The “Too long, didn’t read version”:
- Strive to better understand human emotion
- It is easier to understand the why if you understand the what.
- Example: Angry can be more clearly expressed as frustration, annoyance, fear, or a combination of all three.
- The more clearly can describe an emotion the easier it is to photograph it.
- People want pictures that tell stories, tell the story of emotions by better understanding them.
Photographers play the part of a wannabe psychologist in that we try to get into our subject’s head so we can best represent them in our photos. The catch is, we can only get into our subject’s head as we understand them. We don’t usually have a whole plethora of psychological studies we are pulling from as we do this. Now I am not recommending you go and get a PhD in Psychology, but I do recommend you try to understand human emotions better.
What and why are good places to start. What emotion are they feeling? Why are they feeling that emotion? With kids this can be easier, though not always. As we get older we figure out a whole set of psychological tricks we use to not only mislead others on our feelings but also to mislead ourselves. So obviously there is a “who” in this and I’d argue the first who to start with is yourself.
Try and figure out some of the psychological games you play. Find something that makes you angry and try to explain to yourself why it makes you angry.
If you succeeded with that bravo but I really do not believe you. We all know what people do in anger, but the word itself is vague. Most times when it is used it likely refers to frustration, fear, annoyance, or a combination of all three and it sure would be a lot easier to deal with “angry” people if they’d use any of those words as opposed to “angry.”
And that is part of the trick as a photographer – to identify what the emotions really are and tell the story of them. You don’t take a picture of a family; you want a picture of a family that tells the story of their love for each other. You don’t want a picture of your wedding day; you want a picture of your wedding that tells the emotions of that day. People don’t want pictures of their kids or pets, they pictures that capture who and what their kids and pets are – that includes emotions.
The better you understand emotion the easier it will be to photograph them.