Tell Stories with your Photography
Because “a picture is worth a thousand words”
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” And a thousand words is a story in its own right. Photography is an expressive art. It tells stories of the world in one’s unique perspective. Creating pictures via photography is telling stories, and that is a joyful journey everyone can take. The best thing is that you don’t need to be a professional photographer to tell stories with pictures.
Telling stories via photography can be what’s called ‘photojournalism,’ but it doesn’t have to be. One doesn’t always have to take newsworthy pictures for them to tell stories.
Photography is much related to journeys. You take a camera (or a phone) out on your journeys and come back with colorful memories, each frozen forever in a snapshot of time, each tells its own story.
But photography is a journey in and of itself. First, the eyes catch a scene. The mind then perceives a story and tells the brain how we should compose the scene, to capture its essence the moment it tells the story. Finally, the hands, obeying the brain, use the camera to capture the picture.
No two pictures, created deliberately and creatively, are alike. A change in an angle, ever so lightly, may tell different stories. Each picture reflects the originality of the creator. Every picture contains a photographer’s signature — his or her storytelling style.
When pictures can tell stories, composing a scene with a camera is like writing a story. Sometimes, a story happens spontaneously. Some other times, a story is well thought-out, well planned, and ripened at its time of conception. Either way is equally creative. Telling a story is a creative process.
Photography is also therapeutic. In our world, words are key to almost all kinds of communication. Photography, besides, helps us express what we have been suppressing and can’t easily be expressed in words. A teacher and a friend once said to me, “whatever you keep inside WILL hurt you. (Let it out creatively.)” In this way, photography lends its therapeutic power to heal us and helps us express our unique creativities.
In terms of storytelling with words, photography also reinforces the way the story is conveyed. The reader’s imagination is captivated and extended by pictures accompanying passages.
Even though cameras are easily accessible to almost everyone nowadays, creativity is still a unique quality. Your creativity is yours, and yours only. And the world celebrates that uniqueness. It adds to healthy diversity.
At the time I’m writing this, the world is slowly opening up. There will still be opportunities to see it from your new unique perspectives. When you have a chance, get out there with a camera and be inspired.
If you are interested in film photography, try this story:
