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Photo Essay: Learning to love food again

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Before reading this piece, I feel that it is important to introduce the content of this photo essay. Trigger warnings include: eating disorders, unhealthy weight loss and unhealthy body image. I am not a registered healthcare professional; what I am about to share is simply what I have learned over the course of my struggle with an eating disorder and my recovery journey. The photos featured are meals that I made for myself this semester while eating intuitively ; I didn’t count my calories or measure my food. I simply ate when I was hungry and ate what I wanted. This essay is meant to be a celebration of food. For years, I was scared of food and viewed it as my enemy. But food is meant to be celebrated. It keeps us alive and it’s meant to be a source of pleasure, memories and so much more. It is not meant to be tracked, weighed or stressed over.

I’ve had a disordered relationship with food for as long as I can remember. 

As a child, I was pretty large compared to most kids. I was tall and held on to weight more than other children my age. I felt uncomfortable in my own body; it seemed like every other girl my age was so thin. I felt like I didn’t belong both physically and socially, and I would go on to spend years of my life taking extreme measures in an attempt to shrink myself so I could physically fit in. In my mind, if I could fit in physically, I would fit in socially as well. The two were mutually exclusive. I genuinely thought that I was not worth loving because I wasn’t a size 0. 

Growing up, I played a lot of sports. Being one of the slower members on the team didn’t stop me from having fun, at least at the beginning. After a while, it got old being one of the last people to finish our basketball conditioning workouts. Every time our coach had us line up, my heart would sink to my stomach. I wasn’t necessarily the last person to finish but I sure felt like I was. The coach screaming at me to be faster, better, in my head was screaming at me: you would be better if you lost weight, you will never be good enough at the size you are. That is something I told myself every day for most of my life. Because I was so self conscious about my size, I would take anything that anyone said to me about my performance as something that had to do with my weight. In reality, most of the time it probably wasn’t. Nevertheless, exercise, especially in a group or school setting, became an anxiety inducing experience and led to a very negative relationship with exercise for years to come.  

Starting in elementary school, I have distinct memories of wanting to be “healthier,” cutting out all “bad” foods in an attempt to take up as little space in this world as possible. I had convinced myself – no, diet culture had convinced me – that the only way to be healthy was to be as thin as humanly possible. So I truly thought that by restricting myself I would automatically become healthy. What I didn’t realize was that I began to assign moral values to food. Carbs are bad, vegetables are good, etc . And eating desserts meant that I didn’t have the willpower to stay thin and be the type of beautiful that society expected me to be. 

There are extremely dangerous messages being advertised everywhere, everyday, that are harming young, growing girls. If the only “beautiful” women that I saw on TV and in movies were a size zero, of course that became my default standard of beauty. 

Later, in elementary school and middle school, I would have times where I would obsess over eating absolutely no dessert or anything that the media deemed “not healthy.” Then, after a short while, the cravings became too intense to bear and I wound binge eat. I ate anything I could get my hands on in an attempt to fill my emotional need to feel like I was enough for society, to feel like the beautiful person that I am. I would eat a whole bag of chips and not even remember eating it. Food became my medication. It was always there when I needed it. I would sneak food and hide it around the house so my parents wouldn’t know what I was eating. 

These cycles are actually quite common (I would like to point out that just because they are common does not mean that they are healthy – they are not healthy). It is commonly referred to as the “restrict and binge” cycle. When someone feels “fat,” sad, powerless, etc., they either cut out food groups or restrict overall food intake in an attempt to take control of those feelings. This restriction then leads to intense hunger and an unhealthy obsession over food that usually leads to binge eating. Then, after a binge, they feel guilty and ashamed that they let themselves lose control, so they restrict again. The cycle continues over and over again.

