Bearing that in mind, I guess my latest piece of humble pie shouldn’t have been so unexpected, but it was especially unappetizing.

I submitted a proposal for my “project story,” which all the students at the Institute are expected to complete. After shooting interviews, tracking down subjects and talking to every family member, friend, journalist, janitor and delivery man who had ever even heard of my subject, I sat in the studio staring at a pair of monitors and digging for a story. The Institute’s video directors, my immediate supervisors, pulled me aside and explained in excruciating detail how my story got off track. It took a moment, but when terms like “stonewalled” and “glad-handed” entered the room, my ego greeted them on the way out.

Maybe the scope of the story was too big. Probably so. Maybe I didn’t ask the right questions. I’m not sure. Either way the ax was dropping on my story.

It’s an ironic thing. As an editor, my job is to carve information into a story. That means a lot of cuts, so I should be used to having my work pulled apart. It wasn’t my editor’s fault. I had sensed it too. My observations were a bit more self-serving than theirs but the point was the same. I had no story.  I told myself to take it like a journalist, but it was easily the bitterest bite I had taken in some time. 

It didn’t kill me so I can only assume I’m a little stronger.   

Life in the Institute has served up some interesting things. I expected no less in New Orleans. Sometimes you just have to choke it down.

Jigar Mehta, a video journalist for The New York Times, readies a Skype presentation for New York Times Student Journalism Institute students at Dillard University in New Orleans. Times Web and photo editors Meaghan Looram, Alexis Mainland and Sarah Kramer addressed the students from New York on Monday, May 18. (Ray Tyler/The New York Times)

Meaghan Looram said, “We’re looking for authenticity.”

The statement seemed a bit vague. The web page for ‘One in 8 Million’ makes things much clearer.

“New York is a city of characters. On the subway and in the streets, from the intensity of Midtown to the intimacy of neighborhood blocks is a 305-square-mile parade of people with something to say. This is a collection of a few of their passions and problems, relationships and routines, vocations and obsessions.”

Looram, Sarah Kramer, and Alexis “Lexi” Mainland are part of the web team for The NY Times. They are picture editors, web content producers and journalists, but today they were teachers too. The three women are the wheels behind ‘One’, a series of slideshows that present some unique untold stories from a very personal perspective. Using very high-contrast black and white shots, ambient audio and narration by the subjects these essays tell the stories of New Yorkers from their own point of view.

In its original conception the piece was designed as a mostly audio story with limited photography. On an early test shoot the photos convinced them to use more pictures to tell a richer story. Its editing is not very literal; we don’t often see the image when we hear the quotes. The black and white aesthetic makes the stories sparse and elegant. The piece we saw told the story of a heterosexual rugby player, his homosexual brother/teammate and a relationship developed through the game. The two brothers are members of the Gotham Knights, a gay rugby club.

We had a conference with the three journalists via Skype and spoke about the project and its production. Amid the talk of shotgun mikes, audio recorders and Pro Tools there was advice. They suggested that we let the characters tell their stories. Listen. Don’t interrupt. React, but not to the detriment of your audio. Have a conversation. Finding and revealing a character was crucial. Looram made that clear. “A good audio character has something to say … Often they have some character in their voice that can’t be expressed through words. There’s something about hearing a character pause or breathe that has some explicit meaning that we wouldn’t get otherwise.”

Looram says the piece has made a definite impact because of its distinctive style. “We’ve gotten a ton of reader feedback. They love the stories, the audio, the people … When you watch it you get a sense of the amount of work that goes into the project.”

The lesson was evident. Every picture tells a story and each is carefully selected because of the story it tells. “Any photograph is by nature a still moment … But because this is photojournalism nothing is ever set up. Some of the best photography makes use of every corner of the frame. There’s obviously thought given to every piece of the frame.”