Photojournalism: Narrative Photography

Narrative photography proposes that an image or a series of images can make unfold a story; or make many stories unfold. It is visual storytelling through photographs.

Narrative Photography

The question is whether photographs are capable of telling a story? Photography captures single discrete moments; therefore there is no narrative

(that which has beginning, middle, and end. Narrative is irreducibly durative). Photography is only a face. How can one look at it and think, feel, or intuit what is beyond it? The camera's rendering of reality hides more than it discloses. Everything that we see hides another thing, Rene Magritte. Only that which narrates can make us understand; photography does not narrate, therefore photography cannot make us understand anything. In photography, the photographer invites us to get meaning out of the picture; in truth the viewers are getting only their meaning to the extant of what they have seen, heard, and read. Photograph cannot tell a story, so invitations to understand the story is to deduce, speculate, and fantasise. We only arrive at an illusion of knowledge.

It may be true, that there is no narrative story in a photograph. There is no beginning, middle, and end. But that is not the end. All fiction (story) is a well constructed fight against the absurd. They polish life for us, in the pretence of making it sensible to us. On the contrary, photography does not polish life for us. Photography facilitates narrative; it facilitates raw narratives. Photography is a window to the absurd. These are real images of life. It shows you life. An artist puts meaning into a piece of art, so that it fights against the absurd. A writer puts meaning into a piece of writing, so that it fights against the absurd. Photography does not put meaning into it, it just shows an image from life. It makes the viewer see the unpolished state of affairs (a story). The debate is on.

Study the PDF below (for academic use only)

Narrative Photography PDF

Considering the method of capturing the image narrative photography could be seen as:

Editorial Photography: Here pictures are never ‘set up’ or staged. These are mainly for news magazines, newspapers, and wire services. The photographer is a fly on the wall, only capture scenes unfolding in front of you. Editing these images would mean cropping, adjusting brightness and contrast, white balance, saturation, and sharpness.

Creative Photography: Creative here means ‘created’ or staged narrative photography. Examples are portraiture, studio work, corporate photography, etc. Here one has complete control of the situation. Can manipulate the light, the setting, and the subject to create an image that one wants. Here postproduction has no limits.

Photographic Tools for Narrative Photography

The use of following creative controls decide the narrativity of photographs. Narrativity refers to the processes by which a story is both presented by the storyteller, and interpreted by the viewer.

• Composition

• Light

• Colour

• Contrast

• Depth of Field

• Proportion

• Emphasis

• Subtext

Narrativity and Gestalt theory

The Narrativity of a photograph depends on how viewers perceive a photograph. Gestalt theory, devised by a group of German psychologists in the 1920, proposed that human mind groups together parts of an image instead of treating it as a series of unconnected elements. As Gestalt psychologist Kurt Koffka claims, “the whole is other than the sum of the parts”. For example if you were given the components of a motor vehicle, they would have no value unless they were combined to create a car in which you can travel.

A photograph is a configuration of lines, shapes, colour, composition, and context. Human brains automatically see structures, patterns, and connections.

Many Principles of Gestalt are at play in narrative photography:

Figure and ground
Similarity
Continuation
Closure
Proximity
Common fate
Simplicity
Emergence

Comments

Fan Ho’s Street Photography

The history of 20th-century street photography is incomplete without recognising the monumental contribution of Fan Ho. A master of light, shadow, and human connection, Ho captured the soul of mid-century Hong Kong , transforming everyday moments into timeless works of art. His unique vision blended a keen eye for geometry with a profound understanding of human dignity, leaving behind a body of work that continues to inspire and resonate. Fan Ho was born in Shanghai in 1931 and emigrated to Hong Kong in 1949, arriving at a moment of profound historical rupture when the city was rapidly transforming into a modern metropolis teeming with refugees, traders, and labourers. Armed initially with a simple camera given to him by his father, he began photographing the street life of the city as a teenager and would continue refining this practice over the course of six decades. Study the PDF below (for academic use only) Fan Ho's Street Photography PDF To fully appreciate Fan Ho’s photogr...

Indian Political Spectrum: Left, Right, and Centre

Left-wing, right-wing, and centre are terms used to describe different positions on the political spectrum. The terms left-wing and right-wing originated from the seating arrangements in the French National Assembly during the French Revolution (1789). Supporters of the King and the traditional social order sat on the president's right side. These were generally considered more conservative and resistant to change. Supporters of the revolution and those advocating for a more egalitarian society sat on the president's left side. These were seen as more progressive and willing to challenge the status quo. Over time, these seating positions became symbolic of broader political viewpoints. The terms "left" and "right" were eventually used to describe the entire spectrum of political ideologies, not just those present during the French Revolution. Left Wing focuses on equality, social justice, and reform. Left-wing ideologies generally believe in reducing econo...

