photographer artist essay

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Is Photography Art? — Both Sides of the Debate Explained

I s photography art? This question has been debated since the creation of the first camera, and is still sometimes contested to this day. The answer may seem obvious to those working within the photographic medium, but there is some dissent, even within the artistic community. We will be playing devil’s advocate and taking a look at both sides of the is photography art debate.

Photography definition in art

Defining art.

Before we can answer is photography art? We need to make sure we have a rock-solid definition of “art.” Art means different things to different people, so for the purposes of total clarity, we’ll be going by the dictionary definition.

For any other unclear terms, our ultimate guide to film terminology is a great resource for looking things up.

PHOTOGRAPHY DEFINITION IN ART

What is art.

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines art as: “the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects.” The dictionary also defines a work of art as something that is “produced as an artistic effort or for decorative purposes.”

So, is photography art? Based on this definition, it seems pretty clear that photography is considered a visual art. The umbrella of art is far reaching and can encompass any skillful creative endeavor. Despite the inherent artistic value in still photography, there are still plenty of individuals who would argue that photography is not an artistic pursuit. Let’s elucidate their point of view.

Does photography count as art?

Debunking why photography is not art.

Those on the opposing side in the is photography art debate rely on a few different arguments to make their case. One common stance against photography as art is that photography captures reality rather than creating a subjective reality, which is what “real art” does.

Why photography is not art stance: it merely captures reality

Taking this into consideration, does photography count as art? If so, what type of art is photography? It is easy to debunk the stance that derides photography as an art form.

The idea that photography cannot do any more than capture a moment of real life is quite reductive to the entirety of what makes photography art. 

You needn’t look far to find examples of aesthetic photographs that push the bounds of objective reality.

A clear-cut example of photography as an artform

It is easy to view the photographer as artist when taking all of the creative photography choices they make into consideration: subject, lighting techniques , camera framing , lens choice , symbolism , technical settings, post-processing, and many more decisions are what makes photography art.

What type of art is photography? In this case, surrealism

This same argument that opposes the classification of the photographer as artist because they capture reality also suggests that there is no artistic merit in capturing a moment in time that shows real life plainly. Believing this argument suggests that the work of street photographers is non-artistic.

What is photography in art? The answer may be subjective

In the debate over is photography a form of art , suggesting that capturing reality is not artistic devalues the important photographic work done by the likes of war journalists, which is not a favorable stance to hold when taking historical context into account.

What is fine art photography if not candid images showcasing the horrors of war

The importance of war photographers, sports photographers , and other photojournalists can not be understated.

Is photography a fine art? This powerful photo from the Vietnam war says yes

Let’s dig deeper into what made photography an art form initially.

Photography as an Art Form

What made photography an art form.

Is photography art or science? When the first camera was invented , the question: is photography a fine art? was certainly more open to debate. The development of photography as an art form happened quickly. The practice of photography began rooted in science and experimentation but it wasn’t long for photography to be considered a visual art.

A case could be made for science in the question: is photography art or science? But, what made photography an art form in the first place was the application of science in the creation of art. What type of art is photography? The answers are as limitless as with any other medium. Just as a painter uses paint, a brush, and a canvas, the photography uses a camera and film as their tools.

What is photography in art?

Is photography art — arguments against.

Is photography art? Another time-tested argument against an affirmative answer has to do with replication. This argument posits that since photographs can be replicated infinitely, their artistic value is inherently lower than a traditional work of art, such as a painting, that was made by hand and exists as a one-of-a-kind piece.

Copies and prints can be made of a painting, but the original painting remains a singular work of art elevated above all subsequent copies.

What is fine art photography

Some detractors answer the question is photography a form of art on a conditional basis. There are people who assert that a still photograph is never art, while there are others who assert that photography is considered art under the right circumstances, but that not every photograph taken is automatically considered a work of art.

Acclaimed visual artist Roger Ballen holds a complicated view on is photography art? He believes there is an important distinction between a photographer and an artist who uses photography as their medium.

What is photography in art? Roger Ballen answers

Now that we’ve heard from those who don’t believe photography is art, at least not in all instances, let’s hear from the other point of view.

Related Posts

• What is Double Exposure? →
• What is Overexposure in Photography? →
• Types of Camera Lenses for film and photography →

Is photography art?

The case in favor of photography as art.

It is plain to see that a carefully composed , exposed , focused , and captured image has inherent artistic value. Photography, as a medium, can shade reality with new context and meaning. Messages and symbolism can be conveyed through the presentation of a still image.

The juxtaposition of visual elements can take on new value when frozen in time as a photograph. All of the near-infinite photographic variables and possibilities make it clear that photography is artistic

This TED Talk examines photography as a form of creative self-expression.

TED Talk by Flore Zoe

The manipulation of different camera types as tools, and of the visual subject as a canvas make for endless photographic potential. The first cameras in history maybe have been used more for the purposes of documentation rather than art, but it was not long before the artistic potential of the camera was first explored. Drawing, painting, and sculpting existed as art forms for thousands of years before the invention of the camera.

Whenever a new art form comes into existence, there is a hesitancy from the industry’s gatekeepers to recognize the new with the same reverence as the old .

Over time, barriers to artistic acceptance have been eroded and the pretentious protection of “traditional art” has lessened. These days, the general consensus is that photography is, in fact, an art form. For tips on taking artistic photographs, check out the video below.

How to Take Artistic Photographs

More So than with photography, a debate continues as to whether or not filmmaking is artistic. Any passionate filmmaker or cinephile will tell you, “Yes! Of course filmmaking is art!” But there are individuals who do not share that point of view. If you believe that filmmaking and photography are art forms, then we have numerous articles that can help further your understanding and appreciation of these creative mediums.

Cameras for Photography and Video

Is photography considered an art form? Absolutely. The most important piece of technology when working as a photographer or a videographer is the camera. There are many different types and models of cameras on the market these days. Telling them apart and, more importantly, knowing which one to choose for your own projects can be a challenge. Our camera guide can bring you up to speed on the different types of cameras available to you.

Up Next: Types of cameras →

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Essays About Photography: Top 5 Examples Plus Prompts

Discover the joy of photography by reading our guide on how to write essays about photography, including top essay examples and writing prompts. 

It is truly remarkable what pictures can tell you about the time they were taken and their subjects. For example, a well-taken photograph can expose the horrors of conflict in a war-torn country or the pain endured by victims of racial persecution. At the same time, it can also evoke a mother’s joy after seeing her newborn baby for the first time. Photography is crucial to preserving precious moments that deserve to be remembered.

Photography can be considered a form of art. So much intent is put into a picture’s composition, subject, angle, and lighting. There is a lot of talent, thought, and hard work that goes into photography to produce such thought-provoking images, 

If you are writing essays about photography, you can start by reading some examples. 

5 Essay Examples To Inspire You

1. why photography is a great hobby by lillie lane, 2. the importance of photography by emily holty, 3. why i love photography by bob locher.

• 4.  The Shocking History Of Death Photography by Yewande Ade
• 5. ​​Fashion photography by Sara Page

5 Helpful Prompts On Essays About Photography

1. what is your favorite thing to photograph, 2. why is photography so important, 3. should photography be considered an art form, 4. different types of photography, 5. interpretations of photographs.

“Be imaginative when writing your shots. Photography is about the impact of your chances. The odds are good that nobody will care to check over your picture When it is an item in a background. Discover how to produce a fantastic photograph, and take these skills and use them.”

Lane gives readers tips on taking better photos in this essay. These include keeping balance, choosing a subject widely, investing in certain pieces of equipment, and using the appropriate settings for taking pictures. She stresses that photos must appear as natural as possible, and following her advice may help people to get good pictures. 

“No matter where you go photography plays into your life somehow. We don’t realize how big of an impact photography truly has on us until we see the details of our life hidden in a photograph. When you flip through your photo album and start looking for those details you suddenly realize you are truly blessed. A photograph keeps a moment frozen in time so we have it forever. Something like joy becomes clearer as we look deeper into the photograph.”

Holty does an excellent job of describing what makes photography so appealing to many people. You can take a picture of anything you want if you want to remember it, and photos help us look at the intricacies and details of what we see around us every day. Photography also helps us keep memories in our heads and hearts as time passes by, and most of all, it allows us to document the greatness of our world. It is ever-present in our lives, and we will keep taking photos the more adventures we have. 

“Every day in normal circumstances people take thousands of pictures of the Grand Canyon. It takes very little thought to realize that few if any of these pictures will be in any way noteworthy above pictures already taken. But that said, they are OUR pictures, our personal affirmation of the wonderful scene stretched out below us, and that gives them a special validity for us.”

Locher reflects on the role photography played in his life and why he enjoys it so much, partly due to his spirituality. He previously worked in the photographic equipment business and rekindled his love for photography in his 60s. Photography, to him, is a way of affirming and acknowledging God’s creations around him and appreciating the natural world. He also briefly discusses the importance of equipment and post-editing; however, no photo is perfect. 

4.   The Shocking History Of Death Photography by Yewande Ade

“In fact, it was easier for the photographer if the dead person was in a sleeping position because there would be no need to put him or her in an appropriate position or prop the eyes open. The restful pose gave some families comfort because it made them believe that their loved one(s) had passed on happily and to a more peaceful realm. It gave the semblance of death as a painless act like sleep.”

An interesting phenomenon in the history of the camera is post-mortem photography, in which deceased people, usually children, were posed and made to look “alive,” to an extent, so their loved ones could remember them. This was done as a way of mourning; the subjects were made to look as if they were merely asleep to give their loved ones comfort that they had passed on peacefully and happily. Eventually, a reduction in the death rate led to the end of this practice. 

5. ​​ Fashion photography by Sara Page

“Modern fashion photography differs because photographers aim to be extraordinary with their work, they know that extra ordinary will interest the audience much more It is extremely evident that fashion photography has changed and developed throughout the years, however there is not just reason. It is clear that fashion photography has changed and developed because of advancements in technology, change in attitudes and the introduction of celebrities.”

Page’s essay focuses on the history of fashion photography and some techniques used in practice. It dated back to 1911 and astonished the public with glamorous photos of people wearing perfectly-styled outfits. As the years have gone on, photographers have taken the lighting of the photos more into account, as well as their settings. In addition, editing software such as Photoshop has allowed even better photos to be produced. Fashion photography has only become more extravagant with the current social culture. 

In your essay, write about your favorite subject when you take pictures- is it people, landscapes, objects, or something else? Explain why, give examples, and perhaps elaborate on your camera settings or the lighting you look for when taking photos.  

Photography is an important invention that has helped us immensely throughout the years- how exactly? Explain why photography rivals painting and why it is essential. Then, write about its importance to you, the entire world, and humanity. 

Some say photography pales compared to the intricacies of music, painting, sculpture, and even cinema and should not be considered a form of art. For an interesting argumentative essay, determine whether photography is genuine art or not and defend your position. Explore both sides of the topic and give a strong rebuttal against the opposing viewpoint. 

From street photography to food photography to portraiture, many different types of photography are classified according to the subject being captured. Write about at least three types of photography that interest you and what they entail. You may also discuss some similarities between them if any. Check out our list of the top CreativeLive photography courses .

Like other works of art, a photograph can be interpreted differently. Choose a photo you find exciting and describe how you feel about it. What is being portrayed? What emotions are being evoked? What did the photographer want to show here? Reflect on your chosen work and perhaps connect it with your personal life. 

For help with your essays, check out our round-up of the best essay checkers . If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips !

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How to Write an Artist Statement - All you Need to Know

Your artist's statement is your chance to talk not just through your art but about your art. You can use your artist's statement to reveal the concepts, philosophy, themes and ideas behind your artwork and this useful guide will tell you how!

What is an Artist Statement? 

 An artist's statement is as important as an artist's work. Simply put, the artist statement is a brief description of your artworks that shapes the viewers' perspective when they are looking at your art.

Think of it as your substitute when you are not present to answer questions related to your art. Art is subjective. People will look at your craft and evaluate it. So, it helps if you communicate your story to the viewer. Viewers often have questions about the art they are looking at. An effective artist statement answers those questions while you are not there.

Writing an artist statement should ideally be natural and free flowing because essentially, you are expressing your own story. However, it can seem challenging to put one together. 

Creative professionals write artist statements as part of their online portfolio. An online portfolio acts as your professional address and launchpad to find work opportunities and recognition. Artist statements go hand-in-hand with a online portfolio website . A website helps you gain credibility and legitimacy. Take a look at some great examples of artist portfolio websites .

Create your artist portfolio website  on Pixpa within minutes without any coding. Start your free trial. No credit card required .

Given below are a few valuable tips from professional essay writers that will help you to write a clear, concise, and compelling artist statement.   Here are stunning  great tattoo artist portfolio website examples  designed for your use. 

How to write an artist statement – The structure

Your artist statement is about YOU. So you must make it personal. Writing an artist statement is also an exercise for you to clarify your ideas about your work. 

• What is the intent and purpose of your art?
• What does it say about you as an artist?
• What keeps you motivated every day?
• What is your artist story?
• What questions are you often asked about your work?
• Who is your audience

You must establish the connection between what you are creating as an artist, and why are you doing it. How are you expressing your ideas with the medium of your choice?

