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Life at Lawrence

Wildlife on campus: a photo essay through the lens of student kai frueh.

I’ve been fascinated by the natural world since I was very young. I spent many of my early years exploring the forest and streams in the Oregon coast range with friends and family. When I was 12, my best friend started birding, and while we were out in the woods exploring, he would point out species to me. I quickly became hooked on watching birds, and this has developed into a hobby (well, maybe more of an obsession). As I started to watch more and more birds, I decided to get a camera so I could capture some of the spectacular animals I would see while out in the field. Over the last seven years, I have continued to photograph birds and now have a curated library with about 10,000 photographs from more than 500 species of birds.

Wildlife enthusiasts often think about going to a national wildlife refuge, a state park, or maybe a national forest. But we have animals that live around us all year; in fact, quite a few species can be seen without even leaving the Lawrence University campus. More than 140 species of birds have been found on campus, 92 of which I have seen since the start of this academic year, and even more can be seen on a short walk off campus on one of the trails along the Fox River. I’ve also seen numerous mammals such as a red fox, American mink, and white-tailed deer, plus four species of rodents. These neighbors can easily be missed if you do not pay close attention to your surroundings. With busy schedules, it’s easy to forget that many other creatures call our campus home.

The best way to spot our animal friends is to watch closely for movement or listen—about 75% of the animals I find are heard first—but remember to watch them from a respectful distance and never approach or feed wildlife on campus.

Editor's note: Kai Frueh has written about birds and birding for Oregon Birds magazine , the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Black Swamp Bird Observatory. His photos appear in Oregon Birds magazine , Cornell Lab’s Merlin Bird ID App, and Birds of the Pacific Northwest: A Photographic Guide .

Kai Frueh ’25 is a student photographer in the Office of Communications.

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How to Create an Engaging Photo Essay (with Examples)

Photo essays tell a story in pictures. They're a great way to improve at photography and story-telling skills at once. Learn how to do create a great one.

Learn | Photography Guides | By Ana Mireles

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Photography is a medium used to tell stories – sometimes they are told in one picture, sometimes you need a whole series. Those series can be photo essays.

If you’ve never done a photo essay before, or you’re simply struggling to find your next project, this article will be of help. I’ll be showing you what a photo essay is and how to go about doing one.

You’ll also find plenty of photo essay ideas and some famous photo essay examples from recent times that will serve you as inspiration.

If you’re ready to get started, let’s jump right in!

Table of Contents

What is a Photo Essay?

A photo essay is a series of images that share an overarching theme as well as a visual and technical coherence to tell a story. Some people refer to a photo essay as a photo series or a photo story – this often happens in photography competitions.

Photographic history is full of famous photo essays. Think about The Great Depression by Dorothea Lange, Like Brother Like Sister by Wolfgang Tillmans, Gandhi’s funeral by Henri Cartier Bresson, amongst others.

What are the types of photo essay?

Despite popular belief, the type of photo essay doesn’t depend on the type of photography that you do – in other words, journalism, documentary, fine art, or any other photographic genre is not a type of photo essay.

Instead, there are two main types of photo essays: narrative and thematic .

As you have probably already guessed, the thematic one presents images pulled together by a topic – for example, global warming. The images can be about animals and nature as well as natural disasters devastating cities. They can happen all over the world or in the same location, and they can be captured in different moments in time – there’s a lot of flexibility.

A narrative photo essa y, on the other hand, tells the story of a character (human or not), portraying a place or an event. For example, a narrative photo essay on coffee would document the process from the planting and harvesting – to the roasting and grinding until it reaches your morning cup.

What are some of the key elements of a photo essay?

• Tell a unique story – A unique story doesn’t mean that you have to photograph something that nobody has done before – that would be almost impossible! It means that you should consider what you’re bringing to the table on a particular topic.
• Put yourself into the work – One of the best ways to make a compelling photo essay is by adding your point of view, which can only be done with your life experiences and the way you see the world.
• Add depth to the concept – The best photo essays are the ones that go past the obvious and dig deeper in the story, going behind the scenes, or examining a day in the life of the subject matter – that’s what pulls in the spectator.
• Nail the technique – Even if the concept and the story are the most important part of a photo essay, it won’t have the same success if it’s poorly executed.
• Build a structure – A photo essay is about telling a thought-provoking story – so, think about it in a narrative way. Which images are going to introduce the topic? Which ones represent a climax? How is it going to end – how do you want the viewer to feel after seeing your photo series?
• Make strong choices – If you really want to convey an emotion and a unique point of view, you’re going to need to make some hard decisions. Which light are you using? Which lens? How many images will there be in the series? etc., and most importantly for a great photo essay is the why behind those choices.

9 Tips for Creating a Photo Essay

Credit: Laura James

1. Choose something you know

To make a good photo essay, you don’t need to travel to an exotic location or document a civil war – I mean, it’s great if you can, but you can start close to home.

Depending on the type of photography you do and the topic you’re looking for in your photographic essay, you can photograph a local event or visit an abandoned building outside your town.

It will be much easier for you to find a unique perspective and tell a better story if you’re already familiar with the subject. Also, consider that you might have to return a few times to the same location to get all the photos you need.

2. Follow your passion

Most photo essays take dedication and passion. If you choose a subject that might be easy, but you’re not really into it – the results won’t be as exciting. Taking photos will always be easier and more fun if you’re covering something you’re passionate about.

3. Take your time

A great photo essay is not done in a few hours. You need to put in the time to research it, conceptualizing it, editing, etc. That’s why I previously recommended following your passion because it takes a lot of dedication, and if you’re not passionate about it – it’s difficult to push through.

4. Write a summary or statement

Photo essays are always accompanied by some text. You can do this in the form of an introduction, write captions for each photo or write it as a conclusion. That’s up to you and how you want to present the work.

5. Learn from the masters

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Making a photographic essay takes a lot of practice and knowledge. A great way to become a better photographer and improve your storytelling skills is by studying the work of others. You can go to art shows, review books and magazines and look at the winners in photo contests – most of the time, there’s a category for photo series.

6. Get a wide variety of photos

Think about a story – a literary one. It usually tells you where the story is happening, who is the main character, and it gives you a few details to make you engage with it, right?

The same thing happens with a visual story in a photo essay – you can do some wide-angle shots to establish the scenes and some close-ups to show the details. Make a shot list to ensure you cover all the different angles.

Some of your pictures should guide the viewer in, while others are more climatic and regard the experience they are taking out of your photos.

7. Follow a consistent look

Both in style and aesthetics, all the images in your series need to be coherent. You can achieve this in different ways, from the choice of lighting, the mood, the post-processing, etc.

8. Be self-critical

Once you have all the photos, make sure you edit them with a good dose of self-criticism. Not all the pictures that you took belong in the photo essay. Choose only the best ones and make sure they tell the full story.

9. Ask for constructive feedback

Often, when we’re working on a photo essay project for a long time, everything makes perfect sense in our heads. However, someone outside the project might not be getting the idea. It’s important that you get honest and constructive criticism to improve your photography.

How to Create a Photo Essay in 5 Steps

Credit: Quang Nguyen Vinh

1. Choose your topic

This is the first step that you need to take to decide if your photo essay is going to be narrative or thematic. Then, choose what is it going to be about?

Ideally, it should be something that you’re interested in, that you have something to say about it, and it can connect with other people.

2. Research your topic

To tell a good story about something, you need to be familiar with that something. This is especially true when you want to go deeper and make a compelling photo essay. Day in the life photo essays are a popular choice, since often, these can be performed with friends and family, whom you already should know well.

3. Plan your photoshoot

Depending on what you’re photographing, this step can be very different from one project to the next. For a fine art project, you might need to find a location, props, models, a shot list, etc., while a documentary photo essay is about planning the best time to do the photos, what gear to bring with you, finding a local guide, etc.

Every photo essay will need different planning, so before taking pictures, put in the required time to get things right.

4. Experiment

It’s one thing to plan your photo shoot and having a shot list that you have to get, or else the photo essay won’t be complete. It’s another thing to miss out on some amazing photo opportunities that you couldn’t foresee.

So, be prepared but also stay open-minded and experiment with different settings, different perspectives, etc.