I dieted on and off for many years but I distinctly remember my first official fad diet. The summer between 8th grade and high school, I embarked on the 21 Day Fix. I was determined to get the body of my dreams, to get rid of every ounce of fat on my stomach. I was going to be in high school and I wanted to feel pretty. I wanted to feel like I was enough for someone to love. After all, I didn’t look a certain way so why would I have been worthy of the same kind of romantic love others my age were beginning to experience? The 21 Day Fix advertised getting my dream body in just 21 days. Who wouldn’t want that? I had different color coded containers, each one a different size, for different food groups that my meals had to fit into. If it didn’t fit into the container, I was not supposed to eat it. I stuck to the diet to the extreme. I attended a tennis camp during those 21 days, and the coaches would hand out starbursts to everyone at lunch time. I wouldn’t take one. Let that sink in for a moment. I wouldn’t let myself eat one starburst because I was so determined to be skinny. The 21 days passed. I was tired and undernourished. I did lose some weight but when I looked at myself in the mirror, I looked essentially the same. I was so incredibly discouraged. I remember binging for days after. 

I didn’t learn this lesson at the time, but fad diets are not sustainable. You physically cannot make extreme changes to your body in such short amounts of time. Sustainable, healthy weight loss takes time, patience and lifestyle choices that should be maintainable for the rest of your life. There are no shortcuts. The advertised “skinny” coffee/tea/gummies are all a lie. You will not lose weight from taking any of those advertised diet pills . All those products do is make you have diarrhea. Diet culture is a multi-billion dollar industry, profiting off of our insecurities. They have so much power and influence because we as a society have given it to them. We think that everything in our lives will fall into place if we just had a six pack. I learned this the hard way: if you hate yourself when you are “overweight,” you are still going to hate yourself when you are thin. 

“I wouldn’t let myself eat one starburst because I was so determined to be skinny.”

For the first few years of high school, I continued the same restricting and binging patterns. One of my very close friends in high school said it best: “You either eat really, really clean, or really, really bad.” Both she and I didn’t realize that my behavior was disordered. Every day I was so focused on food. I was always thinking about it. Either thinking about how I shouldn’t have eaten that cookie earlier, or obsessing over what I would eat later in the day. When I turned 16 and had a car, that provided new sources of binging. I would go get food after school, eat shamefully in my car and hide the wrappers in a dumpster so no one would know what I had eaten. 

But the first few years of high school were not just filled with darkness. I was finally coming out of my shell. For the first time in my life, I also was learning how to love myself. I started to grow happier and more confident. But with learning how to love myself at the size I was came some more intense binges. It was a different type of binge; it was me eating whatever I wanted to the extreme because I was trying to love myself and wanted to eat, so I did. It was more of a screw you to the world. “You’re telling me that I shouldn’t eat to fit your beauty standards, so I will eat whatever I want!” While my relationship with my body was slowly beginning to heal, my relationship with food was circling the drain. 

Spring of my junior year of high school was when my relationship with food hit rock bottom. I didn’t realize how much weight I had gained until I made a video for a class and I didn’t recognize myself. The binging had gotten more out of control than it ever had before. I decided right then that I wanted to make a change. I wanted to be healthy, for real this time. I was equipped with more knowledge than I had before. I knew I had to make consistent changes over a long period of time. I didn’t have to cut out any foods that I loved, I just had to eat them in moderation. 

There are very safe and healthy ways to maintain a slight calorie deficit. Unfortunately, I took it to the extreme, not knowing it was the extreme. I downloaded the app LoseIt! which allows you to set a weight loss goal and track your calories for every meal of the day. I placed my goal weight to be in the healthy BMI range (which actually isn’t an accurate predictor of health). I wanted to get there as fast as I could, so I slid the calories allowed per day to be around 1,200. I was very disciplined. I stuck to the restrictions. I was able to because this time the diet was different: I was doing it out of love for myself. Yes, it was unhealthy, but I didn’t know that at the time. I wanted to be able to be as active as my friends were and not get so winded all the time. I wanted to take care of myself and set healthy habits for the rest of my life. Although what I did was very dangerous, the motivation was self-love, not self-hatred like the times I had tried to lose weight before. I had convinced myself that this was healthy. It wasn’t until over a year later that I realized that wasn’t healthy.

Food became a number to me. I would open the fridge and the inside looked like a spreadsheet. Still to this day, I can tell you the number of calories in most foods. I tracked every single piece of food I ate. If I was going out with friends for dinner, I would not eat the entire day because I wanted to eat a lot of fun foods and I didn’t want to go over my calorie limit for the day. Every single day, I would wake up and weigh myself and record it in my app. Bodyweight is a very trivial tracker of progress. It fluctuates a lot, especially for women depending on where we are in our menstrual cycle. So whenever I noticed one of these small fluctuations, I would freak out. My whole self worth began to revolve around what the scale said each morning. 