Your artist statement is an introduction to your work and should be no more than 100 -150 words. The opening sentence should be distinct and captivating and draw the readers in. Begin with a short paragraph about the basic premise behind your work, artistic style, and vision. What do you want to say with your art? What is it that makes your work unique? What inspires you? What makes you stand out from the rest of the artists working in your space? 

Be honest about your work. Avoid repetition of words. Use simple language and short sentences that draw attention to, and illustrate your ideas to your audience 

The next paragraph should be a concise expression of the type of work presented and the artistic process. Describe your job, your favorite colors, and your technique as an. As a photographer, explain your work from a creative and technical standpoint.

An artist statement can be a full-page statement or a short statement, only focusing on your current project.

In a full-page artist statement, do remember to include the following:

• The reason behind creating your work and its history
• Overall vision
• The context of your work -Medium, artistic process, technique, and influences. Highlight what materials you work with and your sources and inspiration
• The expectations of your audience and how they perceive your work
• Your current work’s relation to your previous projects
• How your work fits with current contemporary art practice

Tip: While writing, do remember that you should avoid exaggerated statements and avoid pretentiously grand terms like 'the only one' or the 'best.'

Where is an artist statement used?

Remember, an artist statement complements your bio or resume.  It is an opportunity to help the reader envision your work before actually seeing it, and present a picture of who you are as an artist. 

Here are a few places where you may need to submit your artist statement:

• To a gallery owner or curator who needs details about your work.
• To a competitive event or an artist collective.
• When applying to graduate school
• When applying for grants or art scholarships
• When applying for a teaching position.
• To a reviewer who is writing about your work for a magazine or catalog.
• As an introduction to your creative work for potential buyers.

Along with your portfolio of works, you must have an artist statement ready at all times. It is the first point of communication between you as an artist and the viewer.

Examples of famous artist statements

Here are some artist statement examples that you can get inspired from:

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, silkscreen print

"I long for the old days of Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn, stars who had real glamour and mystique. We only knew so much about their lives; the rest was a mystery… My fascination with letting images repeat and repeat – or in a film's case 'run on' – manifests my belief is that we spend much of our lives seeing without observing."

Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi. Wikipedia

"The beginnings and ends of shadow lie between the light and darkness and may be infinitely diminished and infinitely increased. Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow."

Painting by Berthe Morisot

"It is important to express oneself… provided the feelings are real and are taken from your own experience… My ambition is limited to capturing something transient, and yet, this ambition is excessive."

From any of the sample artist statements above, you can understand that conveying the purpose of your art and your philosophy towards it is important.

Check out these great examples of  artist portfolio websites  for your inspiration and further examples of artist statements.

Tips for writing a compelling artist statement:

1. share the inspiration behind your art.

One of the best ways to introduce your art to the viewers is to write about the inspiration behind it. This lays a foundation before you begin to explain your artwork to your viewers. Inspiration can be a daily phenomenon or a particular incident. Regardless, explain it in as simple words as you can. This act accomplishes the principal goal of connecting with the viewer. Not doing so leaves a viewer unconnected, especially if it's abstract art. Without it, your art is a splash of multiple colors on canvas with nothing to make of it.

2. Shape the viewer's perspective

The next important thing to do when you write an artist statement is to explain your art in words that would shape the perspective of viewers. Your art is your viewpoint, and one can easily misunderstand it. To ensure that you and the viewer are on the same page, add a line or two to explain your art. But, restrain from divulging all the details about your work. Try to leave a little room for curiosity such that the viewer is bound to further inquire about your art.

3. Keep the artist statement as small as possible

If you are wondering how long should your artist statement be, then you should know that lengthy biographies drain viewers, especially when they are out to see beautiful art. A lot of fancy words make a statement boring and challenging to comprehend. A long-winded explanation makes the work appear insecure.

Some of the best artist statements are under 100 words. A rule of thumb that you can follow here is - the shorter, the better. Find an example of an artist statement that you can relate to and get inspired by ideas from it.

Consider this as the most critical point in your lessons on how to write an artist statement. An effective artist statement is anywhere from a hundred words to one-page-long. To bring your statement in this range, cut down on technical details and fancy words that you may have included in your artist statement.

4. Use an active voice

Write your artist statement in an active voice. It makes the tone more conversational as if you are speaking to your viewer in person. It establishes an instant connection with the viewer. Use online editing tools like  the Hemingway  App to ensure that your artist statement appears in the active voice. 

5. Avoid spelling and grammatical mistakes

One of the primary purposes of an artist statement is to draw the audience into your artworks and lead them to explore your art further. A sloppy artist statement puts a reader off, departing them with less interest or no interest in art at all. Inconsistency in writing, typos, and spelling errors might turn a viewer away.

You can use tools like  Grammarly  to avoid small grammatical mistakes. A well-punctuated, typo-free, artist statement is a joy to read.

Here's a simple list of do's and don'ts to sum everything up. You can use this as your artist statement format:

Do’s - Best practices to create a successful artist statement

• Keep your artist statement short
• Be specific and on the point
• Bring clarity, confidence and focus on your statement
• Write about 'Why' you created the artwork
• Use precise details such as where you are from, where you live, your medium and style of work
• Use active voice
• Always write in the first person. Use "I" instead of "you" in your sentences. This helps in writing a statement that is easily readable by the viewer. Do remember to keep your bio updated

A few DONT’S to remember while writing your artist statement:

• Don't be pompous. It shouldn't just highlight your accomplishments.
• Do not generalize or romanticize
• It should not be too long 
• Avoid grammatical errors
• Don't use unnecessary references or things unrelated to your work
• Do not use passive voice
• It should not read like a cliched vision statement
• Do not summarize your biographical information or CV in your artist statement

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Do get feedback about your artist statement from your friends, peers, and mentors, before you start using it. Make sure that you get at least three people to proofread it for you. A good practice is to have a friend read the artist statement aloud to you. Hearing it out loud can help you identify mistakes and assess the statement objectively.

Make sure that your artist statement converses in a simple language that everyone understands.

Remember, your artist statement will not just represent your work on your artist portfolio. It will also serve as an example of your professionalism and expertise. An effective artist statement will draw more people to your work, enhance their experience, and help them appreciate it.

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Four Arts of Photography: An Essay in Philosophy

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Paloma Atencia-Linares, Four Arts of Photography: An Essay in Philosophy, The British Journal of Aesthetics , Volume 58, Issue 3, July 2018, Pages 327–329, https://doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayx004

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There are three main things that Dominic Lopes does in his most recent book Four Arts of Photography. Firstly, he retraces and summarizes traditional thought about photography by early writers—practitioners, cultural critics—and mainstream philosophy of photography. In a systematic way, Lopes lays out in an argument, with various clear premises, scattered but recurrent traditional views about the nature of the medium and the underlying scepticism regarding the artistic capacity of photography. Secondly, and partly in response to this tradition, Lopes proposes an alternative approach—what he calls The New Theory. This New Theory promises to be broader in scope than the orthodox view: it offers a novel view on the idea of what counts as a photograph, and it aims to address and account for various photographic practices that were neglected by the tradition—mainly non-epistemic practices. Finally, interspersed in the development of the former dialectic, Lopes proposes four categories that aim to capture four ways in which photography may become art. Elegantly, he does this by responding to four different sceptical premises or assumptions of traditional theories. In doing all this, the book not only provides the reader with a helpful guide to the history of thought about photography from various traditions—something quite unusual and certainly praiseworthy, as probably the majority of books on photography are focused on a specific ideological approach: historical, critical or philosophical; it also informs us about the wide variety of photographic practices and their different sources of artistic value; furthermore, the book projects thought about photography into the future by offering a new philosophical framework and set of ideas.

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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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Artist Statements for photography

An artist statement should address or include the following:

• A poetic interpretation of your work, supporting the conceptual and visual connections in your work.
• Self awareness of how other artists or sources have inspired or influenced you to make your work.
• A brief discussion about  why you are making the work

Avoid writing a statement that simply describes how the work has been made or offers a written explanation of the visual strategies employed in making the work.  If you are not sure whether you are being too literal in your statement, consider the following guide;

• If a viewer can see it in the image, don’t describe it in your statement

A poetic interpretation of your work

This is an important part of any statement as it supports the ideas and concepts in the work.  Sometimes you may feel the need to explain why certain aspects of your work is important to you, or why you choose a particular theme, or you may want to articulate something about the background of your ideas.

For me, the American West is the place where things fall apart.  When I was a boy, I got to know it via films, Westerns and adventure stories by German writer Karl May.  Whenever I imagined the West, I saw incredible country that had only just been conquered, in a fairly recent past, the 19th century.  When I went there, I thought that because I had been present when the West was won, so it speak, civilization must be established there.  But it wasn’t at all: civilization simply passed through… Wenders, W. (1987)  Written in the West . Schirmer Art Books, pg. 11.

A poetic interpretation can also consider how you want to support the way people experience your work.

Self awareness and inspiration

An artist statement submitted for assessment should also articulate and provide evidence of your influences and sources, and how they have helped shape or inform the ideas in your work.  Simply adding a quote, or including a long list of books in a bibliography is not enough.  If you quote another source, you must form a discussion around  the content of the quote.

Perhaps the easiest way to address an artist statement is to start with  why .  Why are you making this work, why are you choosing, above all other things, to photograph the thing you are photographing?  Answering this question in the statement will begin to help you formulate ideas for the statement.

Some examples and links

Tate Gallery, UK

Around 1998 I was commissioned to do a work involving the Thames. I came over to London and spent a lot of time around the river. The river is mesmerising and I felt deeply drawn to it. At the same time, I had just ended a long love relationship and was extremely sad. So the two things came together in what I now see was a kind of vicarious suicide. This is Still Water (The River Thames, for Example) (1999). It is a series of pictures of the water that are footnoted with whatever I was thinking of at the time, what the river provoked in me and what was in the river itself.

I had this fabulous assistant, Helena Blaker, who helped me to research the river, get some basic facts, and it turned out that the darkness of the river, which I thought was simply mud, etc, was in fact the darkness of London. We were able to interview the river police, taxi drivers, whoever worked on or knew the river, and through them we found out incredible things. The Thames attracts a very high number of suicides, many from other countries, and a significant number of so-called deaths by misadventure and death by extremely violent means – lots of dismemberment and so on. More research from Dickens to Conrad revealed that this darkness had historic dimensions as well.

I think of my images of the Thames as a mirror. All the associative images that coalesce around this work, whether it is the similarity of the water with the desert or with aspic, the endless range of imagery, is a product of photographing something that is a master chameleon. Or the ultimate mime. The ultimate mime is the thing that keeps its distinction from everything else. When you think about that fact – of imitation or reflection and the possibility of losing your identity in that connection – you realise how water never loses its identity, it is always discretely itself. And I am deeply drawn to that possibility of existing in two spaces at the same time, without any contradiction; a lot of paradox but no contradiction, a lot of things being the opposite of what they are, but somehow they can carry on with being both sides of the story. The river chameleonised me, as it had done London. So this peculiar reciprocity drew me in deeper and deeper. And the footnotes (taken from another water) weave all of this together.

Heidi Museum of Modern Art, March to July 2013

Wall text (Curator’s Statement)

Over a career spanning almost forty years Fiona Hall has been variously described as an alchemist, an adventurer an eco-writer, and a creative genius. She is best known for her transfiguration of commonplace materials into extraordinary organic forms that have both contemporary and historical resonance.  Her interdisciplinary practice attends to the complicated relationship between nature and culture, celebrating the marvels of the natural world while engaging head-on with issues as wide-ranging as gender politics and colonial history.

In recent years worldwide environmental destruction has become Hall’s predominant concern.  This exhibition draws attention to the Earth and its life-forms as battlefields and wastelands decimated by the violent forces of human greed and folly.  Two major bodies of work on this theme are brought together, augmented by an array of conceptually linked installations and individual pieces highlighting environmental debates.  In Fall Prey , Hall’s focus is on critically endangered species from across the globe and the degradation of the ecosystems they inhabit.  The accompanying Kermadec works shift the agenda to the unique marine environment of the Kermadec Trench on the Pacific Rim of Fire; a ten kilometer-deep cradle of life teeming with biodiversity and under threat from the mining and fishing industries.

Big Game Hunting represents the artist’s love of, and lamentation for, the natural realm.  In it she navigates the volatile terrain of environmental politics, exposing our role in abetting the disappearance of species and depletion of biosystems.   While her message is universal and her art communicates to everyone, like an archaeological site it must be excavated layer by layer to fully yield its secrets.  Visual stimulation, intellectual engagement, wit, and wonder are to be found in equal measure, underpinned by a powerful warning to humanity: as Hall observes her work is a ‘carrion call, sounding the siren in a dying wilderness’.

THE BARBARIANS AT THE GATE

This installation links the lives of bees, universally accepted as ‘social’ insects, with the colonial concept of nation-state building.  With colonization and other movements of people over the centuries, bees have spread with plants and other animals into foreign habitats, forever changing world ecologies.  Their ordered colonies have been likened to societies with rigorous town planning or to prisons, while their habits have inspired Western imperialists to the extent that they are now being trained by the American military to detect bombs.  The term drone is used to describe unmanned surveillance and missile aircraft.  Today bees are themselves threatened by colony collapse, at the hands of twenty-first century ‘barbarians’.

