In previous chapters, we’ve looked at individual images, and even broken down images into their signs and compositional elements. Now we are shifting to principles and skills for building narratives using multiple images and visual elements.
Narratives & Sequencing
An individual image can make complex use of perception, composition and signs to create meaning. The addition of other photographs, text, color and other elements can create more complex narratives.
Similarity and contrast are foundational ideas in design. When elements are similar, we see that they go together. When elements are different, they catch our attention. This is important for understanding typography, color and layout, but it also relates to collections of photos.
This long-running photo essay is about four sisters, photographed each year. The similarities — same people, standing in the same order, always black and white — allow us to see that the photos go together. Each photo is an interesting snapshot on its own, but the contrasts tell a deeper story about the passing of time.
This photo essay about college friends revisiting campus 15 years later works in the same way, with intentional similarity in the places and poses allowing us to see the poignancy in the differences created by time.
Photo stories about a particular topic, such as this one about Peruvian sheep herders in the Northwest, have similarity with the people, places and topics. This continuity gives us a richer sense of the story than any one photo could on its own. To create contrast, the photographer must look for different compositions and perspectives. Some are close, some are far; some are still, some are filled with action.
For the next few questions, look at this photo essay about men with their cats.
✓ How does the photo essay about men with cats make use of similarity? How does it make use of contrast? (Make sure to click through and view the whole photo essay, not just the example photos on this page.)
🗨 This same idea could be approached in other ways. Do you think it would be more or less effective if the men and cats were all photographed in a studio against a white backdrop instead of in their homes? Do you think it would be more or less effective if they were candid photos rather than posed portraits?
For the next few questions, look at this photo essay about the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo.
✓ Describe at least five signs in the rodeo photos that viewers associate with the idea of “rodeo.” (How do we know this is a rodeo?)
🗨 If you could only choose one photo from this whole photo essay to represent the story, which one would you choose and why? (Make sure to click through and view the whole photo essay, not just the example photos on this page.)