Leonard Migliore
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That's what Rod Stewart said. And a great album, too.
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How can a single photo tell a story?
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yardcoyote
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Such a gorgeous image.
tko
Forum Pro
OK, I'll assume you're serious. There was a brilliant photo on this site a few years ago (by a Danielle I believe). A baseball glove, hanging on a chain link fence, dark clouds in the sky.
Obviously, there was a Little League baseball game that was canceled due to rain, and one kid, forgot his glove.
How do I know this? The way the glove was positioned, the emptiness of the field, everything just came together and told the story.
Obviously, there was a Little League baseball game that was canceled due to rain, and one kid, forgot his glove.
How do I know this? The way the glove was positioned, the emptiness of the field, everything just came together and told the story.
Are you associated with Photography Daily Theme or did someone there plagiarize your words?
"Now what makes a photograph good? A photo is made by “association.” Give anyone any photo and they will associate ideas and feelings with it. Our brains try and fill in the gaps with what we know and create a narrative around it. Triggering the right emotional responses, that’s what makes a photograph great. Because great stories equal real emotion."
Read more: http://www.the.me/how-a-single-photo-can-tell-a-story/#ixzz2svvAgJM7
This expression has always been sort of a pet peeve of mine. Photos don't tell stories. And when they suggest something, it's not really much of a story, is it ? I mean, I think of a story as something written down that takes a little time to read. Granted, a kid's story might take you no more than a minute or two. But someone posted a reply about a baseball glove hanging on a chain link fence that tells the story of a game that got cancelled due to weather. That's a story ? It might be the beginning of a story. Or the middle or the end. But try telling that story to someone. "A kid's little league game got rained out. The end."
You might suggest that I lack imagination, but I just left out the part that might come from my imagination. It's bound to be different for everyone viewing the picture and isn't being told by the picture.
Edit: I wanted to elaborate a little more on the above. To me, one power of photography is the ability to freeze a moment in time and give the viewer a moment to think about it. The glove on the fence (I haven't seen it, but can picture it) is a perfect example of the type of picture that symbolizes something bigger (same as the picture of the "Colored Entrance" someone posted that symbolizes segregation). I'm sure that this is what people mean when they say "tells a story"; I just think that's a very inadequate and inaccurate explanation for what's really going on.
Photos can illustrate a story. That's why National Geographic runs stories that are 20 pages long with 30 pictures accompanying them. They don't print just the pictures. And they don't print just one picture. Iconic photos can come to symbolize an event, but you had to be told about the event beforehand; later the photo reminds you of it. Many great photos are utterly transformed by captions. If photos could tell a story, they wouldn't need the captions.
There are plenty of great photographs that don't even suggest a story. Sports photos, like an outfield catching a ball. Was it the final out of a World Series game ? Or one of a thousand catches during practice ? The caption will tell you; the photo illustrates what happened. One of my favorite photo books is "Color Correction" by Enrst Haas featuring some intriguing abstracts. No stories.
I don't think I'm being pedantic when I claim that photos don't tell stories. Many don't do anything of the sort. Then there are those that illustrate a story or that show a moment in time that suggests a story. I think it's very useful for the newbie who's told that "In order to be good, your photos have to tell a story" to realize that it's not really possible; to understand what people really mean when they say that.
- Dennis
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Gallery at http://kingofthebeasts.smugmug.com
You might suggest that I lack imagination, but I just left out the part that might come from my imagination. It's bound to be different for everyone viewing the picture and isn't being told by the picture.
Edit: I wanted to elaborate a little more on the above. To me, one power of photography is the ability to freeze a moment in time and give the viewer a moment to think about it. The glove on the fence (I haven't seen it, but can picture it) is a perfect example of the type of picture that symbolizes something bigger (same as the picture of the "Colored Entrance" someone posted that symbolizes segregation). I'm sure that this is what people mean when they say "tells a story"; I just think that's a very inadequate and inaccurate explanation for what's really going on.
Photos can illustrate a story. That's why National Geographic runs stories that are 20 pages long with 30 pictures accompanying them. They don't print just the pictures. And they don't print just one picture. Iconic photos can come to symbolize an event, but you had to be told about the event beforehand; later the photo reminds you of it. Many great photos are utterly transformed by captions. If photos could tell a story, they wouldn't need the captions.
There are plenty of great photographs that don't even suggest a story. Sports photos, like an outfield catching a ball. Was it the final out of a World Series game ? Or one of a thousand catches during practice ? The caption will tell you; the photo illustrates what happened. One of my favorite photo books is "Color Correction" by Enrst Haas featuring some intriguing abstracts. No stories.
I don't think I'm being pedantic when I claim that photos don't tell stories. Many don't do anything of the sort. Then there are those that illustrate a story or that show a moment in time that suggests a story. I think it's very useful for the newbie who's told that "In order to be good, your photos have to tell a story" to realize that it's not really possible; to understand what people really mean when they say that.
- Dennis
--
Gallery at http://kingofthebeasts.smugmug.com
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They say imitation is flattery, but it's alway annoying to see someone copy a quote from someone else without attribution, or even indicating they read it somewhere else, rather than copying it and giving the impression they came up with it.
I'll contact DPR as there is a member here matching the article's "writer".
Thanks for the head's up.
Wellington100
Forum Pro
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, which is enough words for a story.
tko
Forum Pro
This blog seems relevant (who wrote the shortest short story). Note the last sentence: Short shorts like these are dependent on the reader to have an active imagination.