The Barbarians at the gate draws particular attention to the history of conflict in the Middle East.  Nineteen beehives are painted in military camouflage patterns associated with the nineteen countries that have sent armed forces to this region, which to Hall are ‘very strange bedfellows’, that speak ‘volumes about historical allegiances and divides’.  Each hive supports an architectural icon representing a regime of power within that country, alerting us to the many forces at play in both the history of colonization and the globalization of identities.

Sample Statements from  Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on their art Johnson, B. (2004)  Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on their art . Norfolk, Va. Aperture Foundation / The Chrysler Museum.

I want that chocked up feeling in your throat which maybe comes from despair or teary-eyed sentimentality: conveying intangible emotions.

A photograph should transcend itself, the image, its medium, in order to have its own presence.

These are pictures of emotions personified, entirely of themselves with their own presence – not of me.  The issue of identity of the model is no more interesting than the possible symbolism of any other detail.

When I prepare each character I have to consider what I’m working against; that people are going to look under the make-up and wigs for that common denominator; the recognisable.  I’m trying to make other people recognise something of themselves rather than me.

I have this enormous fear of being misunderstood, of people thinking the photos are about me, that I’m really vain and narcissistic.  Then sometimes I wonder how it is I’m fooling so many people, I’m doing one of the most stupid things in the world which I can’t even explain, dressing up like a child and posing in front of the camera trying to make beautiful pictures.  And people seem to fall for it.  (My instincts tell me it must not be very challenging then.)

Believing in one’s own art becomes harder and harder when the public response grows fonder.

Though it is generally accepted that abstract art refers to those works inspired by the imagination of the artist rather than by objective reality, in photography, in which images are produced by the lens, this distinction is difficult to sustain.  In the broadest sense of the term, an optical image is an abstraction from the natural world – a selected and isolated fragment of what stands before the camera.  When the selected image is self-explanatory and does not imply more than what lies within the area it is usually referred to as abstract, that is, independent of its surroundings – a pattern of rock, for example, or lichens, or grasses.  On the other hand, in the wider scenic view common in most landscape photography, the selected image implies a world outside the limits encompassed by the lens.

Photography of nature tends to be either centripetal or centrifugal.  In the former, all elements of the picture converge toward a central point of interest to which the eye is repeatedly drawn.  The centrifugal photograph is a more lively composition, like a starburst, in which the eye is led to the corners and edges of the picture: the observer is thereby forced to consider what the photographer excluded in his selection.

I do not photograph for ulterior purposes, I photograph for the thing itself – for the photograph – without consideration of how it may be used.  Some critics suggest that I make photographs primarily to promote conservation, but this allegation is far from the truth.  Although my photographs may be used in this way, it is incidental to my original motive for making them which is first of all for personal aesthetic satisfaction…

Ultimately, to be successful as a work of art, a photograph must be both pleasing and convincing.  It must not leave the viewer in doubt about the validity of its subject, whether representational or imaginary.  Every part must contribute to the unity of the image from corner to corner – no discordant note should be permitted.

I’ve been a photographer since I was a teenager.  My mother was a baby photographer, going door to door.  I always had my Rolleiflex and strobe with me because I was working for my parents.  I never thought about photography in other terms, as art or anything.  But then I went to a commercial photography school which happened to be in an art school.  So I was exposed to kids who were doing art and to a lot of the documentary photography from the old Life magazine of the fifties when they were doing those great photo essays.  Eugene Smith had quit Life because they wouldn’t give him enough time to do the assignments.  He was always writing these diatribes about the truth, and how he wanted to tell the truth, the truth, the truth.  It was a real rebel position.  It was kind of like a teenager’s position: why can’t things be like they should?  Why can’t I do what I want?  I latched on to that philosophy.  One day I snapped, hey you know, I know a story that no ones ever told, never seen, and I’ve lived it.  It’s my own story and my friend’s story.  I would go back to Oklahoma and start photographing my friends.  That’s when it snapped – I wanted to be a story teller; tell a story.  Which I hate even to admit to now, because I hate photojournalism so badly.

In the beginning, I was just trying to make photographs.  Someone would come in and I’d see a light and shadow and recognise things that were dramatic.  First of all, I was trained as a portrait photographer.  And you’ve got to make people look good or you don’t get your $10.95.  Second, they’re my friends and they’re seeing the photographs as we go along.  If you’re coming back and showing pictures where they don’t look good, they’re not going to want you to take their pictures any more.  Many photographers and photojournalists are great at grabbing the picture, being quick and focused and framing the composition but they don’t care what the people look like.  I did.  I could do all that plus get the person to look like I would like them to look, or they would like to look.

The shot of Billy on the bed with a gun, I always looked at that as alike a baby picture.  If you looked at some of the baby pictures my mother or I took, it could have been that pose.  I didn’t get it at first, but I knew it was great.  It was a natural picture.  With the white sheet on the background it could be a studio picture.  I was able to get that quality when it was actually happening, that quality of looking up.  People often ask if I set these pictures up and then say, ‘No you couldn’t have, but how did you get them to look like that?’

It (Tulsa) came out right after I finished it in 1971.  The first section is 1963, the middle section is 1968, and then the last section is 1971.  About half of the book is 1971.  I went to Tulsa and did all those pictures in a matter of months.  I knew every aspect of the life and knew what was missing from the book.  I went back and was almost … waiting for those photographs to happen.  I didn’t know how they would happen but I knew I would be ready.  It was a real hot period.

There is nothing as mysterious as a fact clearly described.  What I write here is a description of what I have come to understand about photography, from photographing and from looking at photographs.

A work of art is that thing whose form and content are organic to the tools and materials that made it.  Still photography is a chemical, mechanical process.  Literal description, or the illusion of literal description, is what the tools and materials of still photography do better than any other graphic medium.  A still photograph is the illusion of a literal description of how a camera saw a piece of time and space.  Understanding this, one can postulate the following theorem: Anything and all things are photographable.

A photograph can only look like how the camera saw what was photographed.  Or, how the camera saw the piece of time and space is responsible for how the photograph looks.  Therefore, a photograph can look any way.  Or there’s no way a photograph has to look (beyond being an illusion of a literal description).  Or, there are no external or abstract or preconceived rules of design that can apply to still photographs.

I like to think of photographing as a two-way act of respect.  Respect for the medium, by letting it do what it does best, describe.  And respect for the subject, by describing it as it is.  A photograph must be responsible for both.

I photograph to see what things look like photographed.

I really don’t care what my father looked like, and I’m sure you don’t very much either.  What is important however, is what did or did not transpire between us.  That lack of communication, love, conflict is my legacy, my history.  This is what matters to me, and this is what I want to share with you.  I write with this photograph not to tell you what you can see, rather to express what is invisible.  I write to express these feelings.  We are our feelings.  Photography deals exquisitely with appearances, but nothing is what it appears to be.

I photograph my children growing up in the same town I did.  Many of the pictures are intimate, some are fictions and some are fantastic but most are of ordinary things every mother has seen; a wet bed, bloody nose, candy cigarettes.   They dress up, they pout and posture, they paint their bodies, they dive like otters into the dark river.

They have been involved in the creative process since infancy.  At times, it is difficult to say exactly who makes the pictures.  Some are gifts to me from my children: gifts that come in a moment so fleeting as to resemble the touch of an angel’s wing.  I pray for that angel to come to us when I set the camera up knowing that there is not one good picture in five hot acres.  We put ourselves into a state of grace we hope is deserving of reward and it is a state of grace with the Angel of Chance.

When the good pictures come, we hope they tell truths, but truths ‘told slant,’ just as Emily Dickinson commanded.  We are spinning a story of what it is to grow up.  It is a complicated story and sometimes we try to take on the grand themes: anger, love, death, sensuality and beauty.  But we tell it all without fear and without shame.

Memory is the primary instrument, the inexhaustible nutrient source; these photographs open doors into the past but they also allow a look into the future.  In Beckett’s Endgame , Hamm tells a story about visiting a madman in his cell.  Hamm dragged him to the window and exhorted; ‘Look! There!  All that rising corn! And there!  Look!  The sails of the herring fleet!  All that loveliness!” But the madman turned away.  All he’d seen was ashes.

There’s the paradox; we see the beauty and we see the dark side of things; the cornfields, the full sails, but the ashes as well.  The Japanese have a word for this dual perception; mono no aware .  It means something like ‘beauty tinged with sadness.’  How is it that we must hold what we love tight to us, against our very bones, knowing we must also, when the time comes, let it go?

For me, those pointed lessons of impermanence are softened by the unchanging scape of my life, the durable realities.  This conflict produces an odd kind of vitality, just as the madman’s despair reveals a beguiling discovery.  I find contained within the vertiginous deceit of time its vexing opportunities and sweet human persistence.

In this confluence of past and future, reality and symbol, and Emmett, Jessie and Virginia.  Their strength and confidence, there to be seen in their eyes, is compelling; nothing is so seductive as a gift casually possessed.  They are substantial; their green present is irreducibly complex.  The withering perspective of the past, the predicable treacheries of the future; for this moment, those familiar complications of time all play harmlessly around them as dancing shadows beneath the great oak.

In my portraits, I try to capture something universal, but something personal at the same time.  I look for specific things that set my sitters apart – little details, like a certain gesture or gaze, which makes them different than other people.

I go to my subjects where they are in their own reality, rather than photographing them in the studio.  I like to photograph them in their natural circumstances.

As a photographer you enlarge or emphasize a certain moment, making it another reality.  In the photograph you can scrutinize all kinds of details, you can see things you normally would not pay so much attention to.

My whole idea of working has a lot to do with how humans live.  How we live, how I live, how humans live together – human collectivity.  That is my core value: what it is to be human.  That is everything I believe in.  I do not believe in current ideas of post humanity… For me the most important phenomena are those that bring forth changes in society or in history.  These changes used to be noticeable in the physical world immediately.  Today this is not so clear anymore.  Today’s changes through new computers, sundry inventions in gene technology and new technological systems are not as visible as they once were in the street.

If I look at my work from the beginning it is more the idea of trying to establish a kind of material that one can work with for the future, rather than making nostalgic images to record something that later will become lost…  What fascinates me is the sort of insight and information that I receive from the nature of the space, and this has to be the case before I am able to do anything about this space…  These spaces are those of a specific place.  The everyday streets are in a funny way more truly monumental as witnesses to the everyday life of people.  Also, it makes things much easier to read than if I used images of famous sites… [I]n general, my work is less about expanding the possibilities of photography than about re-investing it with a truer perception of things by returning to a simple method, one that photography has had from the beginning of its existence…  For I do believe that in photographs like those of the nineteenth-century English photography Thomas Annan or Eugene Atget, you can read the motivation of the person who made the image in them; the psychological, emotional or intellectual scaffolding that the person saw in the environment.  And there is the matter of how we can retrieve that or read it from the surface of the image.  My belief in the psychology of that situation is very strong….  I believe that if I asked five students to take a photograph of the same street or building in the city, one would be able to see which of them was really interested in the street or building and which was not…  Why this happens interest me very much.  You forget that by now this is clearly accepted in painting, but in photography this level of sophisticated reading remains under guise.  For what matters is how much of yourself you put into your work.  If you have a real relationship with a particular building, landscape or person, as in a portrait, it will show in the picture.

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Advice for an Unforgettable Photo Essay

Six steps for turning your images into a memorable photo essay, from curating your best work to crafting a title.

A man sits alone on a chair on the side of the road. We see him from above, surrounded by grey cobblestones neatly placed, a broken plastic chair, and some pylons scattered along the curb. A street cat wanders out of the frame and away from the man. He appears lonely, the only person inhabiting the place in which he seems so comfortably seated. As the eye wanders throughout the frame, however, the viewer discovers more: a vast city cast beyond the street and behind the man’s chair. This image closes Sarah Pannell’s photo essay Sehir , a quiet study of urban life.

Possibilities, discovery, and stories: these are some of the most effective elements of a photo essay. Collections of images can help produce a narrative, evoke emotion, and guide the viewer through one or more perspectives. A well-executed photo essay doesn’t rely on a title or any prior knowledge of its creator; it narrates on its own, moving viewers through sensations, lessons, and reactions.

Famous photo essays like Country Doctor by W. Eugene Smith or Gordon Parks’ The Harlem Family are acclaimed for showing a glimpse into the lives of the sick and impoverished. Other well-made photo essays offer a new way to look at the everyday, such as Peter Funch’s much-reposted photo series 42nd and Vanderbilt , for which Funch photographed the same street corner for nine years. As shown by these photographers’ experiences with the medium, a collection of photos can enliven spaces and attitudes. Strong photo essays can give voice to marginalized individuals and shine a spotlight on previously overlooked experiences.

You don’t necessarily need to be a documentary photographer to create a powerful photo essay. Photo essays can showcase any topic, from nature photography to portraiture to wedding shots. We spoke to a few photographers to get their perspectives on what makes a good photo essay, and their tips for how any photographer can get started in this medium. Here are six steps to follow to create a photo essay that tells a memorable story.

Choose a specific topic or theme for your photo essay.

There are two types of photo essays: the narrative and the thematic. Narrative photo essays focus on a story you’re telling the viewer, while thematic photo essays speak to a specific subject.

The most natural method for choosing a topic or theme for your photo essay is to go with what you know. Photograph what you experience. Whether that includes people, objects, or the things you think about throughout the day, accessibility is key here. Common topics or concepts to start with are emotions (depicting sadness or happiness) or experiences (everyday life, city living).