What’s scariest to me about that time in my life was not my behavior. It’s that everyone around me thought that what I was doing was healthy since I was losing weight. Everyone around me was so proud; I was actually making changes in my life that were visible to others. In reality, I was eating the amount of calories recommended for a toddler as a high school student during tennis season. It got so bad that at matches I would feel light headed and sick because I was not letting myself eat. I would cry at night because I was so hungry. 

But I still wouldn’t let myself eat. In less than three months, I lost 25 pounds and reached my goal. That is not a safe pace to lose weight. While I was the most active I had ever been and in the best shape of my life, my relationship with food was at its lowest point. But even after I lost the weight, I still had the same insecurities. My concern with how I looked and making sure I didn’t look “fat” in pictures was at an all time high. That alone goes to show that losing weight is not the key to happiness. If you hate yourself at the size that you are, you will still find things to hate about yourself if you are thin. 

Senior year of high school, I still tracked everything I ate, but now at maintenance calories. I gained back about 10 pounds over the course of a year. After the intense weight loss, my body naturally gained weight even eating at caloric maintenance. The human body is not designed to lose weight; it takes the weight loss as a sign that something is wrong. So after a severe caloric deficit period, the human body naturally wants to put more weight back on. During that period of extreme restriction, my body was starving and it went into survival mode after I finally let myself eat again. 

In the summer before college, I saw an advertisement at my local gym for discounted personal training sessions. I used to have panic attacks any time I would enter a gym in high school, and this felt like a great opportunity to overcome that fear. For the first time, I loved working out and conditioning. I got in shape and stuck with it. Now I’m the healthiest I have ever been because of it. Working out in public on a regular basis was a huge change for me. Just a month before, I would have laughed if someone told me I would love working out. I don’t train to be skinny or to have abs. I train for strength and out of self love. And my body can tell. When you exercise doing something that you don’t enjoy, it is scientifically proven that your body releases negative endorphins during it, so finding movement that you truly enjoy is a key to a healthy lifestyle. There is no right or wrong way to exercise. Exercising out of self love is a much different experience than exercising out of hatred for yourself. Being able to exercise is a gift, yet so many people view it as a chore when it doesn’t have to be. 

“I would cry at night because I was so hungry.”

My freshman year of college, I trained consistently and was in a healthy caloric deficit to lose the 10 pounds that I had gained back after the initial loss. My relationship with food was improving, but I still had binging episodes. I still was hyper focused on food all the time. I still had a genuine fear of gaining back the weight. I even had nightmares about it. I gained a new confidence that I had never had before, but there is a dark side to training. I started to fall back into old habits, thinking that I was only in shape and strong if I had visible abs, or that people wouldn’t respect me unless I looked like a fitness influencer. In reality, a lot of female fitness influencers are so thin that they don’t even get their period. But, yet again, diet culture views them as the only picture of health. Healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes; weight is not necessarily an indicator of health. 

The COVID-19 pandemic was a reality check. My issues with food came to the forefront: there were no other distractions. I was terrified of gaining weight. Shortly after we were sent home in April, the University of Michigan sent a mental health survey for students to take, and my results indicated that I had a severely disordered relationship with food. 

That news hit me hard. All those years, I never knew I had an eating disorder. I realized how my whole life had been controlled by food. I decided right then: no more. I couldn’t let myself live like this anymore. It terrified me. I thought if I stopped tracking what I ate, I would instantly gain all the weight back and go back to the dark, unhealthy, self-loathing state I was in in highschool. Giving myself unconditional permission to eat whatever I wanted and to allow myself to trust my hunger signals is one of the hardest things that I have ever done. I know it sounds simple, but it was and is a real struggle every day. 

By letting go, I discovered the unimaginable. My seemingly never ending obsession with food started to wither away. By giving myself permission to eat whatever I wanted, my obsession with food no longer had the power to control me. The human brain is wired to react this way; telling ourselves we can’t have something makes us want it even more, which explains the intense cravings and binge urges that many people experience. 