Compassion Fatigue

What does one do when one’s compassion cup goes dry and empty; when one comes to a point where there is nothing more left to give? I lost my mother very recently. She was 93. For the last two and a half years, she was ill, and for the last one and a half years, she was bedridden. Though all her children, when they visited her, used to be generous in taking care of her needs, it was my brother and his wife who took care of her day in and day out. They did an amazing job; they regulated their daily routine to make sure that mother did not lack anything, they sacrificed their possible travels and outdoor fun activities to make sure that there was someone with mother always. As days passed, weeks passed, months and years passed, I could see exhaustion and a certain level of irritation setting in with them. There were feelings of helplessness and powerlessness in the face of distress and pain, for medically they could do nothing more for mother, except to give palliative care . Other...

Sigmund Freud on Creative Writing and Day-Dreaming

Freud in his essay, Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming, explores the psychological origins of artistic creativity and the impact of literature on readers. He draws parallels between the imaginative activity of creative writers and the day-dreaming of ordinary people. It is a discussion about the relationship between creative art and unconscious phantasy. In it, Freud talks about the role of daydreaming and fantasy in human behaviour, and how creative writers are able to express their daydreams without shame or self-reproach. Read the essay below (for academic use only) Creative Writers and Day Dreaming PDF Freud argues that the child's play and the adult's phantasies/daydreams share a common element—the desire to alter an unsatisfactory reality and fulfil unfulfilled wishes. The creative writer is like a successful daydreamer who is able to transform their private fantasies into works that provide pleasure to the audience. Freud suggests that the writer's choice of subject...

The Male Gaze and the Construction of Gender in Visual Culture

Visual culture encompasses the totality of images, visuals, and visual practices that shape our lived experience. It manifests through art, photography, cinema, design, and countless other forms, representing the ideas, customs, and social behaviours that revolve around visual materials. Visual culture is not merely decorative or informational; it is a powerful force that produces, circulates, and interprets visual forms to construct meanings, shape beliefs, and convey power within specific cultural contexts. From traditional artworks such as paintings and sculptures to mass media like film, television, and advertising, from digital platforms including websites, apps, and video games to everyday objects like fashion, logos, and packaging—all these elements communicate meaning and fundamentally shape our understanding of the world. The quality and impact of visual culture depend on two critical factors: the quality of the visual content created and the nature of the act of see...

Unapologetic Robert Frank and the 'The Americans'

I share birthday with Robert Frank , 9 November. He was a trailblazing Swiss-American photographer and documentary filmmaker. After being a fashion photographer, Frank freed himself from the rigid demands of technical perfection, teaching himself to capture the emotional truth, messiness, and patterns of everyday life. Robert Frank’s photographs were cut from the living fabric of American life. When he arrived from Switzerland in 1947, he brought with him not only a handheld 35mm Camera but also a clear, unburdened eye of an outsider. Frank saw something simmering beneath the glossy varnish of the "American Dream." The result was The Americans , a photobook that did not merely capture an era, but redefined the entire potential of photography; and its realism still has the power to tremble the ground beneath our feet. The Americans , first published in France in 1958, is Frank's undisputed masterpiece. Funded by a Guggenheim Fellowship , he took a series of road trips a...

The 'Last Supper' of Vincent van Gogh: ‘Café Terrace at Night’

In the autumn of 1888, during one of the most prolific periods of his artistic life in Arles, France, Vincent van Gogh produced what would become one of his most celebrated night scenes: Café Terrace at Night. Painted in September of that year and now housed in the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, Netherlands, the work depicts a lit café terrace on the Place du Forum spilling its warm amber light onto cobblestoned streets under a canopy of stars. On its surface, it is a masterwork of Post-Impressionist urban life — intimate, luminous, and quietly alive. Yet for more than a century, a persistent and provocative theory has shadowed the painting's reception: that Café Terrace at Night is not merely a depiction of a nocturnal café scene, but a deliberate, veiled, reimagining of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. Proponents of this theory, most notably the Flemish art historian Jef van der Burgh, argue that van Gogh encoded Christian iconography within the composition through th...

photo.graph.art.design

Search This Blog