For photographer Sharon Pannen , planning a photo essay is as simple as “picking out a subject you find interesting or you want to make a statement about.”

From Paper & Stories , a photo series by Sharon Pannen for Schön! Magazine.

Consider your photo subjects.

The subjects of your photographs, whether human or not, will fill the space of your photos and influence the mood or idea you’re trying to depict. The subject can determine whether or not your photos are considered interesting. “I always try to find someone that catches my eye. I especially like to see how the light falls on their face and how a certain aesthetic might add to their persona,” says photographer Victoria Wojtan .

While subjects and their interest factor are, well, subjective, when considering your subjects, you should ask yourself about your audience. Do other people want to see this? Is my subject representative of the larger idea my photo essay is trying to convey? Your projects can involve people you know or people you’ve only just met.

“Most projects I work on involve shooting portraits of strangers, so there’s always a tension in approaching someone for a portrait,” says photographer Taylor Dorrell . For Wojtan, that tension can help build trust with a subject and actually leads to more natural images “If there’s tension it’s usually because the person’s new to being photographed by someone for something that’s outside of a candid moment or selfie, and they need guidance for posing. This gives me the opportunity to make them feel more comfortable and let them be themselves. I tend to have a certain idea in mind, but try to allow for organic moments to happen.”

Aim for a variety of images.

Depending on your theme, there are a few types of photos you’ll want to use to anchor your essay. One or two lead photos should slowly introduce the viewer to your topic. These initial photos will function in a similar way to the introductory paragraph in a written essay or news article.

From there, you should consider further developing your narrative by introducing elements like portraiture, close ups, detail shots, and a carefully selected final photo to leave the viewer with the feeling you set out to produce in your photos. Consider your opening and closing images to be the most important elements of your photo essay, and choose them accordingly. You want your first images to hook the viewer, and you also want your final images to leave a lasting impression and perhaps offer a conclusion to the narrative you’ve developed.

Including different types of photos, shot at different ranges, angles, and perspectives, can help engage your viewer and add more texture to your series.

Says photographer Taylor Dorrell: “After I have a group of images, I tend to think about color, composition, the order the images were taken, the subject material, and relevance to the concept.”

From Taylor Dorrell’s photo essay White Fences : “White Fences is an ongoing photo series that explores the theme of suburban youth in the United States, specifically in the midwest suburb New Albany, Ohio.”

Put your emotions aside.

Self-doubt can easily come into play when working with your own photography. The adage that we are our own worst critics is often true. It can be difficult to objectively select your strongest images when creating a photo essay. This is why putting together photo essays is such a useful practice for developing your curatorial skills.

“The most important part for me is getting outside opinions. I don’t do that enough, and have a bias in selecting images that might not be the most powerful images or the most effective sequence of images,” says Dorrell. Your own perception of a photograph can cloud your ability to judge whether or not it adds to your photo essay. This is especially true when your essay deals with personal subjects. For example, a photo essay about your family may be hard to evaluate, as your own feelings about family members will impact how you take and view the photos. This is where getting feedback from peers can be invaluable to producing a strong series.

Collecting feedback while putting your photo essay together can help you determine the strengths, weaknesses, and gaps within the collection of photos you’ve produced. Ask your friends to tell you their favorites, why they like them, and what they think you’re going for in the work you’ve created. Their opinions can be your guide, not just your own emotions.

Edit your photo selection.

Beyond post-production, the series of photos you select as your essay will determine whether you’ve executed your theme or narrative effectively. Can the photos stand alone, without written words, and tell the story you set out to? Do they make sense together, in a logical sequence? The perfect photo essay will give your audience a full picture of the narrative, theme, or essence you’re looking to capture.

A good method to use to cull your images down is to remove as many as half of your images straight away to see if your narrative is still as strong with fewer photos. Or, perhaps, deciding on a small number you’d like to aim for (maybe just five to ten images) and using this as a method to narrow down to the images that tell your story best.

From Taylor Dorrell’s photo essay Over the Rhine , featured in Vice.

Give your photo essay a title, and add a concise written statement.

Finally, you’ll want to create a title and written statement for your photo essay. This will help position your work and can enable the viewer to fully understand your intention, or at least guide their perspective.

A solid written statement and title will be relevant to your topic, detail your primary objective, and introduce your point of view. It’s an opportunity to clarify your intentions to the viewer and ensure they walk away with a clear interpretation of your work. Depending on your photo essay, you may want to include several paragraphs of text, but even just one or two sentences of background can be enough to expand the viewer’s understanding of your work.

Consider if you’d like to add the written statement at the beginning of your essay to introduce it, or at the end as a conclusion. Either one can be impactful, and it depends how you’d like people to experience your work.

For his photo essay White Fences, excerpted above, Taylor Dorrell wrote only one sentence of introduction. But for his series Over the Rhine, Dorell included a longer written statement to accompany the work, which is “an ongoing photo series that seeks to explore the Cincinnati neighborhood of the same name and its surroundings. The series was started in response to the shooting of Samuel DuBose, an unarmed black man, by officer Ray Tensing of the University of Cincinnati Police, which happened July 19th, 2015.” Dorell’s text goes on to offer more background on the project, setting up the viewer with all the information they need to understand the context of the photo essay.

Depending on the motivations behind your photo essay and what sort of subject it depicts, a longer text may be necessary—or just a few words might be enough.

Looking for a place to share your photo essays with the world? Take a look at our guide to creating a photography website for tips on showcasing your photos online.

Cover image by Taylor Dorrell, from his photo essay Hurricane Over Sugar .

A Guide to Improving Your Photography Skills

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Essay on Photography

Students are often asked to write an essay on Photography in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Photography

What is photography.

Photography is the art of capturing pictures using a camera. A camera is like a box that keeps a moment from running away. When you take a photo, you save a memory that you can see later.

Types of Photography

There are many kinds of photography. Some people take photos of nature, like mountains and rivers. Others click pictures of cities or people. Some even capture stars at night. Each type tells a different story.

The Importance of Photography

Photos are important because they help us remember past times. They show us how things were and how they have changed. Photos can make us feel happy or sad by reminding us of different moments.

Learning Photography

Anyone can learn photography. You start by learning how to use a camera. Then you practice taking photos. Over time, you get better at making your pictures look nice. It’s fun to learn and can become a hobby or a job.

250 Words Essay on Photography

Photography is the art of capturing light with a camera to create a picture. This can be done using a digital camera or even a phone today. In the past, people used film cameras that had to be developed in a dark room.

The Magic of Cameras

A camera is a tool that takes in light through a lens and saves the image. In old cameras, light hit a film to create a photo. Now, digital cameras use electronic sensors to record the image. The sensors work like our eyes, catching light and colors.

There are many kinds of photography. Some people take pictures of nature, like forests and animals. Others like to take photos of cities and buildings. There are also photographers who take pictures of people and capture their emotions and moments.

To be good at photography, you need to learn how to use a camera well. You also need to understand light and how it affects your photos. Practice is important. The more you take pictures, the better you get at it.

Sharing Photos

After taking pictures, people often share them with others. They might put them on the internet, in a photo album, or hang them on a wall. Sharing photos lets others see the world through your eyes.

500 Words Essay on Photography

Photography is the art of capturing light with a camera to create an image. This can be done using a digital camera that stores pictures electronically or an old-fashioned film camera that records them on film. When you take a photo, you freeze a moment in time, which you can look back on later.

The History of Photography

The story of photography began hundreds of years ago with simple cameras called pinhole cameras. Over time, inventors created better cameras and ways to make pictures clearer and more colorful. In the past, taking a photo was not easy; it took a long time for the picture to be ready. But now, thanks to modern technology, we can take pictures instantly with digital cameras and even our phones.

How Photography Works

A camera works a bit like our eyes. When we look at something, light enters our eyes and helps us see. Similarly, when you take a picture, light comes into the camera through a hole called the lens. Inside the camera, the light hits a part that is sensitive to light, either film or a digital sensor, and creates an image.

Photography is important for many reasons. It helps us remember special moments like birthdays or holidays. It also lets us see places we’ve never been to and learn about different people and animals. Newspapers and websites use photos to show us what is happening in the world. Photography can even be a way for people to express their feelings and tell stories without using words.

The Fun of Photography

Photography can be a lot of fun. It lets you be creative and can even turn into a hobby or a job. You can take pictures of your friends, pets, or trips you go on. With photography, you can explore new places and meet new people. The best part is, you can start at any age and keep learning and enjoying it your whole life.

In conclusion, photography is a powerful form of art that lets us capture memories, explore the world, and share stories. It’s a skill that anyone can learn and enjoy. Whether you’re taking a picture of a beautiful sunset or snapping a photo of your best friend laughing, photography helps us save those special moments forever.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Happy studying!

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Why We Do It: Photographers and Photo Editors on the Passion That Drives Their Work

T he people who make up today’s thriving photographic community are our eyes to the world. Whether established artists and journalists or passionate emerging voices, they inform us, they inspire us, they amaze us, they put our world in the broader context of history.

But that community also faces great challenges — dwindling sales, increased competition and a fragile trust in photographers’ mission to inform. Too often, those factors can make those of us in that community, photographers and photo editors alike, lose sight of what drive us.

For this post, my last as editor of TIME LightBox, I asked 13 of my colleagues – some of the many photographers and photo editors who have influenced and inspired me over my last ten years in this industry – to answer these essential questions: Why do they do it? Why do they wake up every morning ready to take photographs, to edit them, to publish them? Why is photography important to them and, by extension, to all of us?

Here are their answers.

Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography, the New York Times Magazine

Photographs are the universal language of our era. Everyone has hundreds, maybe thousands in their pocket. Weightless, they turn the scale when the argument is: What happened here? Images don’t age or warp. A great photographer’s strings never go out of tune.

It is for this reason that we need photographers. They are the ones who sort all the chaos of the world into images that bring clarity to the free-for-all of life. They are the witnesses and artists who can distill the mayhem and beauty that surrounds us. They call our attention to the things we miss in our everyday lives and they call our attention to events and people at a great distance from our own patch of the universe. When they direct our eyes and hearts with precision and honesty, we know what we know differently and better. Photographers teach us to look again, look harder. Look through their eyes.

Ruddy Roye, Photographer

I shoot because I see. I shoot because if I don’t, I don’t know who will. Activism is seen as a dirty word. I shoot because I find peace in being especially active, and being a vigorous advocate for a cause.

How does one define what a “cause” is? According to Webster, it is “a person or thing that acts, happens, or exists in such a way that some specific thing happens as a result; the producer of an effect.”

I wish that every image I photograph reexamines and redefines the image of the black man, the black woman, and the black child. My photography is first and foremost a catalyst or reason to motive human action. Every picture I take asks the questions, “Who am I and what is my role here on this earth?” It is my way of seeing. It is my way of saying this is another way of seeing me.

Sarah Leen, Director of Photography, National Geographic

I have spent my entire professional life creating, editing, critiquing or teaching photography and working with photographers. It has been the way that I have experienced much of the world. In a deeply personal way I feel an image is a poem about time, about “staying the moment.” Photography can defeat time. Images can keep the memory of a loved one alive, hold a moment in history for future generations, be a witness to tragedy or joy. They can also change behavior, stimulate understanding and create a sense of urgency that will move people to action. Photography is the universal language that speaks to the heart.

Photographers are the dedicated, passionate and sometimes half-crazy individuals who are willing to give their lives, too often quite literally, to show us what needs to be seen, what needs to be known. I can think of no greater honor nor privilege than to have lived a life surrounded by images and the amazing individuals who create them and share them with us.

Stacy Kranitz, Photographer

For me it began with this fear of myself as a hermit and a search for a tool that would put me in a position to have to be out engaging with the world everyday.

Then it became this portal to and catalyst for reckoning with the other and how the camera can be used to breaking down barriers between the photographer, subject and viewer.

Now that the image has become devalued as a truth-revealing mechanism, it is free to own its subjectivity and becomes an ideal medium to navigate ideas around humanity, connection, identity, memory, presence, experience and intimacy.

Stephanie Sinclair, Photographer

Why do we do it? I think we all ask ourselves this question, especially as the industry becomes ever more volatile, with colleagues losing their jobs, and even their lives, more often than many of us ever expected when we went into this profession. Not to mention the steeply declining pay for those of us who manage to eke out a living doing editorial work… But for me, it comes down to the people in my photographs.

I still believe in the power of journalism and photojournalism to spark positive change — in a world where the pursuit of self-interest is prioritized by so many, its role speaking truth to power when all other avenues fail is unparalleled. And beyond the big-picture role of journalism, it can also be a revelation at the personal level. I’ve seen that from both sides of stories. For example, not long ago I was a story’s subject when my mother lost her life to medical malpractice in Florida hospitals; and, of course, I’ve been behind the camera interviewing hundreds of girls during my 15-year Too Young to Wed project. From both vantage points, I’ve learned how personally cathartic and validating it can be to share injustices suffered with a global community.

MaryAnne Golon, Director of Photography, Washington Post

Why is photography important? Photography speaks. When I discovered and later understood photographic visual language, I saw that this language could inform, educate and move audiences worldwide without the need for a shared spoken language. A successful photo story, when well-authored and edited, is universally understood. I once presented a photo story in China in silence to a professional photography group where the audience smiled, laughed, and fell quiet in all the right places — without a word in Mandarin or English. After the last frame, we all just beamed at each other. It was so thrilling.

