Ok, last and final assignment to go! So as the title suggests, I’m going to be looking at how photos tell a story or get a message across. Photo Journalism is something I’m quite interested in, how pictures tell events or how symbolism affects the style and influence of the image. It is important to understand how the subject and the treatment of the photograph in terms of composition, lighting etc can be measured and what the best balance of each is to a narrative photograph. To some extent it really does depend on what you are using the image for or what message you want to get across; a photo that is taken as a technical exercise which is of little interest to yourself might actually be the perfect image to portray the subject of which it was taken. For example a photograph of a detailed study of light shining through some leaves might have been quite uninteresting as a subject if you were only trying to find settings in the camera to adjust the light, but for a gardening magazine it might be a perfect backdrop to one of there articles.
Getting the balance right of subject and handling of the image is purely a personal thing, some of the worst taken photographs of historical news events are sometimes the best ones that capture the moment of chaos, but sometimes photos that have taken hours to prepare for are also just as good as getting the right emotions across to the viewer. For example here are some photos that I think are at there most extreme in terms what has been the most important element: subject or technical ability:
This photo was taken on my holiday to Spain, I just picked the camera up and took the shot without really thinking about the composition as the dancers were moving quickly, but the costumes and positions they were in were the most interesting part so I felt it made a good shot, even though I took no time to consider light, direction or any other skills I had learnt so far.The only thing I would say is that it was luck that there eye line draws you back and forth to create a more dynamic image.
I think this is on a technical basis one of my best pieces of work. Its not a particularly interesting subject as the road is quite bare and there is no definitive subject, but the composition of the lines in the frame and how they move, the implied triangle in the road amplifying the way the light disappears into the distance and the very long exposure and how it plays in the lighting all make for a very technically well put together image. It wouldn’t make the most interesting shot to hang on your wall but you can appreciate the skill and time that went into it.
So the age old discussion of subject versus design continues, and not just in photography; a piece of art work that is just painted lines can be adored by some yet hated by others as lacking any skill or emotion. So for this next assignment I will be looking into how well a story is told by the images that have tried to capture it, be that by a series of photos or one single shot that can say a multitude of words. In my opinion its the single shot photos that stir up real evocative emotions in the viewer that are the most profound and expressive photographs, they don't need any extra evidence to support or describe the story any further and are usually the most successful.
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