5. Make a final selection

Editing your work can be one of the hardest parts of doing a photo essay. Sometimes we can be overly critical, and others, we get attached to bad photos because we put a lot of effort into them or we had a great time doing them.

Try to be as objective as possible, don’t be afraid to ask for opinions and make various revisions before settling down on a final cut.

7 Photo Essay Topics, Ideas & Examples

Credit: Michelle Leman

• Architectural photo essay

Using architecture as your main subject, there are tons of photo essay ideas that you can do. For some inspiration, you can check out the work of Francisco Marin – who was trained as an architect and then turned to photography to “explore a different way to perceive things”.

You can also lookup Luisa Lambri. Amongst her series, you’ll find many photo essay examples in which architecture is the subject she uses to explore the relationship between photography and space.

• Process and transformation photo essay

This is one of the best photo essay topics for beginners because the story tells itself. Pick something that has a beginning and an end, for example, pregnancy, the metamorphosis of a butterfly, the life-cycle of a plant, etc.

Keep in mind that these topics are linear and give you an easy way into the narrative flow – however, it might be difficult to find an interesting perspective and a unique point of view.

• A day in the life of ‘X’ photo essay

There are tons of interesting photo essay ideas in this category – you can follow around a celebrity, a worker, your child, etc. You don’t even have to do it about a human subject – think about doing a photo essay about a day in the life of a racing horse, for example – find something that’s interesting for you.

• Time passing by photo essay

It can be a natural site or a landmark photo essay – whatever is close to you will work best as you’ll need to come back multiple times to capture time passing by. For example, how this place changes throughout the seasons or maybe even over the years.

A fun option if you live with family is to document a birthday party each year, seeing how the subject changes over time. This can be combined with a transformation essay or sorts, documenting the changes in interpersonal relationships over time.

• Travel photo essay

Do you want to make the jump from tourist snapshots into a travel photo essay? Research the place you’re going to be travelling to. Then, choose a topic.

If you’re having trouble with how to do this, check out any travel magazine – National Geographic, for example. They won’t do a generic article about Texas – they do an article about the beach life on the Texas Gulf Coast and another one about the diverse flavors of Texas.

The more specific you get, the deeper you can go with the story.

• Socio-political issues photo essay

This is one of the most popular photo essay examples – it falls under the category of photojournalism or documental photography. They are usually thematic, although it’s also possible to do a narrative one.

Depending on your topic of interest, you can choose topics that involve nature – for example, document the effects of global warming. Another idea is to photograph protests or make an education photo essay.

It doesn’t have to be a big global issue; you can choose something specific to your community – are there too many stray dogs? Make a photo essay about a local animal shelter. The topics are endless.

• Behind the scenes photo essay

A behind-the-scenes always make for a good photo story – people are curious to know what happens and how everything comes together before a show.

Depending on your own interests, this can be a photo essay about a fashion show, a theatre play, a concert, and so on. You’ll probably need to get some permissions, though, not only to shoot but also to showcase or publish those images.

4 Best Photo Essays in Recent times

Now that you know all the techniques about it, it might be helpful to look at some photo essay examples to see how you can put the concept into practice. Here are some famous photo essays from recent times to give you some inspiration.

Habibi by Antonio Faccilongo

This photo essay wan the World Press Photo Story of the Year in 2021. Faccilongo explores a very big conflict from a very specific and intimate point of view – how the Israeli-Palestinian war affects the families.

He chose to use a square format because it allows him to give order to things and eliminate unnecessary elements in his pictures.

With this long-term photo essay, he wanted to highlight the sense of absence and melancholy women and families feel towards their husbands away at war.

The project then became a book edited by Sarah Leen and the graphics of Ramon Pez.

Picture This: New Orleans by Mary Ellen Mark

The last assignment before her passing, Mary Ellen Mark travelled to New Orleans to register the city after a decade after Hurricane Katrina.

The images of the project “bring to life the rebirth and resilience of the people at the heart of this tale”, – says CNNMoney, commissioner of the work.

Each survivor of the hurricane has a story, and Mary Ellen Mark was there to record it. Some of them have heartbreaking stories about everything they had to leave behind.