I believe in light. Photography is light. That light is often shined into the darkest of places by the world’s bravest and most talented photojournalists. I have been most honored to support and publish work by many of them. I intend to continue nurturing, encouraging, supporting, cajoling, helping, counseling, appreciating, celebrating, and paying for professional photojournalism for as long as I am able. I believe in its power.

Aidan Sullivan, CEO and Founder, Verbatim

Photographers will tell you it’s almost like a disease, an obsession, a condition that drives them to tell the story at any cost, suffer hardships, isolate themselves and take extraordinary risks, all in an effort to capture and convey the story they are passionate about.

I have been there, as a young photographer, and I understand that passion and drive — and now, as my career has taken me through so many levels and roles in our industry, I feel compelled to support and nurture those storytellers, to help them continue to produce important work and tell those stories, often uncomfortable ones, so that we can, sitting in the comfort of our homes, be made aware of the darker side of our world.

This art, this madness, this compulsion to convey a story we know as photojournalism will not die, storytelling will not die, it will change and evolve but it is human nature to want to learn, to be educated and to understand our world through narratives.

I think photojournalism and the skills required to become a photojournalist are an inherent trait, genetic, it’s built into the DNA, it’s a need to be first to tell a story or pass on knowledge visually, like storytellers through the ages, when storytelling was deemed to be a gift and an important way to educate, when memory was a key requirement for learning.

Early cave drawings were the beginning of the visual narrative, all that has changed really is the method to capture those images and now, with a mobile and digital world, the way we disseminate them, instead of access to a few in our inner social circles, now it’s to hundreds of millions of people within the blink of an eye.

Laura Morton, Photographer

I first became interested in photojournalism primarily out of an interest in history. One day, while studying the Industrial Revolution, I found myself very saddened by a photograph of a child in a factory. I remember realizing in that moment that both the child and photographer were likely no longer alive and I became fascinated by how the photograph could make me so upset for the hard life of someone who lived so many decades before me. In a way both of them became almost immortal through the photograph and there was something very compelling about that.

I believe it’s incredibly important for photographers to document everyday life and even sometimes the seemingly mundane, not just for a better understanding of our times, but for individuals in the future to be able to reflect on who they are and how they got there. A photograph is particularly powerful because it is accessible to most of humanity. There is no language barrier in photography. I pick stories and pursue the projects I do with the goal of documenting not only important issues of our time, but ones that will also be relevant or perhaps even more vital for our understanding of humanity in the future.

Simon Bainbridge, Editorial Director, British Journal of Photography

Twenty years ago, I took a formative road trip across the Southwestern states with my sister and my best friend. She was studying literature at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and he was a film school graduate who was just beginning to take his experiments with a still camera more seriously. We planned to cross the San Juan Skyway, then head West to Canyonlands and Monument Valley, looping through New Mexico and back across the Colorado border, but we ended up taking the circuitous route.

Every few miles my friend would point excitedly at the horizon or some mark on the map, and suddenly we’d be veering off-road, heading for some rock or mountain or strange sounding name. Soon we’d be crossing “no entry” signs into reservation land, or knocking at the door of some crazy who’d spent years on a diet of marijuana and aloe vera, building a five-story tower made from Budweiser cans, or detouring up the aptly-named Oh My Gawd Road, or into Cañon City, “Corrections Capital of the World.” At first frustrated by these diversions, my sister and I soon gave in to the adventure, and over the next two weeks let ourselves be led by our random guide, in search of Kodak Gold. I would stand next to my friend, and see what he saw. But somehow he captured something ethereal and profound that I hadn’t recognized. We came to see the world differently; not through some new point of view, but by giving in to our heightened sense of curiosity.

Two decades later, this is still the Holy Grail. The photographers I most admire go out into the world with a sense of wonder and freedom and, yes, arrogance, challenging our apathy, making us see it afresh, for better or worse. Today, I am as willing and eager as ever to wade through the endless repeated themes and subjects to find those rare works that provoke, challenge and thrill me through their brave and insightful perspectives, or their sheer visual sublime.

Alex Potter, Photographer

When I left Yemen in August 2015, the place where I learned to photograph, build a story, and really love a community, I felt very lost. For over a year I tried to seek out a new base, a new story and group of people that had meaning to me, for something I felt connected to, without success. By November I was asking myself that very question — why am I still trying to do this?

I arrived in Iraq in November 2016, looking for stories having nothing to do with Mosul, yet I felt with so many other journalists around, I needed to find meaning elsewhere. I’m a registered nurse, so I sought out a small group of foreign medics working with the Iraqi military medics to treat people wounded during the battle. Living with this tight knit group, I began photographing our surroundings, the Iraqi medics whose job was so morbid, but who were so jovial in our downtime.

By working side by side with them and photographing what we went through together, I was useful, needed, and passionate about something again: I felt the desire to photograph for the first time in over a year. For me, photography is something I’ll always come back to, having assignments or not, to process my reality, to document the world around me, and to remember small details in difficult times that may have otherwise been forgotten.

Jeffrey Furticella, Sports Photo Editor, the New York Times

A favorite childhood memory is of my father driving us to a hobby store, purchasing a few packs of trading cards and me excitedly ripping them open to see what was inside. The bulk of what I’d find were mainstream releases, but what kept me tearing apart those cellophane wrappers week after week was the hope of unearthing something unique, something beautiful, something rare.

That same rush is what propels my belief in picture editing. In a time when our global awareness is under siege by an increasingly insular perspective, the responsibility of empowering photographers whose mission is to not just capture but to investigate, to enlighten, to excite, is one of the great privileges of our time.

Today there are more photographers producing more photographs and populating more platforms than have existed at any other point in our history. With that ubiquity has come an evolution in our audiences, which are more sophisticated and demanding than ever. What a thrilling time then to be tasked with looking through the mainstream releases in the hope of unearthing something unique, something beautiful, something rare.

Peter Di Campo, Photographer

Why is it important? Look at where we are right now. The world today scares me, frankly – people, cultures refusing to understand each other, and the results are frightening, and it’s to the benefit of the people at the top to keep it that way. So I have to believe in a more diverse and inclusive media (yes, to believe it’s dangerously problematic that the world has been predominantly visualized by people who look like me), and I have to believe in the innovations that allow for people to share their own stories with a wide audience. I care deeply about both investigative journalism and user-generated forms of storytelling, and I’m naive enough to believe that those two genres can coexist.

Everyday Africa recently had a big exhibition opening in Nairobi. It was wild, a full house. I couldn’t believe my eyes. A lot of the contributing photographers came in from across the continent, and we all met for the first time. You should have seen how the African photographers were treated – like celebrities! – by the fans who have been following them on social media for years. They’re seen as role models in the African art, photography and social-media circles because they’re black people imaging black people, and that’s Power. Anything I can do to continue supporting that – that’s what gets me out of bed in the morning.

Is it odd to be a white American man saying all this? I don’t let it bother me. We all have to care about this.

Jean-François Leroy, Director, Visa pour l’Image Photojournalism Festival

I’ve been doing what I do for 40 years because I’ve always had the same gluttony to discover, among all the proposals I receive, the pure nugget, the young photographer whose photographs are a slap in the face, the young photographer that has that rare talent. Today, to see established photographers, recognized by everyone, whom I exhibited first – I’m beyond proud.

Even if it can be difficult, at times, to work with photographers, I love to reveal them, to help them edit, to build, with them, a story. After all these years, I have the same passion for this witnesses of what we’re living through. They are our eyes. They show us what’s happening. They astonish us. They move us. They make us smile, sometimes. Cry, as well.

I can’t imagine my life without all these encounters, so enriching, so surprising, so astonishing. Life!

Olivier Laurent was the editor of TIME LightBox from 2014 to 2017. He previously was a news editor at the British Journal of Photography. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @olivierclaurent

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Is Photography Among the Fine Arts?

By: Zofia Mowle Fine art is a form of visual art, intended to be appreciated entirely for its imaginative and visionary content. Photography has developed throughout the course of many years, and there has definitely been a shift in the way we appreciate it as an art form. The field of photography has expanded significantly and in today’s society anything that has artistic intent behind it, whether that be abstract, portrait or landscape photography, will be considered fine art. The discussion of whether or not photography should be considered a ‘fine art’ is a topic that has been debated for hundreds of years. There are such strong arguments for both sides, and it’s important to recognise all these factors when forming an opinion. 

Joseph Pennell is an American illustrator and author, who spent the majority of his life studying the traditional means of architectural drawings in Europe. During his time abroad he established an international reputation for himself as someone of high regard within the fine art world. Joseph Pennell had an extreme bias and unfavourable opinion towards photography. In 1897, Pennell wrote an excerpt titled ‘Is Photography Among the Fine Arts?’ In this excerpt he provided an array of reasons as to why photography is not among the fine arts. There’s a strong bias against photography, which is supported within the text. Pennell discusses the lack of skill required with photography, as it’s “merely mechanical and [does] not require the [same level of] training that art does.” [1]  To continue, Pennell argued that photography shouldn’t be considered a fine art as it’s too easy. He compared photography to a simple hobby, saying that, “photography is amusement and relaxation.” [2] Traditional painting and photography are two completely different forms of art. Therefore, it’s difficult to truly compare them when debating the topic of what makes something ‘fine art.’ Throughout the reading he continually expresses his belief that artists are more qualified and trained than photographers, and therefore are superior. He judges photographers and ridicules them, saying what a farce it is that “Titian, Velasquex and Rembrandt actually [studied].” [3] The art of photography is to capture our surroundings with a realistic approach. Unlike with paintings, cameras have the ability to see everything and capture specific moments of time, which may go unnoticed within our everyday lives. They are essentially machines that have the capability to produce a documentary fact. Similarly to how there are machines to create carpets and machines to produce shirts, the camera is a machine that was invented to generate pictures. For this reason, Pennell questions why photography is considered an art form at all. If photography is such an automated process dependent on machinery and chemicals, then why is it art? “The man who sells margarine for butter, and chalk and water for milk, does much the same, and renders himself liable to legal prosecution by doing it.” [4]  It’s clear from Joseph Pennell’s excerpt that photography is not a form of ‘fine art.’ Fine art usually involves a story and is intended to have a purpose that evokes some sort of emotion from the viewer. I agree with Pennell that it’s not possible just to take a beautifully composed picture and call it fine art. In order for an image to be considered fine art it must be designed with the intention of resonating with the viewer and compel the audience to perceive the subject matter differently. 

In contradiction to Joseph Pennell’s excerpt, Paul L. Anderson wrote a book titled ‘The Fine Art of Photography.” This book was interesting as the author went against everything previously mentioned and he discussed the array of reasons as to why photography should be considered among the fine arts. Paul L. Anderson was an American photographer and author, who wrote many books on the art of photography. Anderson considers photography a unique form of graphic art. In his book he conveys the importance of photography as an art form, and how it’s a collaborative process where “scientific knowledge and artistic feeling go hand-in-hand to the production of a fine result.” [5] He defines fine art as “any medium of expression which permits one person to convey to another an abstract idea of lofty character, to arouse in another a lofty emotion.” [6] Anderson highlights an important factor that must be established, which is to draw the line between fine art and craftsmanship. He uses Michelangelo’s David as a clear example of something that is considered fine art, whereas a typical Indian man’s tobacconist sign as something that is not. However, it’s not possible to say just where these two expressions merge. Anderson argues that, “the Indian may carry a glimmering of an abstract, and to that extent may possess some of the elements of fine art.” [7] The question of whether or not photography is among the fine arts varies significantly from person to person. Anderson believes that for photography to be considered a true art form, and not a craft, the photographer must create an image with a specific vision. The artist must use the camera as a medium for creative expression with a goal of creating something that expresses an idea, message and emotion. 

E. Thiesson created a Daguerreotype titled Native Woman of Sofala, 1845. In my opinion, this photograph is an exquisite example of fine art. It’s a profile portrait of an African woman seated on a wooden chair. The composition is well-balanced and the figure is situated in the center of the frame. It’s a raw and organic image that provokes a multitude of emotion within the viewer. Her expression resembles something of contemplation -she appears to be deep in thought and it forces us, as the viewer, to ask questions. Her posture is slouched, she does not wear any makeup, her hair is natural and she wears a kaba skirt, which is a traditional African skirt made from kiswah. Her breasts are left uncovered, but not in a sexualised way. She’s a traditional African woman and her appearance represents her culture. One of the essential purposes of photography is communication. This image communicates heritage, it teaches us about ethnicities and cultures that differ from our own. We use photography as a form of documentation and it’s used for educational purposes. Pennell would argue that this photograph isn’t an example of fine art, as it’s simply just a woman sitting on a chair. In his reading he makes direct comparisons between photography and painting, emphasising that one is significantly more impressive than the other. What’s better, a nude photograph or a nude painting? Pennell believes that getting a model to pose naked for a photograph puts other artists like Botticelli to shame, for he “sees what he has been taught to like by reading books on painting; which he does not understand and which teaches nothing for him.” [8] Despite this, in my opinion, Thiesson’s photograph is a true example of fine art photography. It’s evident that the artist took the time to carefully create the composition, from the framing of the image to the details of the woman -her attire, posture, expression, etc. Dona Schwartz, an author and professor of journalism, wrote an article on the social construct of photography. In her article she argues that photography draws upon “ethnographic research comparing the activities of the camera club and fine art photography.” [9] This comparison translates to Thiesson’s photograph, as it’s a collaboration between ethnographic photography and fine art. 

