Some of the most compelling affordances of photography are similar to compelling affordances of narrative stories.  When thinking of aspects of a good story people often say, good characters, drama/conflict, and a resolution. The same aspects that make narrative stories so intriguing are translated to photojournalism and capturing a rhetorically powerful work.  As David Campbell states in his article photography and narrative: What is involved in telling a story? most narrative stories have an exposition, conflict, climax, and a resolution.  Similarly, powerful photojournalism includes the photographers inclusion of introducing the location, giving the story a face, letting people tell their own story, contextualizing those stories, and following a dramatic form.  Some photographers also take into account time, personification, and dramaturgy.

The amount of emotion and narrative that photographers must depict in just a few images is very difficult and leads some professionals to engage in unethical photography.  Unethical photography is precisely explained by Santiago Lyon in the New York Times article staging, Manipulation and the truth in photography.  He describes image manipulation as “when a photographer orchestrates a scene to fit his or her own narrative by asking the subject(s) to do things they would not ordinarily do, or by asking them to repeat things they were doing prior to the photographer’s arrival”.  This practice of unethical image manipulation leaves readers with an dishonest account of events and essentially turns powerful, but staged, photographs into propaganda disguised as news. By misleading and misinforming readers photographers are disregarding their responsibility to be accurate and transparent.

Ideas for photo essay:

Misconceptions of student athletes, difference between women’s and men’s dorm communities, how high school has failed some students.