We all can agree that pictures tell stories; a picture is worth a thousand words after all! If there is no story to be told or no emotions to be triggered, then regardless of how technically sound an image might be, it will be labelled worthless; maybe not so by whoever shot it, but by the audiences.
Then how do we tell the story? How do we capture that feeling or emotion?
Well, by the use of ambiance (colors, tones, shadows, perspectives / angles), or by capturing the right moments of portrayal of emotions by living beings (joy, loneliness, despair, love, hate, deep thought). Those all help tell stories and add an extra dimension to your images.
Though successful & easy to approach, it doesn’t really trigger the thirst & quench viewers have for more, for if I saw an image portraying an emotion that I connected to, I would most certainly wish to see more … and here comes the use of ‘projects’.
A photography project is basically a set of images that work together to tell a story, they may not sustain themselves separately, however together form a powerful story-telling medium. They should share a similar theme, location, feel or concept & should easily be linked to one another.
Examples of such projects could be a 12 photo set of an identical location shot throughout the year or an identical emotion represented by different sets of people, even perhaps a message delivered through a set of images. This is a very diverse & open field, limited only by the photographer’s imagination & ambition.
So what are you waiting for? Bring out your scratchpad & start planning your next project ;)