American Soldier

A. I believe the most powerful image printed in the Denver Post was the one titled "FOUR-MAN STACK" that was published the week of Sept. 12, 2009. I feel this is a very powerful image because the image includes four soldiers, but the thing is these soldiers look nothing like men, they're boys. This is seems very powerful to me because these boys chose to be a part of the army, mostly because they're innocent. I feel that if the same image was taken but years later, these boys would no longer have shiny faces or kiddy faces. I assume there would instead be sad, ashy faces that have seen more than any youngster should see.
For me this image is very touching and powerful for children have taken part of wars and there's nothing anyone can do for they chose this path.

B. The image work together to show the chronological events of Ian's journey, which includes many bumps and twists. Each image has details to it that when multiple pictures are put together they create something. Each image has something of importance, kind of like a main point or event of a story.

C. Captions enhance the photographs because they give us background info that can't be told from the image such as emotion, possibly thoughts. Also, whoever said that a picture is worth a thousand words, well they weren't wrong, but we don't know what those thousand words are so the captions are there to give us details on the whats, the hows, the whos, etc.

D. When Ian Fisher was to turn 18 he would enlist in the Army. His final day before leaving home with a recruiter, Fisher shared a final hug with friends.

In Fort Benning, in Georgia, was where Military basic training was to begin. It actually began with officers making the new recruits dig through a pile of duffel bags to try to find their own within two minutes. this was done simply to see who would quit in a short period of time, and teach those that don't a lesson.

Later on, Fisher began feeling like a real soldier after being issued M-16s, still being rather childish by making shooting noises. The recruits were already presented with a simulated explosive practice, where Fisher faced obstacles, including a situation where only half of the squad  survived, leaving just Fisher and a few others.

While Fisher had an 11 month leave from the Army, before going back to Iraq, Fisher spent those month speaking with his father. His father spoke to him about the medicine he's been taking, concerned that there may be a problem, Fisher simply brushed it. Eventually before Fisher knew, the medicine progressed to substance abuse. Fisher turned to extra outside help, a counselor, so that he could stop before the military found out and he got kicked out. In the end, Fisher ended up getting pushed down a rank because of the drug abuse.

In Iraq, Fisher was in the role of driving the vehicles, Humvee. Fisher had to be able to make it to home base, Camp Echo within 15 minutes, just in case of emergencies, Fisher was also instructed to drive the vehicle aggressively at all times, another precaution. Camp Echo offered a gym, phone service, arcade, and video games.

Eventually, Fisher ended up marrying his latest girlfriend, Devin, on August 24, 2009.

E. In the photos where Ian is main subject the captions are written in present tense.

F. Analyzing the captions:

1. There 2 sentences, on average.
2. The info provided in the first sentence of the captions is who, what, where, when, why, and how. These details pertaining to the image.
3. The info provided in the second sentence of the captions is usually extra information that adds to the effects or understanding of the image.
4. If there happens to be a third sentence, these sentences usually include a quote
5. A few captions do include quotes.
6. There are no captions with four sentences. It is possible that I have a missed that does have a fourth sentence.

G. I do think that it is possible to tell a complete story with just photos and captions because if someone can capture a great picture that shows emotion and expressions, and if captions can be written right, then (cliché as it may be) anything can be possible in the art of story telling through photography.

H. Even if you can create a story with photos and captions, it is impossible to completely cover the entire narrative with just photos and captions. Whenever you write a story you also have very important and deep details, such as thoughts, that can't be as well conveyed in just photos and captions.