Others have a story of hope – like Sam and Ben, two eight-year-olds born from frozen embryos kept in a hospital that lost power supply during the hurricane, yet they managed to survive.

Selfie by Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer whose work is mainly done through self-portraits. With them, she explores the concept of identity, gender stereotypes, as well as visual and cultural codes.

One of her latest photo essays was a collaboration with W Magazine entitled Selfie. In it, the author explores the concept of planned candid photos (‘plandid’).

The work was made for Instagram, as the platform is well known for the conflict between the ‘real self’ and the one people present online. Sherman started using Facetune, Perfect365 and YouCam to alter her appearance on selfies – in Photoshop, you can modify everything, but these apps were designed specifically to “make things prettier”- she says, and that’s what she wants to explore in this photo essay.

Tokyo Compression by Michael Wolf

Michael Wolf has an interest in the broad-gauge topic Life in Cities. From there, many photo essays have been derived – amongst them – Tokyo Compression .

He was horrified by the way people in Tokyo are forced to move to the suburbs because of the high prices of the city. Therefore, they are required to make long commutes facing 1,5 hours of train to start their 8+ hour workday followed by another 1,5 hours to get back home.

To portray this way of life, he photographed the people inside the train pressed against the windows looking exhausted, angry or simply absent due to this way of life.

You can visit his website to see other photo essays that revolve around the topic of life in megacities.

Final Words

It’s not easy to make photo essays, so don’t expect to be great at it right from your first project.

Start off small by choosing a specific subject that’s interesting to you –  that will come from an honest place, and it will be a great practice for some bigger projects along the line.

Whether you like to shoot still life or you’re a travel photographer, I hope these photo essay tips and photo essay examples can help you get started and grow in your photography.

Let us know which topics you are working on right now – we’ll love to hear from you!

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Ana Mireles is a Mexican researcher that specializes in photography and communications for the arts and culture sector.

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Life with Animals: A Photo Essay of Wild Domestic Animals in Armenia

June 25, 2016 Nature And Wildlife

Wild horses – living far from people. Spring – May, 2007.

They live in a completely different world. They’re perfect and have no need to be better. They are simply what they are. They feel your energy, even if you don’t communicate with them, don’t talk with or touch them. It seems they feel your aura. I talk about a world that seems to be close to us, but at the same time, we know little about–the world of animals. I think people need animals to become kinder and happier–to have bigger hearts. 

David Sarkissian (filmmaker) and I used to love animals, but loving was not enough for us. It wasn’t enough to feed and save many homeless, motherless, and sick animals. We wanted to do something more, to show the world their true nature and beauty. So, we decided to shoot a film. We chose domestic animals as our film heroes, because most of them become victims of human whims. They live with people, which is the reason they seem less interesting and more ordinary.

Our film-shooting days became the happiest days of our lives. In the village, people warned us not to approach untamed animals—such as the horses that lived on a nearby mountain. People said the horses had killed several men. However, when we reached the top of the mountain, I was suddenly no longer able to determine if I was experiencing a dream or reality. It was like a page of a fairy tale book. The horses were completely wild and had never known a saddle, a loud human cry, or a lash. We quickly realized that the only way we were going to be able to achieve the kinds of extraordinary images we wanted was to become a part of nature, to forget we were humankind, to become one of them. We needed to understand the language their hearts were talking.

Female horse lifting David up with her teeth.

The horses accepted us at once–a great honor for us. The bonding process began when I went and lay down very close to them. The stallion (the herd included only one male) came to me and began to smell my foot. I could barely manage to control my urge to cry out with happiness. My heart was jumping out of my chest. His nostrils were so huge that, as he smelled me, they were pulling at my trousers like a vacuum cleaner. Then other horses moved closer, one after another, to smell as he had. They loomed over me, gigantic and powerful. When they had sniffed their fill, they began eating grass next to me. I understood that they had chosen to trust me. Then David came and lay down. He had the good fortune to be able to enjoy the same happiness that I had; he was also accepted. In fact, one mare liked him so much that she took his trousers into her teeth and began to lift him up.

