Discourse Community Analysis

Draft Number One (1340)

Introduction

As a person very much committed to the continuation of conservation photography and steadfast in the importance of it, on the behalf of our other members, I am writing to formally invite newcomers into our ranks. With that in mind, this report will address some common questions such as education requirements, how to communicate with other members, different methods of getting peer feedback, industry jargon, as well as some misconceptions about perceived barriers to entering the community.

Additionally, this report will explore these avenues as well as other pertinent topics in the context of environmental activism and research. The report will offer three recommendations to become successful in this community.

Background

Conservation photography is the use of imaging software to increase conservation efforts towards a particular subject.  These photographers are often drawn to natural environments such as rainforests, wildlife habitats, and remote areas of the planet (the Arctic, Iceland, Himalayas).

The level of education varies among members. Intelligence is certainly a value in the field, but passion and hard work are just as or in some cases more important. It really depends on what the specific issue(s) that an individual is trying to photograph. If photographers can create images that allow an observer to fully understand the situation, education is irrelevant.

One perceived barrier to joining the community is a loss of sight.  However, photography is all about expressing reality. In fact, there are many photographs taken by blind or visually impaired photographers that capture their reality in a way that a sighted person may never have thought of.

Research and Analysis

A vast majority of conservation photographers share characteristics that meet the requirements to be considered a discourse community, as defined by John Swales in his article, “Six Characteristics of Discourse Communities” (COMM202–Communications II, 2020). It is the focus of this section to demonstrate how the community of conservation photographers specifically express these characteristics.

One of the main goals of conservation photographers is to better the planet through the use of a camera. What specific shape that takes is entirely up to the individual. Underwater photography, portraits, landscapes, etc. are all entirely valid ways that a photographer can use to best express the truth about an issue. Truth is a very important ideal to this community, so much so that it can be said that to attain the greatest level of truth in a photograph would be a central goal for the entire community.

There is a plethora of ways that we all communicate with each other. When you first start out, you might find yourself communicating on a photo sharing website such as Flickr. When you get more and more invested in the community, you might find yourself making your way to a more “advanced” website such as Youpic (a personal favourite of mine) where there are a handful of professionals and potential employers able to look at your shots. Even deeper than that, conferences and other speaking events are a great way to meet and develop relationships with people in the community.  Conferences that are specific to wildlife photography are mostly outshined by the annual Wildspeak symposiums held by the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP).

In my opinion, the most important way that we speak to each other and to people outside of the community is with our photographs. There is a quote by the godfather of conservation photography, Ansel Adams (1985) that says “When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence” (p. 3326). Whether they acknowledge it or not, this is the mantra of the entire community and it is surpassed by no single form of communication because a good image conveys our hopes, fears and who we are as a person in one single moment.

According to John Swales, “In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis (or vocabulary)” (COMM202–Communications II, 2020, para. 5). In terms of having a community lexis, there really isn’t any specific to only conservation photography; however, there certainly is in terms of photography as a whole. The way a veteran photographer describes images will often utilize a set of words that really aren’t seen outside of a photography setting. Words such as aperture (how wide the depth-of-field is), f-stop (refencing what aperture a camera is set to) and ISO (how sensitive the camera sensor is) are all variations that can be controlled within a camera and are often referred back to when discussing an image.

Furthermore, if you hear words such as normal, prime, telephoto, macro or tilt-shift, then you are most likely talking about camera lenses with each word describing a specific lens with a specific application. You could also get into a conversation about a camera’s sensor and start throwing around words like FX (full-frame) or DX (crop-fame). There is even some slang associated with the profession, so if someone tells you to “stop chimping” they just want you to shoot more and review less in the field.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Conservation photographers are really just a group of people who think that the best way for them to help the planet is to put a camera in front of their face. For most of the community this is because they believe that if they can show people the truth of the situation that the audience would be as impacted as the photographer is themselves. Because of this, one of the most important things a photographer can do is to understand their bias and to suppress that to the best of their ability.

As far as I have experienced it, the community is exceptionally welcoming to newcomers. In my opinion this is because of the fact that one of the main goals is to get people to understand the value of the subjects of our various projects, something that requires an understanding of human beings and a high degree of empathy. There are a multitude of different thing that I could say that would help a newcomer to this community, but I think the three most important ones are the one I will be discussing next.  

1.     Never give up on your work. Even when doors are closed to you, you have to persevere and keep pushing people to understand what you know to be true and important. Even when you see people go against everything that you stand and have worked for, know that this is the gig if you want to change the world.

2.     Expanding on that point, keep researching new aspects of your area of focus. Viewpoints can shift rapidly and often, a road that you believed to be closed can open up a whole new area thanks to another project or event, On top of that, finding new ways to convey your message helps to diversify your project and helps it maintain quality without growing stagnant. You are trying to change other people’s way of thinking, which means that the images have to be able to resonate with a broad group of people.

3.     Branch out in the community. Often times there are opportunities that open up simply because you spoke with one interesting person. Perhaps there is a study occurring and they need someone to document their work or even just a new aspect of the story becomes evident because you spoke to someone on an entirely different topic than you.  We are all about making a difference and in my experience, I have yet to meet someone who did not want to help me move forward in some way.

If you believe that you want to make a difference with your photographs, to make a difference with the way you see the world, to save our planet, then congratulations, you are really already one of us. I promise we aren’t a scary bunch and if I managed to help you make the leap to join us, I am patiently waiting to see your work, hoping to call you a friend and wishing you the very best of luck.

References

Adams, A. E. (1985). Photography and Poster Art. AB Bookman’s Weekly: For the Specialist Book World, 67(19- 27), 3326.

COMM202–Communications II. (2020, January 19). Retrieved from Fleming College, Desire2Learn: https://fleming.desire2learn.com/d2l/le/content/119025/viewContent/1292420/View