Augusto Monterroso is a Guatemalan short story writer best known for his 8-word story titled “El Dinosaurio”:
Short shorts like these are dependent on the reader to have an active imagination. Without it the reader will complain that they aren’t stories, just sentences.
Doesn't this sound just like our discussion on whether a photo can tell a story? You need to use your imagination, otherwise all is lost. Imagination greatly increases the enjoyment of anything. Read a novel, the mind fills in the blanks. Sights, smells, sounds, feeling come alive.
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medium.com
Augusto Monterroso is a Guatemalan short story writer best known for his 8-word story titled “El Dinosaurio”:
The imagination does so much work with stories like this. They’re economical, direct, and yet they still carry a power greater than themselves.
Short shorts like these are dependent on the reader to have an active imagination. Without it the reader will complain that they aren’t stories, just sentences.
Doesn't this sound just like our discussion on whether a photo can tell a story? You need to use your imagination, otherwise all is lost. Imagination greatly increases the enjoyment of anything. Read a novel, the mind fills in the blanks. Sights, smells, sounds, feeling come alive.
Les Berkley
Senior Member
Attributed (probably wrongly) to Ernest Hemingway, who wrote a novel in six words.
"For sale: Child's shoes, never worn."
"For sale: Child's shoes, never worn."
Those 'shorts' are very much like the photos that some people claim tell a story. I still say they don't tell a story, but inspire a story. And I'm not saying that's not valuable; I'm just saying it's different, and I think newbies can be intimidated into thinking their photos have to be so much more than they are.
That example you gave: "When I woke up, the dinosaur was still there" is nothing I would call a story. It's something I could imagine being handed out in a class on story writing as an inspiration, an idea, a starter. You could publish a book of them for the amusement of people who find them clever ... kind of like photographers publish books of photographs for the amusement of people who find them clever !
Interestingly, the article you linked quotes a 6-word "story" that has been credited to Hemingway, but was more likely an ad in a newspaper. So you could easily imagine that ad and go around saying that classified ads tell a story. Any little slice of a story can inspire the imagination to come up with the rest of the story. And yes, that's what some good photographs do, but I find it important to distinguish that from actually "telling a story".
"Mommy, mommy, tell us a story !"
"OK ... the little bunny got up extra early that morning. Now go to sleep"
Anyway, thanks very much for posting that, because I think it's the best analogy of what kind of writing can be simulated by a photograph, and maybe what people really mean when they say a photo tells a story.
- Dennis
That example you gave: "When I woke up, the dinosaur was still there" is nothing I would call a story. It's something I could imagine being handed out in a class on story writing as an inspiration, an idea, a starter. You could publish a book of them for the amusement of people who find them clever ... kind of like photographers publish books of photographs for the amusement of people who find them clever !
Interestingly, the article you linked quotes a 6-word "story" that has been credited to Hemingway, but was more likely an ad in a newspaper. So you could easily imagine that ad and go around saying that classified ads tell a story. Any little slice of a story can inspire the imagination to come up with the rest of the story. And yes, that's what some good photographs do, but I find it important to distinguish that from actually "telling a story".
"Mommy, mommy, tell us a story !"
"OK ... the little bunny got up extra early that morning. Now go to sleep"
Anyway, thanks very much for posting that, because I think it's the best analogy of what kind of writing can be simulated by a photograph, and maybe what people really mean when they say a photo tells a story.
- Dennis
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hotdog321
Forum Pro
Some stories, some events, are important within their context and can tell part of the story. No story or image exists in a vacuum or tells the whole story. But sometimes an image can tell an important part of that story. Sorry if these examples are a bit old--I don't do cutting edge photojournalism anymore.
Branch Davidian burns:
Mega Borg in Gulf of Mexico:
Crash rescue from construction site:
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev during final May Day of Soviet Union:
"Bushed." An exhausted George H.W. Bush at the end of a long, tough campaign.
I've got plenty of others, but you get the idea.
Attachments
Something "of the sort" yes
Someone posted a link (in reply to mine or Lee Jay's post) about a type of short story that really just suggests a story. Anyway, trying to say that many excellent photos don't even suggest a story (like abstracts) while others don't *tell* a story, but maybe a small slice of a story.
- Dennis
The author of the following article said it was inspired by a DPreview forum.
http://www.the.me/how-a-single-photo-can-tell-a-story/#ixzz2svvAgJM7
What he did not say is that he used words without asking permission from darklamp.
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/53085944
http://www.the.me/how-a-single-photo-can-tell-a-story/#ixzz2svvAgJM7
What he did not say is that he used words without asking permission from darklamp.
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/53085944
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D
Donald B
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jackdan said:
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Gwynnnnnnnn
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Just a thought (just)
Perhaps...
A story is just a collection of words that only have meaning becuase we the readers understand the context and fill in the gaps with our imaginations and then extend beyond what is directly presented - just like photographs. We interpret what we see/read.
Could we then really say that 'words are just words'. For me this is not a reality. Words (and images) are powerful and yes, 'inspire' my imagination into the possible stories/outcomes/situations.
So my vote is that for me both tell stories (or is that neither tell stories?).
Gwynn
Perhaps...
A story is just a collection of words that only have meaning becuase we the readers understand the context and fill in the gaps with our imaginations and then extend beyond what is directly presented - just like photographs. We interpret what we see/read.
Could we then really say that 'words are just words'. For me this is not a reality. Words (and images) are powerful and yes, 'inspire' my imagination into the possible stories/outcomes/situations.
So my vote is that for me both tell stories (or is that neither tell stories?).
Gwynn
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