Telling a story is essential to any piece of journalism. Photojournalists have the same obligations to the public that print journalists do: to tell the truth, inform and entertain. Photos communicate emotions so effectively and pack quite a punch, so how can they effectively tell a story?
A photo essay needs a beginning, middle and end ideally. This concept is something I’ve been having difficulty with lately. I shoot and shoot and want to show every detail and face and scene but I need to work on self-editing. The juxtaposition of detail shots and broad shots of scenes will shock the viewer’s eye and draw them into the story.
Tim Gruber’s American Trucker is a wonderful example of a photo essay really telling a story with style. The lighting and tones give the photos a signature and whimsy.
A more serious example of a narrative binding photos together would be Havana by Orlando Barr. It tells the story of a place, a city through its people and buildings. Notice the order of the photos, Barr organizes them in the temporal order of a day, a Havana day. He begins with a silhouette at sunrise and ends with a silhouette at sunset. The essay feels complete and the audience encounters a neatly bound narrative.