I stopped tracking, stopped weighing myself and gradually stopped binging. I ate to take care of myself by eating nutrient dense foods and lots of fun stuff, too. Ultimately, COVID-19 was the push I needed to start eating intuitively. All that time alone in my house forced me to face the binging head on. I was hungry for something more than food. I began to experience a much deeper form of self-love. I slowly started to trust myself again. Throughout this journey, I have realized that my body type, no matter how much weight I lose, will not be a size zero. And that’s okay! Bodies come in all shapes and sizes, and how we look is mostly genetic. I love myself and all of my curves. 

Now, I am strong and in the best shape of my life. I haven’t weighed myself in over a year. I haven’t tracked anything I have eaten in 9 months. I haven’t binged in a year. And ironically, after rejecting diet culture and loving myself at whatever size and letting go of tracking, I am the smallest I have ever been (I do not care about this but I wanted to mention it as more proof how diet culture is a sham). I am still in recovery and have back slides. But progress is not linear. I will have a complicated relationship with food for the rest of my life. I am currently living like I never have before: with freedom. I no longer wake up and obsess over food for the whole day. I have gained late night pizza outings with friends and zero guilt. I can enjoy delicious food on holidays with family and do so much more. In 25 years, you are not going to look back and remember what you ate, you are going to remember the memories of spending time with your loved ones. 

I still keep a scale in my apartment on campus just to remind myself of the power that I hold over it, just like it used to hold over me. Eating disorders are a very sensitive topic and one that people are very hesitant to talk about. That’s why I wanted to share my story. If this helps one person, the vulnerability will be worth it. Please love and nourish your body today. You only get one. Be gentle.

For anyone out there who needs to hear this: “No matter what you ate yesterday, you deserve to eat today.”

Senior Photography Editor Julia Schachinger can be reached at [email protected].

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We Eat Together

PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO

April 30, 2015

3 Photo Essay Tips For Food Bloggers And Our Hunt For The World’s Best Honey

THE SWEETEST STORY TOLD

(photo essay by heather & skyler burt).

Not too long ago Heather and I finished up a photo essay we’ve been working on. With a weekend spent shooting here and there, it took us a few months to complete.

Our subject was only reachable by 4×4 trucks, in a remote mountainous area of The Sultanate of Oman above the wadi Sahtain.

We were shooting the natural honey farmers of the region and their traditional beekeeping lifestyle.

Natural and sustainable farming is a subject dear to both of us and we’ve been wanting to document it for a very long time. We both hope to do a much larger story that encompasses a variety of locally grown foods to show just how much can come from a desert.

Honey was a great subject to start with, as our daughter Ciela was in heaven on the farms. Milking the swarms of baby goats each morning and having all the honey she could eat buy lunch.

I can now release the essay on the blog and I thought, while I was sharing our story, I might give a few photo essay tips for food bloggers.

1. STEAL THESE MOVES FROM THE TOP PUBLICATIONS

Crack open your favorite food magazine and I’m almost certain you’ll find one of these types of the photo essay below. These formats are not only simple, but almost endless wells to pull from. With monthly editions to crank out, photographers and writers love these types of stories because they’re usually quick to research and easy to produce.

• The Raw Ingredient Story

There is no boring ingredient! Where does your salt come from? Your pepper? Those walnuts? Think about it.

Our story of the natural honey farms is really an ingredient type of story. Holding a bottle of Omani honey, we said, “Hmm thats interesting.” Then we reverse engineer the entire idea from the market to where it was sourced.

Actually, our photo essay started at one of the most delicious chocolatiers in Muscat, Salma's Chocolates. Salma's Chocolates, specialize in incorporating indigenous ingredients into their truffles. One of which, is Omani honey. Our interest grew and we chased the golden sweet from the chocolate to the beekeepers.

Ingredient photo essays can be fun and really interesting. We were given an opportunity to communicate the depth of an everyday item we take for granted. Behind your favorite ingredient there is a person or place that makes it possible for you to enjoy. If you do a bit of research, fantastic stories will emerge.

