Street pics that tell a story

My wife looks at me like that every now and then when she is completely annoyed with whatever I may be doing. Most of the time, I don't blame her at all. However, I suppose that glance could be interpreted any number of ways. 🙂
My wife didn't appreciate my "Don't know what the fuss is about, this selfie shit is easy...." post on FB 9 yrs ago, she still looks at me the same way now and no interpretation needed.... 😉

518253885_10233018595780333_5460706708787048861_n.jpg
 
You could make a point that all good photos are telling a story. Sometimes to entertain us, sometimes to influence our opinion.

Ansel Adams photos toll us that nature was worthy of being preserved.

Dorothea Lannge told us that there was a part of the US population that needed society’s economic help to survive.

Robert Frank showed Europe what the US was all about.

Robert Capa and other war photographers visually told the story that war is hell.

Most of the best of them told their story and made their point so well that we did not realize we were subconsciously being educated.
 
You could make a point that all good photos are telling a story. Sometimes to entertain us, sometimes to influence our opinion.

Ansel Adams photos toll us that nature was worthy of being preserved.

Dorothea Lannge told us that there was a part of the US population that needed society’s economic help to survive.

Robert Frank showed Europe what the US was all about.

Robert Capa and other war photographers visually told the story that war is hell.

Most of the best of them told their story and made their point so well that we did not realize we were subconsciously being educated.
I agree with the point you've made. And perhaps without doing so consciously, you've possibly made a point that there might not be such a thing, really, as street photography, or landscape photography, portrait photography, etc. etc. Each shades imperceptibly into the other, and those categories are a convenience that facilitates discussion but does not reflect reality. My approach to photography is that there's Photography, full stop. In pursuit of a photographic project, I might take photographs that could be squeezed, conceptually, into any number of those genres. But I've found that trying to fit my work into a specific genre only creates unnecessary restrictions (in my head) about what I should or should not be shooting.
Of course, things are different for professionals. It's pretty hard to market oneself without a specialty!
 
U12155.1744485253.0.JPG

just driver?
 
Brasserie.jpeg

CasaArtigiana24-2.jpeg

ACloserLook24.jpeg

Gray2.jpeg

NunsWithMenSleeping24.jpeg

Playful3.jpeg

I could say a lot about each image however, for me, that defeats the purpose of the image. I heavily edit my work and only show street style images that may have a story for the viewer - often a different story for each viewer - my story for the image doesn’t/shouldn’t matter. If the image doesn’t have any dynamic to instigate a story for the viewer on its own merits or it requires me to add a comment or title to direct the viewers attention, then the image fails.
 
I agree with the point you've made. And perhaps without doing so consciously, you've possibly made a point that there might not be such a thing, really, as street photography, or landscape photography, portrait photography, etc. etc.
I see this as Ann area where it is easy to bet tangled up with semantics. Almost no one thinks about "telling a story" when they make a photo. But, many want their photos to "say something". Many realize their photos must elicit some sort of viewer response to have merit. We see photos that cause no response i our minds, typically those as we quickly scroll on by

Can you think of photos that you thought had merit but caused no emotional response with you? Or, in other w9rds, "told a story" just very simply.
 
I see this as Ann area where it is easy to bet tangled up with semantics. Almost no one thinks about "telling a story" when they make a photo. But, many want their photos to "say something". Many realize their photos must elicit some sort of viewer response to have merit. We see photos that cause no response i our minds, typically those as we quickly scroll on by

Can you think of photos that you thought had merit but caused no emotional response with you? Or, in other w9rds, "told a story" just very simply.
I can think of some photos that have merit but elicit no emotional response, but they are usually purely informational: I google a new restaurant, and there's a picture of the facade. The merit of that picture lies in its ability to help me recognize the restaurant quickly as I drive down the street. Purely functional.
But yes, pictures that matter tell a story, even if the story isn't recognized as a narrative by the viewer. Gentle light glances over a stone wall, for example, and becomes the "story" of how beauty came to be at that particular moment, and came to be seen by that particular photographer.
 
I agree with the point you've made. And perhaps without doing so consciously, you've possibly made a point that there might not be such a thing, really, as street photography, or landscape photography, portrait photography, etc. etc. Each shades imperceptibly into the other, and those categories are a convenience that facilitates discussion but does not reflect reality. My approach to photography is that there's Photography, full stop. In pursuit of a photographic project, I might take photographs that could be squeezed, conceptually, into any number of those genres. But I've found that trying to fit my work into a specific genre only creates unnecessary restrictions (in my head) about what I should or should not be shooting.
Of course, things are different for professionals. It's pretty hard to market oneself without a specialty!

Sometimes when I come to post pics I'm not always sure which thread they should go in and pick one which I think is the majority of the content and not always my original intention.

And on the other hand, I see others pics in certain threads and think, what! why? Wonder how many think the same of my posted pics?
 
This was taken during a public protest. An elderly Army veteran stands quietly among the crows, holding an American flag in his shirt pocket, calm and grounded as the movement around him. Seeing a veteran in this setting suggests something beyond politics. ** no political affiliation or motivation behind this image**
 
Back
Top Bottom