Planning My Gap Year

Before starting university I will hope to take a gap year ( 4 months ) to travel. I will use this opportunity to build up my photojournalism portfolio. It was also be a good way to explore parts of the world I have yet to see and broaden my horizon with regards to where I would like to settle down/ return to. I Will also be on the look out for interesting stories to write/ document at the places I visit.

I have been looking at a website called Round The World Experts ( Here is the link ) and it has a service which allows you to type in the destinations you wish to visit and it will formulate a rough cost. From there an employee will call you and discuss your options. For now I am awaiting the call but I have planned to visit these following places with my friend:

Japan (Tokyo & Taiji) : to experience such an alien and advanced place. Plus in Taiji there is a cove where they continue to slaughter dolphins with the support of big companies as Seaworld. I would love to document this and make an effort to change this.

Australia: I have heard lots of amazing things about Australia and how laid back it is, which sounds fantastic as I have a particularly laid back nature. They have also an abundancy of natural wonders I would love to explore. For example, The Great Barrier Reef. I would love to scuba dive here and record how much it has changed/ been destroyed because of the intense tourism.

Thailand: I have been to Thailand before but have yet to see all of the Islands. Whilst there I noticed a great deal of corruption with regards to the sex trade. Thailand is one of the hotspots for the child sex trade. This is somthing I am really passionate into looking into and being a strong activist for. Thailand also has numerous problems with regards to animal cruelty, especially towards endagered animals such as Elephants, Leopards and TIgers

America: I would be planning on going to California, Miami and San Francisco. I have chosen California to look at the infamous life of the OC county college students and document their summer break, to see if it lives up to the stereo type. I also want to go to Miami to look at the rise in gang crimes within the area as crime has spiked significantly within the past 10 years.

The London College Of Communication Degree Show

As a leading university for media, LCC has been a front runner with regards to what university I'm thinking of going to. It has a specialist course for Photojournalism and Documentary photography. It has fantastic industry connections which would be so helpful to break straight into a career after uni. Although I missed the photography and photojournalism degree show, I decided to attend the Design degree show for all their other design based courses. I decided to do so as I thought it would be a really good idea to get a feel for the school, see the standard of work from students and also to see if I would be tempted by any of their other courses.

The first thing I noticed about the University was how open plan the design of it was. It was really spacious and modern with really great student facilities such as a great student cafe, common room and highly equipped class rooms. So by going to the school I was able to get a feel for it and I really really liked it. It was really welcoming and I could already envision myself fitting straight in.

Although the other courses where appealing, course that stood out to me most was Graphic Design. The pieces where so unique and really demonstrated the high standard produced and expected by the university.

The Wimbledon University Degree Show

Despite my keen interest in photojournalism I still enjoy and appreciate types of art and so still found seeing the various art forms in Wimbledon University's degree show, incredibly interesting.

Admittedly when I went I was skeptical as the uni specialised in fine art, which although I do enjoy and appreciate it, I'm not sure wether or not I would pursue it. However upon arrival, I was very impressed of the standards of various exhibitions such as fine art, sculpture and costume design. 

I was most impressed and amazed by the pieces in sculptural animation. They were not only extremely convincing and real, but original and entertaining. I could see the dedication and time taken in almost every piece and was fascinated by the extreme attention to detail each individual sculpture showed. Here are a few photographs of my favourite pieces. 

I liked this because of the amount of detail the artist took to make this mythical creature look real. 

 I liked this one of  the oompa loompa because it was an original concept that reinvented an old and dated character. 

 This piece was fantastic because of the amount of effort gone into the sculptures surroundings

 This piece caught my attnetion because of he obscurity of it. 

 I loved the idea of the teenage minoutor because of how original it was. It made you look at an existing character that has a fearsome and scary reputation, in a different light. It made you see the vulnerable and insecure adolescence of a minotour instead of just an angry mythological beast. 

 (close ups of the bird creature) 

I was also intrigued by the set design exhibit. I thought it was amazing how someone can visualise an i deal setting for a film or scene and then translate that idea into a physical piece of art. I thought the amount of detail gone into making the tiny scale models where incredible and showed tremendous amounts of time and dedication. Not only that, but the sketches before hand show accuracy and precision as well as being aesthetically pleasing. 

 This sketch is beautiful. Not only does it clearly show the structure of the building but the shading and use of line flesh out the building to make it look more 3d. 

 This design was simple yet really effective and modern 

 I love this piece for how much detail was included in such a small model. You can see how determined the artist was to get across the specific details of how they wanted the set to look. 

Overall I think Wimbledon showed a tremendous amount of talent, dedication and originality within the students and their work. They show they have a high standard of work and strive for the best possible outcomes, however I don't  think the courses they offer are suitable for me or what I want to pursue as a career. 

Responces

Here are the emails I wrote to the various photojournalists and Vice. Here are also the responses.

My introduction into photojournalism

My name is Jasmine Lewis-Humphrey and I am an aspiring photojournalist. So far to help me on my career path, I have contacted various photojournalists and Vice Documentaries. Vice Documentaries are a company who specialises in delivering hard hitting and interesting news stories that don't usually get covered in everyday news. They have a large segment on their website dedicated to photographs taken by photojournalists that accompany the stories. After emailing them asking of any internships or work experience placements I received a reply saying that my email had been forwarded to the head of HR and would be considered from there. I emailed multiple photojournalists including James Gourley and William Daniels, both of which I got supportive and helpful advice from. They encouraged me to continue uploading and taking photos for my blog and try and shoot as much as possible.