Story and Narrative in Photojournalism

This advanced course treats the photograph not as a single decisive frame but as a sentence in a larger story. Built on the Dean’s Narrative Through the Lens: Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary, it teaches the photojournalist to move from recording what happened to narrating what it meant — weaving individual images into a cohesive visual story that transports the viewer into the heart of a place and its people.

Across four modules — the foundations of visual storytelling, building the story, the edit and its ethics, and the photojournalist’s own voice — you will study composition, light, timing and subject selection in service of narrative; the craft of sequencing and curating a photo essay; the ethics of authenticity, privacy and responsible representation; and the development of a personal narrative voice. The course culminates in an original photo essay submitted to the Light & Composition awards.