American soldier

1.  I think the most powerful image in this coverage of Ian Fisher is the first initial photo of him with the poster of Uncle Sam in the background. I think that this image really embodies the mood of Ian's story, which to me is very powerful.

2. The images show the story as a timeline and all show the different aspects of his story. 

3. The captions really helped me understand what was happening in each photo and helped me piece together the story. 

4.  Ian Fisher graduates from high school and says to his family that he wants to join the army. He visits the army recruiting office and is filled in on what will happen  during basic training. After many goodbyes and parties, an army recruiter comes to take Ian to 14 weeks of basic training. Army training gets off to a rough start but soon he starts to feel like a soldier. Fisher is soon stationed at

Fort Carson near his home, he starts to experience problems because he is "stuck in two different worlds". With the physical and mental pain, from his recent breakup with his girlfriend, he starts to take pain relieving drugs, this gets him in big trouble with his superiors and he is demoted and but into another platoon. Before he is stationed in Iraq, Fisher says goodbye to his current girlfriend, friends and family. Fisher spends almost a year in Iraq and has changed much because of it. He says he is done with the army and soon after his arrival home he marries his girlfriend.

5.  a) On average there are about 2-4 sentences per photo. 

     b) The first sentence usually provides the 5 W's (who, what when where and why), mostly general info of what is actually happening in the photo. 

     c) The second sentence normally provides background information or stuff that you can't really tell through the picture.  

     d) The the third sentence is normally a quote or even more background information. 

     e) Yes, some captions include a quote.

     f) Yes, some photos do have a caption with 4 sentences. 

6. I think that it is possible because the captions go straight to the point and are effective in telling the story that the photo illustrates. 

7. Yes, you could technically write a story with just photos and captions but with a story, you can get even more details and connect even more to the feelings, emotions, and experiences of the subject(s).