Growing as a photojournalist

My Story

Photojournalism. A frozen moment in time, that tells a thousand words. Photos are one of, if not the most important part of storytelling. With lowering attention spans and a quickening pace of life, readers glance at stories trying to grab onto what they can, interpreting their own story within seconds of looking at a photo.  

As I got involved in journalism at Palo Alto High School, I noticed a lack of photography in our local coverage. I quickly learned the importance of high school photojournalism. Unlike giant publications like The New York Times or Washington Post, our coverage reports on stories that impact our residents and knit a closer community. With the opportunity of photojournalism, I set my eyes on taking photos of local stories that unite our community in a time of increased polarization. My photojournalism journey began my freshman year in a photojournalism class but quickly accelerated as I became an active member of our newspaper, The Campanile. 

At the start of my sophomore year of high school, I continued to refine my photojournalism composition and skills, whether it be settings, framing, lighting, or focus. Eventually, I began to achieve my photojournalistic goal of making a community impact. When the Israel-Hamas war broke out, I decided to join our spotlight team where we spent the next week scrambling to contact sources, write, edit, take photos, and do the page design. While this workload was arduous, throwing me into the deep end of the pool was the best way for me to grow as both a journalist and as a photojournalist. As part of our coverage, I went to a local interfaith candlelight vigil held for the lives lost in the Hamas attack on Tel Aviv on October 7. Here, I realized how important my role as a photojournalist was. My photo of the candle vigil captured the emotion of a Palo Alto resident looking down at a candle, surrounded by darkness. This photo showed our vulnerability and that we were all mourning and going through this event together, connecting a divided community. Furthermore, it captured the global impact the war had. I am using my passion for photography and making a local impact by telling a community story with global connections that the national publications couldn’t make. 

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In my second semester of sophomore year, I continued to bridge gaps in our community over another polemic topic by using my photojournalism to bring light to all sides of stories. After the Palo Alto Unified School District came to an impasse with the Palo Alto Educators Association (PAEA) over a raise in salary, teachers of PAEA held a rally outside of our district office. With over 300 teachers gathering, I was able to take photos that captured the emotion, passion and magnitude of this rally. My series of photos became the most viewed out of all of our district's publications and PAEA later thanked us for being unbiased reporters and covering their side of the story. My slide of photos reached thousands and united our community with the support of our education. 

As I continue photojournalism over the next two years at Palo Alto High School, I have much more to learn. I want to grow and use this newfound knowledge to provide my community with powerful, emotional, and high-quality photos that will bring our community closer together.