• The Local Interests Story

Lots of action happens locally, you don’t have to travel far to get a simple photo essay. Restaurants, bars, markets and food festivals should be the photo essay playground for food bloggers. Go out and meet people, communicate and really listen to their story.

This photo essay from Sara Tuck really gives her audience a sense of what it's like to visit the Stunning Tasmania's Salamanca Markets . The food blogger Katie Quinn Davis and Aran of Cannelle et Vanille show us some great local interest photo essays that food bloggers can do.

• The City Guide Photo Essay

A lot of work, but well worth the effort, a city guide can really give your reader a sense of the food, people and culture closest to you. Every city’s food culture is different. City guides can range from a bird’s eye view of your local food scene to a detailed walk-through, hosted by a local with authority. Check out the epic city guides that the What Should I Eat For Breakfast Today blogger Marta Greber is doing.

The city guide photo essay can be a roundup of the local interests and ingredients stories as well. From the top places to eat all the way to where they get the magical ingredients that make their dishes sing.

This year I created a city guide for Saison Küche (Seasonal Kitchen) a Swiss culinary magazine. It was a story covering the food tradition, good eats, and gastro talent through the recommendations of a local foodie authority in Galle, Sri Lanka. I think it’s pretty cool, but maybe that’s a little bias.

2. HOW TO BE A BADASS STORYTELLER EVEN IF YOU’VE NEVER DONE IT BEFORE

The best way to be badass, is to get things done. And the best way to get a photo essay done, is to get organized. A shot list will help you to stay organized, and get all of those ideas on paper. So you know what you have accomplished and how far you need to go. Here is our typical shot list we use to approach a photo essay. We sketch the below outline, then fill in the blanks with possible photos we think we might make.

This photo would work great as a lead to our story. It’s an anxious scene, with the thousands of bees, yet the beekeepers smile is inviting, this juxtaposition gives the viewer the feeling of wanting to know more.

The lead in a photo essay is the hook. It draws the viewer in, peeking their curiosity to know more. The image could be a landscape scene or a portrait, but overall it should introduce the photo essay. Sometimes you know what your lead will be beforehand and sometimes it comes to you after you’re back and editing.

• Establishing Shot

The establishing shot gives the photo essay an immediate “sense of place.” It clearly shows where the story takes place, the environment, the mood of the location, the weather or whatever else is important for the viewer to know about the location.

You can see in the establishing shot above, a wide shot showing the barren mountainous landscape where the beekeepers harvest the honey. Far away from society, so no other impurities are introduced into their production.

• Medium Shot

Zooming in a bit on the location, is the next level of the photo essay, the medium shot. In our story, this is where we introduce the farm to the viewer. Still we can see some of the environment, the mountains, but it’s more focused on the subject. A surprise of green not seen before in the dry establishing shot.

• Engaged Portrait

As you can see this is the first look at our subjects, the main actors in the story, up close and personally engaging the viewer. It’s used as a reference for the viewer as they look through the following images, to keep in their mind who this photo essay is about.

 The subjects should be looking into the camera, showing their unique characters and maybe even a bit of their environments.

• Candid Portraits

Unlike the engaged portrait, the candids, are portraits of your subject which are un-staged. You’ll want to make a lot of these, they will play really nicely when you go to make diptychs with your detail shots later. This is also the point where you’ll want to add a few more characters to your photo essay.

 As you can see, our beekeeper had a few helping hands around the farm. Passing down the skills and the natural honey harvesting tradition to others was important to our story, so it was crucial to include these characters as well.

• Action Shots

Just like they sound, action shots are the bulk of what happens in your photo essay. This is where we show our viewer the process of the harvest. The work, hardship and joy involved in putting this sweet ingredient on the shelves of the community. If your subject is not comfortable with your presence, it might take a few visits to get natural action shots.

Every photo essay has a million details that surround the idea. Finding these will add depth and color to your story. We created details that we hoped would place the viewer, with us, inside the environment of our story. Focus on the small to build a bigger story.

• The Clincher

This is the end of your photo essay. Like the lead photo, the clincher should sum up the entire idea, but at the same time try to add resolve to the story. This clincher here might say to the viewer that the future and secrets of Oman’s natural honey is in the hands of the next generation. However you want to end your photo essay, it needs to end with strength. A solid image for the viewer to walk away with.