The horses were beautiful and free. There was no mind-thinking, no conscious or subconscious, only feelings which were on the highest level of purity. One day, when I was sitting, a foal approached me from behind. I didn’t turn to look at her, so I wouldn’t scare her. She smelled my hat before suddenly seizing it and running away. David and I called her “Lirb,” which means “crazy girl” in Armenian. 

“Lirb” with her mother. She was so active and that was disturbing everyone.

Artsrun and his son Saqo with one of their oldest female horses, which is 13 years old.

The herd was owned by Artsrun Voskanian, who had dreamed of owning a herd of horses since his childhood, but his father had never let him. Little Artsrun saved his money for years in order to purchase his first horse, but his father gave it away when Artsrun wasn’t home. His father used to tell him that having animals was not a “serious” job. Artsrun didn’t manage to collect his horses until he was already a married man. Now he has ninety-two wild ones that he loves with no expectations of receiving anything in return. His horses love him and can recognize his voice from far away.

One day, the horses proved just how much they had come to trust me. I was walking with my dog that I call Dingo. Suddenly Dingo noticed some wild birds and began to bark and chase them. I turned around just in time to see a group of horses preparing to attack. I didn’t know what was happening, but I began to talk to them, saying things like, “Hey, what’s the matter? Don’t you recognize me?” Once they recognized my voice, they calmed down. Later, Artsrun explained that was a very dangerous moment, because the horses thought Dingo was a wolf. They were getting ready to fight to protect their young. They could have killed my poor little dog.

In addition to horses, animals such as cows, sheep, pigs, donkeys, and huge dogs (that reminded me of black bears) also lived in the area. David and I wanted to capture the most intimate shots possible, so we often set up our camera among the animals and went away. Once they were confident we were gone, the animals would investigate our camera, coming close enough to poke their noses into the lens.

A h ungry baby drinks the milk of her mother. This mother had 15 piglets.

What a strange flower?

We didn’t have to be absent for the animals to vent their curiosity. One day, while I was shooting resting sheep, I felt strange breath from behind me. I turned and met a huge face—eye-to-eye. The donkey began to smell my face, ears, and shoulders. I kissed his nose, and I think he liked it, because he learned where my mouth was and stayed close to it all day. We rested together; I talked to him; he ate from my hand (by the way, he ate all my bread). I think he fell in love with me.

Self portrait – a sweet kiss for a donkey.

She could stand and look inside the lens like a monument. I wondered what was she thinking that time!

The sheep were also interesting. I sat among them, doing nothing, just sat and tried not to think about anything. I was attempting to be like them, to become one of them. They came closer and began looking into my eyes. They seemed wise. They seemed to be talking with me, seeing every cell in my soul. Even when they were resting, they appeared to be meditating. The kids liked to touch everything that was strange. They were curious about my camera, my face, and my clothes. They liked to lick the camera and chew on my jacket and my shoe-laces.

C0pyright © Osvanna Hovsepyan

Little kid looks at me and is afraid to get his nose closer.

David and I were accepted by the cows, as well. In fact, they licked us so much that we didn’t need to take baths. (I took this picture after having a cow give my face a big lick.) I had the good fortune to be a midwife for a little calf. She was born in May and she seemed to be cloaked in gold, so we called her May-Gold. She was born to a fourteen-year-old cow named Maral (which means “beautiful girl”), who had mothered ten other calves. The birth was very difficult, and we worried that the baby would die. But, luckily, we were in the right place at the right time, and everything is fine now. Little May-Gold is healthy and beautiful. 

She looks at me after giving me a big lick to my face .

She was born and shining like gold.

In contrast, the dogs that lived there had a reputation in the village of being very dangerous. People said the dogs had lived free in nature so long that they had reverted to the instincts of wild animals. They certainly were not like the dogs we were used to seeing in human company. They were huge and heavy. When they played with us, they rolled us on the ground beneath their weight, and we had trouble breathing. 

Self portrait – he used to rest next to me every time I lay down on the ground.

When we were with the animals, David and I felt like we had joined a big family. Sadly, our film is not only about the happy life of animals, but also about the ways in which animals are used for transportation, food, and clothing. This article, however, reflects the dream of letting animals be what they are, without forcing them to fit roles that people find appropriate. I wrote about a dream that I had the good fortune to realize.

by Osvanna Hovsepyan

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