As someone who enjoys films and television so much that they’ve made it their career, photography is a happy medium that I can practise all the time.
Powerful photos can stand on their own. Out attentions have all been captured by those images we cannot help but share. But what about the simpler ones? Those that may not be capturing a century-defining event, but rather, the ordinary.
Can more meaning be extracted?
If you have ever seen a foreign language film you’ll have come across these bad boys:
SUBTITLES
They serve a crucial purpose. Translation.
But when removed from the theatre and presented in this form, a narrative begins to develop in the imagination. What exactly is going on?
You make assumptions and fill in the blanks. You begin to construct the story.
Hold on. What if this wasn’t a movie? What if this was a photo?
Ah! Just what I was looking for.
Turning those simpler photographs into small stories, all within the same boundaries of the frame, with a little added text.
This is one of those moments I wrote about in my previous letter.
What if questions allow you to explore the possibilities.
Here are some examples of what was generated from asking What if?
All of these photographs were taken spontaneously. They were compositions or subjects that caught my eye. By going back to them later with the What if question in mind, they became something completely different.
It breathes new life into otherwise ordinary photos. It compels the viewer to ponder on the scenario, and possibly even place oneself within it.
Even adding titles to the images guides you towards an idea or story. I could take this a step further by including one-sentence descriptions, expanding the boundaries of the frame.
All of this, from one image and a sentence.
What’s your What if?
You’d be surprised what you could come up with just by asking.
Stay inspired,
Josh
Movies are just snapshots of photographs..