It’s interesting to debate the topic of what is and what isn’t considered to be ‘fine art.’ To this day, photographs remain to have less monetary value than paintings and sculpture. In my opinion, both mediums fulfil different tasks -a photographer captures a single moment, a snapshot of life, and a painter makes a picture. Paintings have the ability to illustrate deeper meanings that photographers are either unable to, or struggle to, encapsulate within their work. However, in my opinion, this doesn’t take away from what is considered ‘fine art.’ I believe that photography is among the fine arts, as fine art photography requires a similar level of precision and specific vision that other fine art mediums, such as painting and sculpture, require. Fine art photographs are created just as carefully as paintings, and therefore it’s unjust to classify photography, as a whole, as a medium that is unworthy being considered fine art. 

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How To Create a Meaningful Photography Essay In 5 Steps

The storytelling nature of photography is no secret. It has been used for a century to narrate stories in a very peculiar and effective way. Narrative photographic projects have great power, and regardless of the level of experience and maturity of the photographer, they are very appealing. Find out how to create a meaningful photography essay in 5 steps.

Photography is an amazing art form that portrays interesting stories, events, adventures, life stories, experiences, history and has been around for a very long time having great influence in human life and emotions. Photography freezes the moment and records real life happenings that can be cherished for a lifetime and beyond. To make a good photograph, the photographer needs to look for perfect locations, light, subjects and add a little creativity to it.

Rather than a single image, a set or collections of images are always more powerful in telling a story, bringing in emotions within the viewer and taking/guiding the viewer through the path of the story. It is self consistent, self explanatory and doesn't another person to help with any form of narration. Besides these, photography essays can be a powerful source to bring out suppressed problems in the societies and other issues that are often overlooked.

Photographic essays invite us to research a topic or a theme in depth. Documentary photography is perhaps one of the closest things to “narrative” as we traditionally know it. Even though times have changed, and photography has been open to more independent photographers who don't have the same resource bonanza as the editorial or journalistic photographers of previous decades, this new democracy opens the door to the freedom of speech – a freedom that doesn't have to obey any media interests whatsoever.

Alright, But What Is A Photography Essay In The First Place?

A photo essay is a narrative that uses a group or series of photographs to tell a story, evoke emotions or emphasize a specific concept. The camera plays a utilitarian role, and is pretty far from what the final result can convey to those who read it (either completely or just partially). Photography essays can be either just photographs or photographs with comments, captions or text that accompany them to complete the story.

Some examples of photography essays include collage (simplest form of telling a story), an article, a book, an art show or exhibition, part of a website or a dedicated website and so on. Earlier photography essays were printed in the printing press, but in recent times they have moved to the web which is better in terms of easy access, but will not have a similar effect to looking and reading one physically.

What Elements Should A Photography Essay Include?

Being a narrative in a very holistic form, a photography essay should include the following elements in the most extreme cases:

• Introduction
• Contextualization
• Development
• Continuation

Not all essays will allow such a complex storyline, but we can take some of these elements to formulate an idea of what an essay should include. Therefore, a photo essay is a way to tell a story from beginning to end, with substance and a meaningful content.

Most photographic essays require preparation, organization and direction. Photographic essays began to be published in the 1930s after magazines saw that a story could best be told if text was accompanied by photographs. It is no coincidence that, by this time, cameras had evolved such that they could capture images quickly enough to freeze motion.

Also around this time, portability came into the picture, thanks to the practical nature of 35mm film . It was LIFE magazine that coined the term “Photographic Essay”. One of the most classic photography essays they published is “ Country Doctor ” by W. Eugene Smith . This essay documented Dr. Ceriani’s working life as a traveling doctor in rural areas of the United States.

An essay can be short, mid- or long-term according to various factors that can affect the image recording process. After achieving a certain number of images, the editing process can take place and the story can begin its narrative course. Some things that can affect the recording process are the limited resources we endure while working abroad, and limited access to the subject or the circumstances-recurrence ratio.

Here Are The 5 Steps Involved In Creating A Photography Essay:

1. pick a topic.

Obvious indeed, but choosing a good topic can be difficult without prior research. This is perhaps the hardest part of creating a photographic essay.

The wisest way to approach this is to select a topic that won't be so hard to access – not just because it might be easy. Since it will be accessible, the risk of frustration will be lower than it is when handling a difficult topic. Experience will eventually lead us into working with trickier subjects.

A photo essay doesn't need to always be dramatic and dense. They can be done just for the fun of it, or to discover new possibilities for the photographic narrative. Some topics that are generous when they are addressed are:

• Everyday Work  

2. Choosing The Subjects Correctly

When working on a photographic essay, it is important to choose subjects correctly to keep ourselves within a certain scope. Check to see if your subjects are suitable or the story you are planning to tell and if the stories made with them will be interesting for your target audience.

Even if you don't have a human subject to portray, making use of personification can always be a good guide to avoid losing course. For example, you can focus on silence by stating that the images attempted to capture the presence of silence.

Also, solitude can be addressed without any human elements, but still maintain the purpose of capturing “the human footprint”, for example.

3. Quantity Of Images

It is important to define the number of pictures we are willing to present on our final essay. Defining that number is important for a couple of reasons.

• The first one is because it will set the bar of our project's scope (critical when we start to consider our resources).
• The second one is our readers. The story should be told from start to finish with high impact, just like a short novel or a story. If we stuff our essay with “filler” images, it will ultimately lose its power.  

4. Execution

Let the fun part begin! After defining the previous three elements, we can start shooting to create a great storytelling essay.   Shooting story telling photographs for a photography essay need to be powerful just like how you would shoot individual images to tell a story. Look for perfect light, relevant locations relating to the story to be told, perfect subjects for the story and also compositional guidelines.

Always have introductory and closing images just like how you would have an introduction and conclusion to any essay. Shoot at different light, angles, perspectives, etc. and finalise during the editing part the images that will work together to complete the photography essay.

Editing must not be confused with post-processing, which is an important element of the production of the final photographs. Editing refers to the precise selection of the images that will be included in the essay. There is no perfect quantity or order. You (or your editor) will have to be very objective to select the perfect mix to tell the story the way you want it to be told.

Ak yourself questions like, do the photographs speak the story or will they require accompanying text, is the sequence or series logical, do they stand together and complete the story from start to finish, etc. Try and tell the story with minimal images by avoiding repetition as that can bore the viewers.

Who Can Create A Photography Essay?

Some photographers believe that only photojournalists or documentary photographers can create photography essays. That is not the case – photo essays can be created on any topics like nature, wedding, events, portraits, travel, etc.

Constant planning, execution and checking can and should be applied to all the stages discussed above. You will need to have a powerful title and written text that is strong and concise. Sometimes longer text may be required.

Photo essays are a great way to improve not just as photographers, but as storytellers, too. Viewing photo essays with a reader's mindset will give you a better feeling of photography’s storytelling power.

About Author

Federico has a decade of experience in documentary photography , and is a University Professor in photography and research methodology . He's a scientist studying the social uses of photography in contemporary culture who writes about photography and develops documentary projects. Other activities Federico is involved in photography are curation, critique, education, mentoring, outreach and reviews. Get to know him better here .

Dear Federico, this is a very informative, to the point article for everyone who wants to enter the world of creating photo essays. Currently, I am teaching photography at one of the well known institutes in India and I am playing a role of a honeybee. I am creating a blend of my experience along with such articles and letting the student know what are the pros and cons of various genres of photography and how to go about it. I am obviously giving you credit for this article. Thanks and you are welcome to India. You will love my country!

Frederico, thank you for this article about photo essays! I am both a digital photographer and a freelance writer, and this idea combines both of my passions. What are the most successful photo essays that you have done that you can share?

Hi, Thank you for the article, very interesting, something I would really love to try. I do have one question though, how do I know whether a photo essay would be a success, who would judge it?

I have emailed Frederico asking permission to reprint this article in my photo club’s digital newsletter (www.spsphoto.org). I would like your permission as well. We are having a photo essay competition this month. I will include links to the original article, as well as yours and Federico’s website. Thank you.

Fine by us, Linda. Thanks for asking first.

Thank you, and Federico, for permission to reprint. I am sure my photo club members will appreciate this timely article for our annual photo essay competition !

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Table of Contents

Latest Posts

Get Going – How to Motivate Yourself To Shoot At The Best Times

Understanding Diffraction – The Silent Killer Of Your Photos’ Sharpness

Drone Safety and Etiquette: Responsible Aerial Photography

How to Shoot Panoramic Photographs

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Conceptual art and photography.

Nine Polaroid Photographs of a Mirror

William Anastasi

Royal Road Test

Edward Ruscha

Duration Piece #11, Bradford, Massachusetts

Douglas Huebler

Red Stripe Kitchen, from the series "House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home"

Martha Rosler

Landscape with Houses (Dutchess County, NY) #1

James Casebere

Douglas Eklund Department of Photographs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 2004

In the wake of Abstract Expressionism , a number of painters developed strategies that extended the life of painting while simultaneously pointing to its inevitable demise. Jasper Johns’s flags and targets were epistemological cul-de-sacs—the image they portrayed could not be separated from their material qualities, literally, as flag or target ( 1998.329 ). Like his colleague Robert Rauschenberg , Johns revived concerns of the prewar avant-garde in a postwar context, but in a more conceptually provocative manner in his fusion of two previously antithetical paradigms, that of Duchamp’s readymade with notions of abstraction and the grid from Malevich and Constructivism. Slightly later, Frank Stella created paintings from programmatic arrangements of lines that radiated outward to determine the overall shape of the canvas; all compositional and expressive decision making had been suppressed in favor of the execution of an idea. As the artist’s famous tautology went: “What you see is what you see.”

By 1962, the idea for a linguistic work of art had been proposed by artists associated with the Fluxus collective, particularly in the event-structures of George Brecht, where a simple phrase or directive (one piece was entitled and consisted of the word EXIT) could be enacted by the viewer in an infinite variety of ways. In that same year, the California painter Ed Ruscha used this principle to create the book Twentysix Gasoline Stations , in which he first came up with the title, then proceeded to photograph the subject on one of his road trips from Oklahoma City (his hometown) to Los Angeles, his adopted city. The work of art was to be the book itself, simply but carefully designed, whereas the photographs inside showed no traces of aesthetic decision making at all, as if the artist had merely pointed the camera out the car window in order to fulfill the requirements of the textual phrase. In another book from 1966 entitled Every Building on the Sunset Strip , Ruscha joined together separate photographs of each structure to create a fold-out version of the street itself. With characteristic humor and elegance, Ruscha had extended Jasper Johns’s notion of the completely self-referential object into the realm of mass-produced commodities.

Ruscha’s books of photographs ( 1970.590.5 ) introduced the medium as a central aspect of Conceptual Art. Bruce Nauman’s Photograph Suite (popularly known as “Eleven Color Photographs”) of 1966 were comic enactments of puns and wordplay such as “Waxing Hot” (showing hands moving over a bright red sculpture of the word) or “Bound to Fail” (showing the roped torso of the artist from behind) that combined sculptural form, linguistic content, and photographic staging. Dan Graham’s Homes for America , published in the December 1967 issue of Arts magazine, looked at first sight like a bland sociological tract on postwar cookie-cutter housing, but was actually a sly comment on the industrial coloring and geometric structures of then-current Minimalism; like Ruscha’s books, the work was inextricably tied to its status as an article in a mass-produced and circulated publication. This idea of attaching the work of art directly to the channels of distribution and publicity that constituted its inevitable fate as a commodity reached its most pointed use by Martha Rosler for her series House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home , in which she hijacked lifestyle magazine photography to devastating effect ( 2002.393 ).

Another example of Conceptual Art’s uniquely self-critical tendencies can be seen in the predilection for bureaucratic forms by artists such as Robert Morris and Douglas Huebler. In works like Cardfile (1962) and Document: Statement of Aesthetic Withdrawal (1963), Morris avoided all traditional signifiers of the work of art; this turning away from the viewer served as a darkly effective counterbalance to the more affirmative gestures of Happening and Fluxus artists, who envisioned the total liberation of the viewer from the restrictive codes of society. Douglas Huebler ( 2004.51a,b ) grouped his works into preestablished categories— Duration (involving the passage of time), Location (involving specific sites), and Variable (such as verifying the existence of every living person on the planet via photography), pieces consisting of typed statements combined with deadpan photographs that documented the results of the linguistic directive. Each work was a unique instance of dipping into the vast ocean of measurable data—people, places, and their transformation over time—that only highlighted the absurdity of the attempt.

