The launch is coming up in no time, but I can still remember first seeing the Soul of Athens posters around campus at the end of last quarter calling for photographers, designers… and writers.

I was one of those journalism students who ventured into the project to try to add some more written pieces to this year’s site.

Walking into class the first day, I didn’t know what to expect. I was jumping into a huge multimedia project where the majority of students were photographers and designers. I didn’t have very much experience with the visual end of stories.

But that just meant I learned that much more when I did get to collaborate with two photographers on two stories throughout this quarter. I got to sit down and discuss ideas about story directions with them, as well as actually go out to take notes and to interview people together. While the photographer was absorbed in capturing moments visually, I was thinking about capturing the details in a different way by talking to more people and asking different questions. It was fascinating to see the different ways we put together the information for the stories through photos, text and audio.

This experience has definitely gotten me to think about the bigger picture of packaging the different elements for a whole story. It’s been a good starting point for working closely with photographers and designers. It’s nice to know that everyone’s different talents can come together well — whether it’s using language, photos or designs — to tell a story.

Written by Jaclyn Lipp, a writer for Soul of Athens