I’ve been playing with storytelling recently. I’ve found a number of photographers that I admire that all seem to be telling visual stories with their photography. I suppose they would be labelled as “documentary photographers” and dismissed by some who make more “artistic” statements with their photography, but I find their work to be highly artistic. I am also finding it to be incredibly challenging to do.
One of the things I’m really starting to pay attention to is mood in an image. While a lot of that is created through color tones and subject matter I was especially struck by the huge mood differences that a shift in a subject’s body language can create. As an example I thought I would share these two images I shot recently of my wife and son in our dining room. I am standing outside the house looking in.
Which one do you like? Do you have a sense of why you like that image more than the other. Can you identify a particular mood or emotion that either of these images invokes in you? And can you relate that mood or emotion to why you liked the image more or less than the other?
image 1
image 2
Hmmmm, the first one feels sad to me based on the expressions on the faces as if someone is from the family is gone. The second one is more pensive, more like waiting or thinking.
It’s more difficult for me to say which one I prefer. If it’s for storytelling then I would need to see the rest of the images to see which one is stronger.
Hope that makes sense! Can’t wait to see more from you, Brian!
Thanks so much for your comment, Sabrina. I’m glad that you engaged with the images with what made sense to you. One of the things I am playing with is the idea of the value of the image rather than attraction/repulsion. Knowing why one is attracted to an image can be as helpful as knowing why one is repulsed. Context can influence that “viewer purchase” (a term I heard recently at the judging of a photography contest…) so I hesitate to give context at this time. I’m quite curious with how folks will interact with the images based on their own bias, experiences, interpretations. I have my own interpretations which I find really interesting given my very different experience of the moment of making the images. Just thinking aloud here…:)
Oh, and I’m looking forward to more from me too! 🙂
Mind says “like first one better”. Okay, let me see why.
First pic: woman and boy are not particularly aware of the camera or if they are, it is the first visual awareness and they are still in the their own personal thoughts.
Makes me wonder about them more. Why is the woman turned away from the boy, looking out of the home, looking down? The boy looks sad (love his downturned mouth).
I wonder what is happening in that moment.
Second pic: both of them seem more self conscious. Boy is looking at camera, the woman less “internal” (lines of eyes and mouth, body less sunk in to itself). I don’t wonder about them as much.
More difficult to tell what I would think if I only saw second pic and didn’t compare it to first. But I definitely respond to the first and not much to second.
My morning coffee thoughts. -_-
Thanks very much for your comment, Kathy. That is a very interesting observation that you are less drawn to the second image because you don’t wonder about the subjects as much. That is very helpful to me as I continue to learn about photography and especially as I learn to create a visual narrative.
~Brian