I ended 2011 teaching at the Angkor Photo Festival in Siem Reap and then teaching my own visual storytelling workshop in Kuala Lumpur sponsored by the US Embassy. After the whirlwind of several weeks of forced introspection about my views on visual storytelling, teaching methodology, and my own career, my photography mind was completely exhausted. For the last 7 years or so photography has consumed my life and I’m okay with that but I hadn’t really taken time to think about what I’ve learned along the way. Teaching forced me to stop and think about what goes into telling a story with images.
Upon returning to Hanoi I had mustered up the motivation to put these thoughts into a concise blog. I was on a tear that cold morning, ear buds plugged in at a café just typing away crushing my latte and pretty fired up writing as if I was giving advice to a younger version of myself. I was taking in all I was taught in school and at various workshops and retaining the good and filtering the outdated bullshit and nonsense. Then a friend walked in and sat down across from me and as his body touched down in the chair all those words died. For some reason the blog didn’t auto-save and the scripture was lost, just kidding I’m not that cocky. This moment did however spark me to write to Apple with an idea to have the Apple logo on the back of your computer light up Red for “Not Available” and “Green” for “Available” for all of us who call public places our offices and sometimes want to be left alone while we work.
So hear I am about a month later at my apartment on the eve of the Lunar New Year trying desperately to remember what I was writing. I truly enjoy teaching and I hope to have more opportunities to do so in the near future. So to my former and future students and anyone else who cares to read, here are my thoughts on approaching personal projects and photo-stories.
• Go after stories you have genuine interest in. Don’t go for stories just because you think it will impress the masses. Nothing wrong with doing a story about HIV but also nothing wrong with doing a story about what it’s like to be a stray dog in an animal shelter (more on that later).
• A photo story isn’t done in one day or one week. Take time to earn the space and intimacy with your subjects and give them the respect they deserve for entrusting you to tell their story.
• Stories don’t always have to be linear where you show the subject waking up doing what he/she does then going to bed. Be more creative than that.
• Patience will reward you with intimacy with your subjects. The difference between a nice set of pictures and a special story is moments.
• Stop taking pictures of children smiling looking directly into your camera. Well you don’t have to stop taking those shots but stop putting them in your portfolio unless you are doing a story about children smiling into cameras. These are the easiest shots to take, strive for better than that and for not being present in your images.
• Make the viewer care about your subject or subject matter. Think about when you watch a movie. If you don’t care about the characters you tune out. With still images we have even less leeway to draw in our audience.
• Show me don’t tell me. If you need to explain your story to me for 30 minutes because the pictures aren’t doing so, you have a problem. Your images need to tell the story that is why you are a photographer and not a writer.
• You have to give a shit about your story or else it will show and we won’t give a shit either. You will have ups and downs along the way and bouts with boredom but overall you need to care.
• Take cue from directors you admire. Think about how they crafted their stories and the journey they took you on. If you don’t know any directors off hand, think about what movies you really enjoyed why you liked them. Go back and watch it and pay attention to how the directed crafted the story.
• Sequencing is an art in itself. Pay attention to sequencing when you are showing your images in a slideshow. Give serious thought to how you weave your images together to tell your story. Do you want to create some mystery? Do you want to build up to a big ending? Do you want your audience to have to really think or do you want to be upfront from the first image. Sequencing is an art in itself. I know I keep beating home this movie director thing but they are building their story just like you are, so the parallels are endless.
• Stop and share your images along the way with like and unlike minds. Let people take in your story both photographers and civilians (non-photographers). I feel like too often we (myself included) focus (pun intended) too much on appeasing other photographers with our work instead of focusing more on the story itself. I’ve left out powerful images from my edits because I didn’t like the style of the image and it was a mistake.
• Don’t set things up. Life is beautiful and surprising all by itself so just let it unfold and be ready to capture it. When you set up scenes, in addition to many other reasons it’s wrong, you are setting things up based on your memory of perhaps another photograph you saw and you are losing originality.
• It’s okay to have influence in your photography but be careful of that gray line of influence and mimicking.
• Slow down when you shoot. If you are doing a personal project you have time to make errors and explore with your photography. Carefully think about why you are taking a photo from a certain angle or why you are shooting through something. Save your Rolodex of “Go To Shots” when you are on an assignment.
• Understand light and how to create a mood.
• Next understand why you are creating that mood, and give thought to what you are trying to say.
• More on perspective. Each of your lenses is a tool so try to give thought as to why you are shooting wide or tight or whatever. I saw way too many of my students sitting back at eye level with a 16-35mm shot at 16mm. Again nothing wrong with shooting wide but what are you trying to show at 16mm. Are you being lazy or gimmicky because your friend said one of your super-wide shots was cool or is there a reason. Choose the best tool for the job.
• Understand your lenses. Take them out on a date alone; leave the other ones at home. Spend a day with just a 50mm and get to know it intimately and understand how you like to use it. Not too intimately, I’m not endorsing getting it drunk and taking advantage of it.
• Practice the art of portraiture. A solid portrait can really add to a strong story. Also it will help you with your assignment work, I get loads of portrait assignments. I found a lot of my students were extremely weak at portraits.
• Don’t forget details. They are everywhere, so look around.
• Give your story serious thought on whether or not it will work visually. I had a lot of students come to me with grand ideas but they could only tell me they couldn’t show me. This isn’t to say you should just give up if your story isn’t obvious visually. You can be creative but do your research and give serious thought as to how spending a year with a particular story will progress and involve into something special.
• If you have a grand idea to spend a year following a family be up front with them about what you are doing and your expectations. Not everyone will want you in their life that often. It can be kind of strange having a photographer follow you around all the time, give it a try. Better to be upfront so you don’t get immersed in a story and then the subject doesn’t want you around after the first week.
A solid story can be a whole portfolio for a photographer or at least a key to an editor looking further into your work. Editors can learn a lot about a photographer by looking at their personal work and they get to know who you are. Personal work is also a way for you to explore your craft and expand your portfolio. You are competing with photographers who have put the time into a solid story and developing their style and vision so why limit yourself with a story you half assed and spent 2 days on.
That is all for now and of course I welcome more ideas in the comment section, just make sure they don’t contradict mine or aren’t more insightful than my advice, this is after all my blog. Obviously I’m joking, or am I, but seriously use the comment section to ask questions or post your ideas. I’d love to start a dialog from both newbies and veterans. Good luck on your next project.
My next blog will feature the work of the two winners from my two recent workshops.
