top of page
  • Writer's pictureJeremy H. Greenberg

Blog #139 One Photograph to Rule Them All

Blog #139 One Photograph to Rule Them All

Reader Rating

📷📷 Intermediate


There’s an old English idiom that a picture is worth a thousand words. Some feel that when words don’t suffice, photography can express what words cannot. Photography is absolutely a form of art and art a form of human expression. So is dance, sculpture, music, poetry, and other art forms human expression. In fact, early cave drawings were a type of shared image that predated the first proper French image burned onto a metal plate. Cave drawings probably predated language or at least as we know it today.


One image can tell a story in a powerful manner. Sometimes a few images can be used to tell a story. How many images are needed? One? Three? Five? Twelve? For a good example of this idea, see LensWork’s Seeing in Sixes Projects online here. These are really like short series rather than a story, per se. Nevertheless, they are really terrific small sets of related images. Photojournalism (and documentary photography) is a type of visual storytelling. For more words on this topic, click here.


It’s a good exercise for any artist/photographer to practice. Try to tell a complete story with one or maybe a few images. The goal is to put the viewer “there” wherever that might happen to be and to communicate something about a person, object, or event. Some action will need to be observed to be taking place, or will have to have taken place.


Of course there will be some information missing from the images so that the viewer can fill in the blanks with their imagination. That’s the point! I’ve included one sample image only in this blog to try to go for the gold so to speak and illustrate that one image is all it takes sometimes.


What do you think this image is about? Try your own mini story project. Make three!

The light is always right.


JHG


*Images: © Limelight Limited

Where: Hong Kong

Subject: One image that tells a story

Gear: Fujifilm X-T1 + Fujifilm XF 16-55mm f/2.8 R WR


Limelight Limited

Facebook Page

Instagram

Twitter

Dig in the Crates! [Blog Archives #1 - #137]



© 2018 Jeremy H. Greenberg

National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year 2017 Editor’s Favorite: Galleries: Week 4 Cities & People

Casual Photophile Tip & Techniques No. 001 The Subject is the Subject

Digital Photography School

Japan Camera Hunter

The Inspired Eye Photography Magazine Issue #40 (full interview)

Hong Kong Free Press: HKFP Lens

Blog #18 Criticizing Photographs or Beyond the “like”

Blog #25 Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark[room].

Blog #47 Composition, Composition, and More Composition

Blog #60 Atmosphere

Blog #65 Summer is for Travel (Hanoi)

Blog #67 Risks, Rules, & Restrictions

Blog #68 Photography is a Gift

Blog #69 On Restrictions

Blog #72 Living the Creative Life

Blog #85 [CAM/O]

Blog #90 Restrictions, Revisited

Blog #93 Photographic Technique

Blog #95 RED

Blog #105 Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign

Bog #118 Catching the Stars

Blog #119 Combinations

Blog #131 Limelight Limited

Dig in the Crates! [Blog Archives #1- #137]


 

#photography #professional #professional photographer #hongkong #photojournalism #visualstorytelling


10 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All
bottom of page