Storytelling

Remote Meeting (See Instructions/Get Zoom Link Emailed)

Great storytelling can help your audience connect emotionally with your images. But understanding how to weave a narrative into your photography can be confusing. How can one photo tell a whole story, with a beginning, middle, and end?

JP has spent the last 5 years photographing the same group of Mexica, or Aztec, dancers. In that time he learned how connected the Mexica are to their mythology. To stories passed down across generations. That’s when he decided that, as these stories were so vital to Mexica culture, they needed to play a bigger role in his portraits.

This is a talk is about what happened next. About how a desire to tell stories visually, ended up changing his entire creative process, and the way people react to his photos. Using examples from his cultural photography work in Mexico, JP Stones explores different ways to improve that emotional connection. Including how myths and character archetypes can be harnessed for better storytelling.

Working with narratives won’t just change the way people engage with your photos, it will fundamentally change the way you create them. Because that narrative can also be used to guide decisions on posing, composition, lighting, and color. Focusing your creative decisions and ensuring you create cohesive work.