Tell Us a Story With Your Camera
Visual storytelling is one of the most important tools a photographer can use in their arsenal.
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We all love stories.
From childhood to adulthood and beyond, stories capture our attention more than a simple statement.
Brands use stories all the time and are using narrative more and more as advertising, and the methods marketers use, keep changing.
The idea of telling a story, or using visual narratives to engage the viewer has been around as long as photography itself.
"If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug around a camera."
- Lewis Hine
Today we are flooded by what I call ‘visual representation’, or ‘snapshot’ or even ‘pretty picture’. While there is nothing wrong with any of those approaches to photographphy, they do not engage the viewer and give them information far beyond the simple abstract before them.
I saw a cloud.
I photographed a cloud.
I showed you a photo of a cloud.
And hells, yeah, it is indeed a great cloud.
And we see it, but we don’t see into it.
And that is where storytelling with photography comes in.
And, to be sure, we are talking stories here, not novels.
"Every artist has a central story to tell, and the difficulty, the impossible task, is trying to present that story in pictures"
- Gregory Crewdson
Photographer David Eustace takes us on a trip with his daughter - the last father-daughter trip before she is off to college. It is warm, touching and memorable.
Also David Eustace’s story on Highway 50, The Loneliest Highway.
Richard Rinaldi specializes in long-form visual stories. One of my favorites is Western Lives.
Jeff Dunas’s “Only In America” is a visual garden of beauty, humanity, and humor.
"If a picture is good, it tells many different stories."
- Josef Koudelka
Storytelling through photography is a powerful method that elevates the art form beyond mere visual representation. It allows photographers to convey deeper meanings, evoke emotions, and create a connection with the viewer.
Here are some key points highlighting the importance of storytelling in photography:
Engage the Viewer's Emotions: A well-crafted photographic story can stir emotions within the viewer. Capturing moments, expressions, and narratives, allow photographers to elicit feelings of joy, sadness, curiosity, or empathy. This creates a more profound and lasting impact than a simple photographic representation.
Convey Deeper Meanings: Storytelling with photography transcends the surface levels of life and allows photographers to explore and communicate deeper themes, ideas, and perspectives. By transforming a photograph from a simple visual representation into a vehicle for conveying messages, we can raise awareness, call emotions to the surface, and forge deeper into the meanings we seek.
Create a Sense of Connection: When a photograph tells a story, it establishes a connection between the viewer and the subject or scene depicted. The connection fosters understanding, empathy, and shared human experience, bridging gaps and fostering a sense of unity.
Enhancing Memorability: Stories have a way of sticking with us long after we've experienced them. By incorporating storytelling elements into their photographs, photographers can create images that are more memorable and impactful, leaving a lasting impression on the viewer. Brands know this, and they seek photographers who can connect with their narrative and help them convey their message to potential customers.
Develop a Personal Style: Storytelling allows photographers to develop their unique visual voice and personal style. By crafting narratives through images, photographers can distinguish themselves and create a recognizable body of work. if you want to explore style, there is nothing better than a story to make that happen.
And the ability to tell a story is not limited to places and people. Even still-life photographers can make a photo more appealing by using the techniques of storytelling and narrative.
A photo of a broken and bent AmEx card is boring as a visual representation, but in the context of being found in the rubble of the WTC, it takes on new meaning, a shared meaning of sorrow and loss.
See other mundane items found in the destruction and presented nobly in still-life photography.
Elliot Erwitt’s beautiful still life of Pablo Casal’s practice studio. The maestro was taken ill, and Erwitt had to make a photograph for deadline. This image could be a complete short story on a single sheet of Ektachrome.
Whenever I am out with my camera I am looking for images that connect to story, to a narrative, something deeper than just the surface artifact.
Perhaps it is the relationship of shadow to light, or textures intermingling with color and density. These are little sonnets of visual literacy, and it motivates me to make the image.
Images that may never see the light of day carry my attempt at a story. And I remember every single story I tell with my camera.
"Photography is about finding out what can happen in the frame. When you put four edges around some facts, you change those facts."
- Garry Winogrand
Five powerful photographic techniques that can help photographers effectively tell stories through their images:
Thoughtful and Deliberate Composition: Use compositional elements like framing, leading lines, and negative space to guide the viewer's eye and create a visual narrative within the frame.
Capture Decisive Moments: Freezing fleeting moments that reveal emotion, action, or a pivotal point in a story creates powerful, storytelling images.
Perspective and Viewpoint: Choose unique angles and perspectives that offer a fresh view of a subject and add intrigue to the narrative. An elevated view may present detachment, while a ground-level shot can create intimacy.
Symbolism and Metaphors: Incorporate symbolic elements or visual metaphors into the frame adding layers of meaning and provoking a deeper interpretation of the story.
Sequencing: By arranging a series of related images in a specific order the photographer can create a cohesive narrative flow, much like chapters in a book.
Here are a few of my favorite still image ‘stories’.
A new workshop for photographers who want to be better storytellers will be starting July, 3, 2024. Find out more here.
When you are ready, here is how I can help you succeed.
Group Mentorship: a small group of photographers who meet to show images, work on their portfolio, and build their businesses with help from a wonderful group. Lifetime membership for one fee.
One-on-one Mentorship: You and me - working together in an intense 6-month push to get you on the way to over $30K in additional revenue. The work we lay down will help you increase and scale your business for years ahead.
And the upcoming P52 one-year masterclass.