On Kawara’s work represents perhaps the purest strain of Conceptualism, in that he most fully and consistently erased the boundary separating art production and everyday life. His most famous project is his  Today series (begun 1966), paintings that consist solely of the date on which they were made, in the language of the city in which they were painted, against a monochrome background; each painting had to be completed by midnight of the day it commemorated or it was destroyed. In these seminal works, process, form, and content become one, reconciling existentialist notions of present-ness with a Zen-like erasure of self through meditative, repetitive acts. He also created a series of “autobiographical” works that chart the daily events and rituals so carefully excised from the Today paintings, including I GOT UP , I READ , I WENT , I MET , and telegrams responding to professional inquiries that read simply I AM STILL ALIVE. Tracing his passage through the ubiquitous, yet usually invisible, systems of measurement (map, calendar, clock) and communication (postcard, telegram) that structure everyday life, the artist accumulates abstracted signs of his own presence—an archive of the self—to test the limits of self-expression within the structures of modern society.

Eklund, Douglas. “Conceptual Art and Photography.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cncp/hd_cncp.htm (October 2004)

Further Reading

Alberro, Alexander, and Blake Stimson, eds. Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology . Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999.

Rorimer, Anne. New Art in the 60s and 70s: Redefining Reality . New York: Thames & Hudson, 2001.

Additional Essays by Douglas Eklund

• Eklund, Douglas. “ Photography in Düsseldorf .” (October 2004)
• Eklund, Douglas. “ Photography in the Expanded Field: Painting, Performance, and the Neo-Avant-Garde .” (October 2004)
• Eklund, Douglas. “ Art and Photography: 1990s to the Present .” (October 2004)
• Eklund, Douglas. “ Art and Photography: The 1980s .” (October 2004)
• Eklund, Douglas. “ The Pictures Generation .” (October 2004)
• Eklund, Douglas. “ Body/Landscape: Photography and the Reconfiguration of the Sculptural Object .” (October 2004)

Related Essays

• Body/Landscape: Photography and the Reconfiguration of the Sculptural Object
• Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968)
• Photography in the Expanded Field: Painting, Performance, and the Neo-Avant-Garde
• The Pictures Generation
• Abstract Expressionism
• Art and Photography: 1990s to the Present
• Art and Photography: The 1980s
• Design, 1975–2000
• Edward J. Steichen (1879–1973): The Photo-Secession Years
• Jasper Johns (born 1930)
• Kodak and the Rise of Amateur Photography
• Miyake, Kawakubo, and Yamamoto: Japanese Fashion in the Twentieth Century
• Modern Materials: Plastics
• Photography in Düsseldorf
• Photography in Europe, 1945–60
• Postmodernism: Recent Developments in Art in India
• Postmodernism: Recent Developments in Art in Pakistan and Bangladesh
• The Postwar Print Renaissance in America
• Twentieth-Century Silhouette and Support
• West Asia: Postmodernism, the Diaspora, and Women Artists

List of Rulers

• Presidents of the United States of America
• France, 1900 A.D.–present
• Germany and Switzerland, 1900 A.D.–present
• Great Britain and Ireland, 1900 A.D.–present
• Italian Peninsula, 1900 A.D.–present
• Japan, 1900 A.D.–present
• Low Countries, 1900 A.D.–present
• The United States and Canada, 1900 A.D.–present
• 20th Century A.D.
• Abstract Art
• Chromogenic Print
• Conceptual Art
• Dye Transfer Print
• Gelatin Silver Print
• Geometric Abstraction
• Modern and Contemporary Art
• North America
• Photography
• Printmaking
• Self-Portrait
• United States
• Women Artists

Artist or Maker

• Alechinsky, Pierre
• Anastasi, William
• Anatsui, El
• Casebere, James
• Duchamp, Marcel
• Gallagher, Ellen
• Huebler, Douglas
• Johns, Jasper
• Kirkeby, Per
• Rauschenberg, Robert
• Rosler, Martha
• Ruscha, Edward

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• Running a Photography Business

How to Write an Artist Statement and Why It’s So Important

It’s impossible to bring a body of work to its full potential without being able to articulate in words what our photographs say and why they are meaningful to us personally. While not all of our reasons for creating a project are relevant to include in an artist statement, having the discussion is a mandatory part of the process in order to create a cohesive and powerful body of work.

I think it’s fair to say writing an artist statement is many photographers' least favorite task. We chose visuals, after all, to express ourselves, not words, and likely for very specific reasons, perhaps even as a rejection of the limitations of language. “A picture is worth a thousand words,” so why try to reiterate those words if the image is already soaked with expression?

An artist statement is not really a reiteration of what your images say. It’s more of a clarification of what your images say, plus a whole lot more that your images couldn’t possibly say. An artist statement is a way of discussing your work as a photographer both generally (why you chose to work in the medium of photography) and specifically (why you chose to create a certain project). It verbalizes the relationship between you and your work, and it provides a way for your audience to connect with your work as well.

Every artist statement is unique to the photographer, but in general it’s a statement written from your own perspective that helps you express the meaning and purpose behind your work. It usually covers the subject of your photographs, how the photographs were made, and why the photographs were made.

Why Writing an Artist Statement Makes Our Photography More Powerful

For most photographers, making images of a subject we’re passionate about is the easy part. It’s selecting the best images and sequencing them that’s challenging. And often the reason it’s so difficult is not because we can’t recognize a successful photograph from an unsuccessful one. It’s because, whether we know it or not, we’re not completely clear on what our subject really is or what our motivations are for investigating it.

The creative process is full of mystery; that’s why we enjoy it so much. But it also inherently leaves us with a lot of unanswered questions, or—even more confounding—it leaves us asking the wrong questions. There are many reasons why this more passive part of the photographic process can get so confusing. Sometimes our photographic motivations change as we learn more about our subject. Sometimes we think we know what we’re photographing, but it’s based on our old ideas, and not, as the creative process so famously presents, on our manifesting ideas. Sometimes it’s because we’re so caught up in producing photos, we haven’t taken the time and energy to really look at our images and articulate what we see and feel.

Writing an artist statement is key to navigating this part of the process. It can help us eliminate images we like and are successful but don’t speak to the main thread that connects the images. Likewise, it can bring “B images” back into an edit because they support the main thread in a way that gives our project focus and impact.

Just as important, writing an artist statement supplies us with the words we need to communicate our project and personal vision to others who are not privy to our thoughts and creative process. This is especially important professionally, because people in the photography industry expect us to be able to talk about our work if we want them to take us seriously and publish, promote, or otherwise support our photography.

How to Write an Artist Statement

The guiding principle to keep in mind as you craft your artist statement is to write from your perspective, not from a viewer’s interpretation of your work. This is not a persuasive statement; you don’t want to tell viewers how to receive your photographs. Instead, you want to give them the details that support your images and allow viewers to react to those details in whatever way they see fit.

To begin writing your artist statement, ask yourself:

• Why did you create your photographs?
• What is the history behind the photographs?
• What are you trying to express in the photographs?
• How do your current photographs reflect those you made in the past?
• Who or what influences you to make photography?
• Who or what inspired you when you made your project?

Next, referring back to your answers to the question above, brainstorm a list of words that explain your influences, your creative process, your values as a photographer, and the themes you explore through photography. 

Now use those words and phrases to create your artist statement, using the following structure:

• Write in the first person (using “I” and “my”).
• Begin with a broad statement or two that clearly and briefly describes your photographs.
• Then explain in detail how the ideas in your statement are reflected in your photographs and why you chose to work in the medium of photography.
• Cite the themes or experiences that influenced you to make your photographs.
• Finally, create a concluding statement or two that summarizes the most important points about your photographs.

Be sure to:

• be clear and to the point.
• write concisely and simply, describing your ideas with as few words as possible.
• assemble words that reflect you and your photographs in the most authentic way possible.
• proofread your statement for grammar, spelling, and typos, and for clarity and details that are relevant and interesting.

Be sure not to:

• write about how amazing and important you or your photographs are (you don’t want to come across as pompous).
• use cliché terms or phrases to describe your perspective or photographs.
• include too much jargon or too many technical terms.
• explain at length your techniques and materials.
• boast about awards or honors you have received.
• use language evocative of marketing speak; it comes across as persuasive or manipulative, and that’s the last thing you want to align yourself with.

How to Troubleshoot Your Artist Statement

Self assessment.

After you've written a draft of your artist statement, compare it to your practice as a photographer and the body of work it discusses and ask yourself the following questions:

• Are all of the ideas and details in your artist statement an authentic reflection of you and your photography?
• Are there images in your body of work that say something other than the main points expressed in your artist statement?
• Are there images that you didn’t place in your selection that more strongly support the ideas in your artist statement?
• Is the information in your artist statement an expression of a future goal you have, or is it where you’re truly at presently?
• Likewise, does your artist statement comprise past ideas about you and your work that have since changed, but you are still hanging on to?

Seek the Assessment of Others

Attempting to write an artist statement can help us determine what our work really means to us. As previously noted, since our relationship to our work can change greatly as it’s being created, writing one can serve as a benchmark of sorts. It can help us understand where we are at with our project, potentially uncovering holes in our body of work—images we need but don’t yet have that are necessary to make our point. It can also point out redundancies in our project—pictures that don’t add new information, and therefore might make our project more impactful if they were edited out.

But making these evaluations can be really difficult sometimes, because we are too close to our photographs to see them objectively. Getting an outsider’s perspective at this stage is really beneficial—if not essential—when writing an artist statement. I recommend asking three people for help: (1) someone who knows your work well, (2) someone who doesn’t know your work at all, and (3) someone who is good with words who may or may not know your work well.

• First show them your body of work. Give them the title of your body of work and the image captions. Do not give them any other information.
• Then have them read your artist statement.
• What words, phrases, or ideas in my artist statement are an accurate reflection of what you see in my images?
• Are there any ideas expressed in my artist statement that are not portrayed in my images?
• Are there any images in my body of work that do not support the main thrust of my artist statement?
• Do I use any words that confuse you or seem to get off topic?

First Just Listen and Let Them Do the Talking

In order to get the most objective response from these people, do not ask them leading questions that could persuade them to respond in a certain way (i.e.: giving them details or back story that is not included in your artist statement or saying “Don’t you think that this picture is…”). Let the conversation proceed solely based on your writing and your photographs and see how they respond.

Then Talk to Them About Your Specific Concerns

After they have answered the questions above and given their full opinion, you can ask them questions that address specific concerns you have. Perhaps you tell them your goals in photography and/or some of the back story behind the images. Let the conversation unfold freely between you now, without holding back any questions.

Assimilate Their Feedback

As you collect thoughts from these three individuals, understand that everyone has their proclivities and perspectives that are particular to their life experience. As a result, the feedback one person gives you might contradict the feedback another person gives you. Take their background and interests into account as you absorb the changes they may propose in your artist statement or selection of images.

If people give wildly contradictory feedback, it might be a sign that your body of work is not cohesive enough in its current state or sequence to give the effect you desire. Or, it might be that your artist statement expresses out-of-date ideas or goals you have with the work that you haven’t yet achieved. Likewise, if everyone shares a similar opinion about a detail or an image, don’t be quick to dismiss it. It’s likely they are on to something.

Sleep on what they say so that in the coming days you can be more open to evaluating opinions that may contradict your own. Try not to take any feedback personally and don’t get discouraged if you don’t hear what you were hoping to hear. Their feedback is just a guide, a way of checking in with your viewers and understanding things from their point of view.

With a cool head, reevaluate your writing and your images with their feedback in mind. Play around with your words and images and see if any of their proposed changes work. You might be surprised. Then again, you might not. Just try to stay out of your own way so that you are able to create the most authentic artist statement and the most powerful body of work possible.

An artist statement describes, from your perspective, what you do and why. It’s a way for viewers to connect with your work using the most prevalent medium of all: language. It provides you with the words you need to talk about your photography, whether for a professional meeting like a portfolio review or for a casual discussion among peers. An artist statement is extremely helpful to write, because the process forces you articulate the main ideas behind your images. Those main ideas then serve as a guide in helping you asses, edit, and sequence your images with a more focused objective. Writing an artist statement can also reveal that the ideas you have of your images are not what the images actually portray, presenting you the opportunity to revise your thoughts and better articulate what your images actually reflect.

Editor's Note: To receive personal guidance writing an artist statement, reserve a place in Amy Touchette's upcoming workshop, “Writing an Artist Statement: Understanding and Verbalizing Your Personal Vision,” offered February 19-24, 2017, at SEEK Workshops, located in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Essay About Photography As An Art

Today, our team of paid essay writers want to talk about photography. In our times, there are endless debates about whether we can consider a photography as an art, or it is only the source of its achievement, all the same as, for example, canvas and paint? You can create real works of art with them, but it is likely possible to “build” the business. After all, photographer in modern world in not only the creative person, but also a kind of businessperson. It cannot be any grand event possible without high-quality photo session. Photography is in demand and brings good income. However, everyone, who loves photography and admires the masterpieces of professionals, himself creates qualitative unique works and does not set for himself the goal to sell his creation. The answer is obvious: photography is an art. We will discern formation of photography and aspects of photography, on which we can consider it as an art in essay about photography.

In order to confidently talk about whether the photography is art, we need to figure out, what photography and art are. Can they co-exist? Alternatively, is this a “whole” being? In order to do this, we should look back and look for answers in the pages of the photography’s history.

