portraiture to the battlefields of the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries.

    We define the strands of photography and journalism – the traditions of both photojournalism and documentary work within the genre of reportage.

    We look at the tradition of both the concerned European and American traditions of social reportage combined with camera technology that became the Humanist Documentary tradition in the Golden Age of magazines.

    We look at the confusing contemporary reportage world and try to relate a reinterpretation of documentary forms within the written and filmic tradition. - We define a checklist for creating a readable and actionable photo-story.

  • Lesson 2: What makes an engaging image?

    In the second lecture we ask ‘what makes an engaging image’? We look at the world of classical art and how that has influenced our vision of the world and building a mental scrapbook of devices of composition.

    We examine the tools of the reportage photographer from the camera to tricks of the trade, concentrating on exposure, colour and format.

    We examine compositional and graphical devices concentrating on framing and visual clarity looking at colour, texture and movement.

    We look at the ballet of photographing – literally where you stand to achieve engaging and impactful work.

  • Lesson 3: The Photo essay

    In the third lecture, we discuss the core of reportage – the mechanics of photographing a story – the photo essay.

    We examine the ebb and flow of action in narrative: the role of anticipation and the Decisive Moment.

    We examine street photography, the law and ethics as they relate to working as a professional in the public sphere.

    We deconstruct classic photo-essays in order to define a structure that enables us to be able to construct our own essays that are readable and achievable. We relate that to scripting and editing but also to the role of serendipity and reactivity to events.

  • Lesson 4: Professional practice in the field

    In the final lecture we talk about how we relate to the world and those that we record. -We talk about the role of the guide and professional practice in the field.

    We talk about the ethics of representation and professional standards - what is required when entering other people’s lives and how we sit, listen and blend to achieve intimacy.

    We discuss the morality of photojournalism using difficult real-life scenarios and the challenges of visual cliché including the problem of the image of the photojournalist.

    We examine contemporary documentary traditions and the confusing ‘bleed’ from the art world and the challenges of evolving media platforms.

    We examine the constant tension in reportage between what is fashionable and what is lasting - the responsibilities of what Cornell Capa described as the “creation of the visual history of our time”

Choose how you want to learn

  • The Expert option

    Recommended

    Develop your learning further with marked assignments and personal tuition from Stuart Freedman

    • Start course whenever you like
    • 4 weeks tutor access for personalised assignment feedback & coaching
    • 4 assignments marked by Stuart Freedman
    • Certificate of completion and CPD hours
    • Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
    • 4 lessons with expert videos & notes
    • Group chat & direct message with tutor & classmates
    • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom
    Learn more
    $200
  • The Peer option

    Discover the benefits of group learning in an online interactive classroom of no more than 20 people. Get the most from shared knowledge and community study

    • Start course whenever you like
    • Practise what you learn with your peers
    • Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
    • 4 lessons with expert videos & notes
    • 4 course assignments
    • Group chat & direct message classmates
    • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom
    Learn more
    $75

New
Buy this course for a business or group

You can now buy this course through your business or organisation for individuals and groups up to 20

Photography classroom - how it works

  • Start anytime

    Watch video tutorials led by expert tutors

    Watch video tutorials led by expert tutors
  • Test yourself

    Practice what you learn with inspiring assignments

    Practice what you learn with inspiring assignments
  • Personal tuition

    Get assignment feedback from expert tutors

    Get assignment feedback from expert tutors
  • Share ideas

    Collaborate and chat directly to classmates

    Collaborate and chat directly to classmates

Meet Stuart Freedman

Stuart Freedman - Photography

I first worked with Stuart in Bangladesh when he gave workshop to photojournalism students for Pathshala Institute in 2010. His advice was clear and supportive and he encouraged me! We have kept in touch ever since and when I was in Cairo making my work about The Silent Wound he helped me on email and telephone to work out what was possible.

Farzana Hossen, photographer/Getty Emerging Talent/Ian Parry Award winner 2013, Bangladesh
Stuart Freedman is a photographer and writer based between London and New Delhi.
A member of Panos Pictures he has, over the last two decades, covered stories from Albania to Zambia. His work has appeared in, amongst many others, Life, Geo, Time, The Sunday Times magazine, Der Spiegel, Condé Nast Traveller and Smithsonian.
He has been exhibited widely and his work has received recognition from Amnesty International, POYi, World Sports Photo, The AOP, The RPS, UNICEF and the World Press Masterclass.
In 1999 he was invited to speak on Capitol Hill about the atrocities in Sierra Leone where his initial work on the Mutilated premiered and in 2004 addressed the Oxford Union about the continued suffering of that country. His work has been exhibited widely. Solo shows include Visa Pour l’Image at Perpignan, The Scoop Festival in Anjou, The Leica Gallery in Germany, The Foire du Livre (Brussels), The Museum of Ethnography (Stockholm) and the Association and the Spitz Galleries in London. His work on HIV/AIDS in Rwanda and from the post-conflict South of Lebanon has toured extensively internationally. He regularly judges awards and has twice been a judge for the Amnesty Media Awards. He has lectured to students in colleges across the UK, amongst others, Swansea Metropolitan University, Falmouth University, Regents University, Plymouth College of Art and The London College of Communication (LCC). He continues to write and photograph for a variety of editorial and commercial clients

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Awards & Accreditations

  • CPD Accredited (provider 50276)
  • Good Web Guide
  • Red Herring Winner
  • Education Investor Awards 2021 - Finalist
  • Royal Horticultural Society
  • Digital Education Awards 2023 Winner for Digital Health and Wellbeing Learning Product of the Year
  • Digital Education Awards 2023 Winner for Adult Home Learning Product of the Year