Research

Photographic storytelling is the art of conveying stories, ideas and viewpoints through the medium of photography. It is a great example of how photography is not just the practice of creating visually interesting or stunning pictures, but is about telling stories, real or fantasised.

Typically photojournalists create photo stories to share their editorial or journalistic work. These standalone documentary photography pieces are a great tool to capture readers’ attention, especially in today’s visual world. They can also be used as evidence or visual art that supports any stories/ information the photographers have to share.

There are many magazines that produce picture stories, for example the LIFE magazine which was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent “special” until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. On the website PictureCorrect, the magazine was said to be the only magazine which ‘has placed such fantastic emphasis on pure, honest, visual storytelling, and done it so well’. The LIFE magazine is said to have created images that provoke feelings of nostalgia when looking back at America’s ‘golden years’. I think LIFE is truly one of the best examples of photographic picture stories, presenting viewers with interesting photos with captions and descriptions that intrigued many.

Experimentation (in InDesign)