“Always look for the story” is something my much more talented photographer friend told me. It’s something I’ve always taken literally. I have always been a storyteller, or at least I’ve always wanted to be a storyteller. From a young age reading and writing became my passion. But even as I wrote, I wanted images to bring my stories to life. Having little talent for drawing and painting, I have largely let this part of my storytelling fall by the wayside. So now I am using photography to tell stories.
Now, having become obsessed with photography, I have found a new way to tell my stories. I use photography as storytelling. When I’m out photographing I don’t just look for the beautiful scene, or the pleasing composition, now I try to create stories with what I see. Sometimes my stories are abstract, sometimes they are literal. But the most important thing is that I am telling the story that I want to tell. Let me show you some examples.
Your Skull is Showing
In this photo I noticed that the beak on this kappa statue had been broken and the inner concrete structure was showing. It still looked like a beak, and the smaller kappa behind it looked very concerned, so in my initial caption I wrote, in Japanese “Hey, big bro, your skull is showing…” And I liked the idea that these two mythical creatures would have familial ties like this and that this would be a normal conversation they’d have. I am explicitly telling a story and not just leaving it up to the viewer to create one in their mind.
A Potato to End The World
Let’s look at another photo. Like my last photo, I saw something absurd in this giant potato that has seemingly crashed into a light pole. When I saw this I immediately thought about asteroids striking the earth and creating an extinction event, and how lucky we are that instead of hitting the earth, it struck this light post, stopping it before it could wipe out humanity, or at least Hokkaido. And so, in Japanese, I wrote the following: “This huge potato, caught by this lamppost could have been serious trouble if it had fallen to the ground. Fortunately, thanks to being caught by ths lamppost, it seems that the human race was spared from extinction.” I love the absurd notion of a potato causing an extinction event because it feel from the sky.
Gangster Cats on Pawtrol
Here we can see two stray cats. Feral cats are especially common in Japan for some reason. There is also a kind of gangster image associated with them. So when I saw these two cats I thought of them as a boss and a subordinate. The subordinate behind the boss is saying “Boss, it’s time to go on patrol-nya.” To which the boss responds “Hang on, it’s time for my nap-nya.” This is how I imagine cats would talk in Japanese. Because I’m a huge nerd and love whimsical thinking.
Bikes Over Diamonds
“That girl already had a diamond, so I gave her a bike.” Unattainable goals are, I think, a part of life. This beautiful girl on the wall is holding a diamond. A diamond is beautiful, but not very useful. And so in an attempt to woo the object of their desire, our unnamed and unseen protagonist offers a bicycle.
Who’s Nest Were You In?
In a photo like this, I feel like I can really let my whimsy soar. To me, these to birds look like a fighting couple. The bird on the right is the wife of the husband that just flew home after a long night out and she is accusing him of infidelity. The conversation, in my mind, went something like this:
“Hey! Where were you last night? Were you over at that hussy of a starling’s nest?!”
“Huh?”
Obviously, this is ridiculous, and these are my favorite stories to tell with photography. The ridiculous and whimsical, or the obtuse and philosophical. I hope that this helps you understand my photography a little bit better. This is how I use photography as storytelling.
Tell us about your thoughtsWrite message