Formation Of Photography

The desire to preserve the beauty of the fleeing life has created an amazing form of art – photo. The history of photography - is an exciting history of the origin and the realization of the dreams of fixing and long-term preservation of images, which surround us, and the phenomena of objects. It is one of the brightest and most stormy phases of the development of modern information technology. Only hinsighting on the past of photography, we can estimate the enormous impact, which it has had on the development of modern culture, science and technology. The history of photography, unlike studies in other types of arts with a long tradition, began to develop only in last time, precisely in the postwar years. At this time books, which were dedicated to photographic art, were published in many countries. Of course, research in this area lagged behind the genres of photographic art. That happened because of many aspects:

•        the lack of a large number of museums, archives, collectors;

•        fragility of the negatives and paper prints of the time.

Photographic art as the number of shots and speed of playback were questioned under the doubt. Indeed, it took little time on photo work in contrast to the paintings, which were painted over the years. We will look in chronological order the history of photography in photography essay.

I would like to point out a few facts, without which the photography would not be at all.

Technique allowed getting image. It was important to fix it without the participation of drafter.

It was done for the first time only in the XIX century. The Frenchman Joseph Nicephore Niepce began to cover the metal plates with bituminous varnish. Varnish became insoluble under the influence of light but in different areas in varying degrees, depending on the brightness.  Engraved relief arose on the plate after the treatment of it with a solvent and acid etching.

 The invention of Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre. Image (daguerreotype) was got on a silver plate, treated with iodine vapor. Plate was manifested after exposure for 3-4 hours in mercury vapor and fixed in hot solute of salt or hyposulfite. Daguerreotypes differed with very high quality of images, but it was possible to get only one shot.

The third man, who stood at the origins of photography, was an Englishman, William Henry Talbot. He made shots on paper impregnated with salts of silver. Talbot printed the resulted negative image with the help of contact method and magnification.  Inventor named his own creation as “calotypy” (from the Greek “wonderful imprint”). The main advantage of calotypy is to obtain multiple copies of the same image.

One of the central problems in the identification of any form of art is a problem of his tongue. Analyzing the history of photography’s individual language, we should identify several periods of its development. Initially photographers preferred to shoot nature and environment, for example rivers, forests and various buildings.  This first period began in 1839 and remained as the main little more than a decade. The second period is linked with appearance of new photo technology, which managed to reduce exposure tens of minutes to seconds and expand at the same time opportunities of reflection all wider range of reality’s objects. Photographers seeked to make all environment as an object of shooting. The naturalness and ingenuousness created freshness of perception and fascinated by its simplicity. In the late 19th - early 20th century new method in photography was developed. It got name pictorialism. Artists, which preferred wealth of tones to disharmony and representation, made an attempt of pictorialism’s overcome. Now, we should discuss about the main aspects of photography in this history of photography essay.

Aspects of Photography As Key Factors Of Photographic Art

During the birth of photography the opinion in the aesthetics prevailed, that only man-made product can be considered as art. The image of reality, which was obtained with the help of technical physical and chemical methods, could not even pretend for such status. Although first photographers, which gravitated to the artistry of images, showed considerable compositional ingenuity in image of reality, photography did not fit into the system of social values and priorities for a long time.

In the first years after its appearance, the public opinion and experts attributed photography from different fields of culture to the number of funny things. Photography of that period did not have any documentary or informational content or freedom of lighting solutions ad findings. It had none of the features that theory today considers as defining for photography. Photography has following aspects, which show that it is some kind of art:

•        documentalism;

•        photojournalism;

•        selection of color, art style, figurative language, genre;

•        presence of talented photographer-artist;

•        availability of critics.

Looking at the photography from the artistic side, you need to stay on its documentary nature . Photography includes in itself figurative portrait of the contemporary and momentary press photos (the document) and photo reports. Of course, you cannot demand high art from service information shot. However, you cannot see only video information and photo document in every highly artistic work. Documentary , authenticity and reality are important in photography. We can make such decision thanks to one of photography essays. The cause of photography’s global influence on modern culture is in this root feature. Other values of photography, its features and its importance for culture in general crystallize in comparison of photography and individual arts. Documentalism is the quality, which first penetrated into the art culture with the appearance of photography.

Photojournalism has its roots with documentary, which is common feature of photographic art. However, this property is used differently, depending on the task. In those cases, when it comes to photo chronicle - fair, exhaustive, precise information about event – personality of author’s shot is not seen. It is entirely subordinated to the fact’s fixation and limiting reliability of its display. Another thing is photopublicism. Here, the photographer also has to do some business with facts of reality. However, their supply is fundamentally in author’s vision. They are painted by the personal assessment of the author.

Some aspects of photography as a form of art are manifested in the choice of color, artistic style, genre, visual language . Color is one of the most important components of contemporary photography. The aim of origination was in marking certain shape of objects through common photography. Color makes photo image to look more authentic. The art style is a particular problem in the theory and practice of photography. It is easily to see as the presence and absence of art style in photography. Naturalistic and documentally captured image will show all little things and details, which are included in the space of lens. Nevertheless, it will be unorganized chaos of vision. If you make a shot at the angle of the author’s vision and artistically, you can get a completely different work.

Art of photography requires a photographer-artist . He needs careful selectivity and special personal “vision”, which allows distinguishing worthy of attention from the outside, casual, part-time. Not every captured image becomes a work of art and obviously not every film gives good photocomposition. Just as an artist constantly makes sketches, photographer trains his eye and his photo vision of the world.

Criticism plays an important role in the development of photographical art, including the theoretical and critical thinking of photographers themselves . Criticism and theory under the condition of credibility and competence may stop amateurish disputes, which disturb and distract photographers and spectators. Taking into account the different aspects of photographical art, we can formulate its essence, try to define art of photography. Art of photography is the creation of visual image of documentary value, artistically expressive and reliably imprinted in the frozen image important moment of reality with the help of chemical and technical means. Art of photography is obviously hard work. You can read about this concept of work in essay on hard work .

To sum up in one of essays on photography, I want to say that question about whether photography is art or not, is hard to answer. It is similar to the meaning of humanity’s existence. Some people think that good photography, which is not made by you, is art. However, not every work, which you like, can be considered as art, and not every art must be loved. Good and evil are linked and should equally fill the art.

You should certainly use our services . We offer qualitative help in writing of your any assignment and grading any of them. Do be afraid to ask us for help.

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Sarah Lewis’s New Book Shows How Photography Taught Americans to “See” Race

By Emmanuel Iduma

Emmanuel Iduma

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Lewis is making a larger point in that passage about how Duveneck’s paintings were received in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His most contested work was A Circassian , an 1870 painting in which he depicted a man from the Caucasus region as anything but what his largely white audience might have expected to see of their supposed Caucasian kin, much in the same way the black model’s body is discordant from his portrait. The region, claimed as the homeland of white racial purity—owing to a 1795 tract by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach—had by then been revealed to be less homogenous than reputed. But it was too late: the fictions of scientific racism had already taken hold in the American imagination, leading many of Duveneck’s critics to question the accuracy of his study of a man from Caucasus.

Duveneck skilfully rendered plainthe visual negotiations and investigations that were transforming seeing and perception in the United States in his day. Lewis uses the term “racial adjudication” to describe sight in the aftermath of the Fugitive Slave Act, which made it a federal crime not to report a fugitive slave once sighted, turning “adjudication into a requirement for navigating civic life.”

Lewis’s exposition goes further to show how the unstable foundation of a “Caucasian” homeland sustained the narrative of racial superiority, and created a process of “unseeing.” To unsee was to eliminate through “studied disregard” any evidence that threatened long-held assumptions. For example, Jim Crow-era geography teaching manuals excised from maps any detail that tended to disprove the history of a superior white race.

Such conclusions had consequences. “Unseeing had so desensitized the nation to the terror and violence that advertisements for lynchings could run casually in main city newspapers,” notes Lewis. Photography helped normalize lynching in the eyes of white audiences: these extrajudicial acts were captured by government officials and published without shame, as though there was no debate on who was dispensable. Onlookers gazed back at the camera while surrounding lynched men, knowing full well their presence as accessories to murder would be taken for granted.

Lewis’s narrative is bookended by the American Civil War—which she describes as the Second Founding of the United States—and the period of segregation that followed. In the course of that time , race changed sight, she argues. The Civil War unfolded concurrently with the Caucasian War, and American newspapers covered the devastation of Circassian people as though it were an extension of the Confederacy’s demise.

This wartime period coincided with the popularization of photography, laying the groundwork for creating images that conditioned “racial sight.” One Civil War-era photographer Charles Eisenmann took pictures of performers known as Circassian Beauties, women supposedly from the Caucasus, displaying them as exemplars of pure whiteness. But in fact, they were descended from Africa. In a move fabricating racial difference, Eisenmann (or one of his operators) directed the technician to “make the hair as white as possible and smoke the sleeves so it blends into her white skin.”

Early on, black thinkers recognized the artifice in photography. Frederick Douglass, the most photographed American of his day, is one such thinker: writing on the galvanizing impact pictures could have in achieving the promise of democracy, he understood in the 1860s that the power of photographs could be harnessed to “achieve justice in American life.” He also understood, Lewis argues, “the force of contrast,” the distinction between what was shown in an image and a lived reality. More accurate photographs could help in negating stereotypes and change “how we processed… competing narratives of worldmaking.” Sitting repeatedly for daguerreotypes, he was signalling a call to black people to picture themselves as they would like to be seen.

“One of the gifts of the field of black Studies is a set of methods for seeing the shape of absence, of omissions, of silence,” writes Lewis. One such gift is Toni Morrison’s 1973 The Black Book , a compilation of images, texts, articles, photographs, and newspaper clippings—“an exhortation to take stock of what has fallen out of view but has, nevertheless, conditioned and contoured the shape of the world in which we live,” Lewis writes. Notably, in researching her compilation, Morrison discovered the story of Margaret Garner, who, as in her novel Beloved , preferred to murder her children than let them re-enter slavery.

Another gift is W.E.B. Du Bois’s contribution to the 1900 Georgia Negro Exhibit, where he presented an installation of photographs, maps, books and data visualizations, all centering the progress and achievements of black people. In an unpublished speculative novel about a “megascope”—a sociological machine that can look at data gathered over centuries—he argues that we ought to work with punctiliousness to discover the shapes “created by the invisible,” as Lewis writes, since “all issues that result in structural inequality and bias stem from the imbrication of race, perception, vision itself.” One place to start, as the book pointedly suggests, is to dispense with any assumption that “Caucasian” is a fixed, white racial identity. Until I read The Unseen Truth ,I was unaware of the constructed nature of the term.

Still, this process of refusing fictions shored up by the visual regime not only requires courage but might be costly. Lewis tells of her grandfather, Shadrach Emmanuel Lee. As an eleventh grader in New York, he asked why the textbooks he studied mentioned only the excellence of white Americans. Undeterred by his teacher’s suggestions that black Americans had done nothing deserving of mention, he continued to press the question until he was expelled.

How is this masterwork of research relevant to the Black Atlantic world? It is not a question directly taken up by Lewis. Yet the overarching evidence she presents points to how unsettled and migratory the hierarchy, category, and formation of whiteness was and continues to be worldwide. When American whiteness sought a homeland, it looked outside its shores, justifying itself with the same kind of unfounded confidence underpinning narratives of supremacy that, in short order, informed colonialism. Any attempt to consolidate an identity turns to narrative, such as those stories told in the glee on the faces of a crowd surrounding lynched men.

The work of re-seeing, then, can work towards narrative, too. Not in order to consolidate an identity, but to show how heterogeneity is the true evidence of a shared humanity, much like the diverse demographic of the Caucasus.

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Gallery Owner Sentenced in Fine Art Photography Swindle

Wendy Halsted Beard, 59, agreed to sell photography prints on behalf of older collectors. She kept the profits for herself.

By Annie Aguiar

A Detroit-area gallery owner was sentenced last week to five years and three months in prison for defrauding photography collectors out of $1.6 million worth of fine art photos, in what the F.B.I. has called a criminal scheme to swindle older collectors.

The gallerist, Wendy Halsted Beard, 59, of Birmingham, Mich., previously pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud for the scheme.

According to the criminal complaint filed by the F.B.I. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, between March 2019 and October 2022, Beard agreed to sell over 100 fine art photographs on behalf of collectors, for which she’d earn a commission. Those works were instead not returned, or were sold without clients’ knowledge, with Beard keeping the profits and creating a series of excuses when her clients started asking questions.

Works from some of the most acclaimed photographers of the 20th century — Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon and Ansel Adams — were among those entrusted to Beard.

The most valuable photograph Beard sold was a mural-size print of an Adams photograph titled “The Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Teton National Park,” a dramatic black-and-white shot of the winding river below the mountain range. Beard sold that photograph for $440,000 and kept the profits instead of an agreed-upon 5 percent commission. Works that did not sell were kept in Beard’s Franklin, Mich., home or left in a Florida gallery.

Beard went to great lengths to hide her deceit, according to the complaint, claiming to have been in a monthslong coma and to have received a double-lung transplant to justify delayed answers to clients, inventing fictional employees to correspond with clients, and once swapping out a signed Adams photograph print with a $405.26 version of it from the Ansel Adams Gallery gift shop.

More than three dozen collectors trusted Beard with their artwork, according to the Justice Department release, including a longtime friend, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist J. Ross Baughman and an 89-year-old man with Alzheimer’s disease. As part of her sentence, Beard is ordered to pay over $2 million in restitution.

Annie Aguiar is a reporter covering arts and culture and a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers. More about Annie Aguiar