3. PUBLISHING PHOTO ESSAY THAT ARE STELLER

Yes, I know it’s cheesy, that last sub-head was a play on the Steller App , but once you have your story finished you have to show it to the world, right? The Steller App is a cool new (at least to us) way of showing off your photo essay, just how it should be. In a clickable book, that can be posted straight on your blog! Try ours out.

The Steller App has a Instagram-like feel to it, with the ability for your viewers to add comments and share it with their friends. And personally, I’m in love with seeing how people are using it. I even see some authors adding videos of their adventures.

I think it’s going to be an amazing addition to the toolbox of food bloggers, who are wanting an unique way to share their recipes with their fans.

Do you have any Steller Stories? Post a link to it in the comment section, I’d love to see them!

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Creative: Food Practices Photo Essay

Lynn M. Walters

Learning Outcomes

After reading and discussing this photo essay, students should be able to:

• Articulate a number of perspectives perceived by high school students on the influences on their food practices.
• Identify how food systems can help produce (and threaten) social equity.
• Describe the use of visual research methods in food studies.

Insights from a New Mexico Classroom on Factors that Influence Food Practices

In light of significant changes in food practices that began in the mid-twentieth century, many of which have led to unhealthy dietary patterns that have contributed to increased prevalence of overweight and correlated chronic diseases, it is important to understand factors that influence the ways young people eat. Increasing understanding about how family, culture, and cooking influence dietary habits can inform health communication and nutrition education interventions, as well as spur public policy strategies that promote healthy eating behavior.

New Mexico is a land of contrasts, with big skies, high mountains, sweeping deserts, and a deep and rich cultural history. Native Americans have lived in New Mexico for thousands of years. The Spanish colonized New Mexico in 1598, but it was not until 1912 that it became the 47th U.S. state. Hispanic/Latinx, Anglo, and Native American cultures are the three major population groups, with the largest percentage per capita of Hispanic/Latinx and the second largest percentage per capita of Native Americans. Hispanic/Latinx in New Mexico are in themselves a diverse group, including those of Spanish heritage, along with Mexican and Central and South American immigrants. It is estimated that about one-third of residents speak Spanish. New Mexico is known for its Native American and Spanish Colonial art, and artists from across the world have long been drawn to the light and landscape. The state also consistently ranks at or near the bottom of the educational and economic ladders in the U.S., and has a high degree of food insecurity .

The foodways of New Mexico reflect the varied geography and climatic conditions of the state, as well as the deep agricultural traditions and cultural diversity of its peoples. Chile, corn, beans, squash, and piñon nuts all originated in the Americas. They are important food crops in New Mexico, and the basis for many traditional dishes. New Mexican cuisine is famous for its chile, grown in New Mexico for at least four hundred years. Chile develops its spicy and sweet flavors in the hot summer fields. The state question, “Red or Green?” refers to red or green chile.

This photo essay is the outcome of qualitative research conducted as a dissertation project at the University of New Mexico. [1] It presents the first-person perspectives and insights of 14 eleventh-grade New Mexico high school students on the influences on their food practices . [2] Students visually documented their food practices for five days, wrote a photo-elicitation essay, compared food memories with daily food practices , and participated in focus groups and follow-up interviews. [3]

CUltural Heritage of FAMILY

Family and culture are inextricably intertwined, and cultural traditions are enacted, preserved, and evolve through family food practices. All of the students in the project expressed strong attachment to and valuing of the cultural culinary heritage of their families. Among students with close ties to Mexico, and those whose families have lived in New Mexico for generations, whether of Spanish and/or Native American heritage, it was more common to find a particularly strong view of the connection between culture and family than among the Anglo student participants.

The following photographs (see Figures 1 to 10) provide a glimpse into cultural practices enacted through family food traditions. The images primarily depict food traditions from Northern New Mexico and Mexico (the cultures of the majority of student participants), and are interspersed with Native American food traditions and others.

What foods do you associate with your family traditions?

“When I was growing up, my Nana would make a soup from acorn. She would pick acorns, grind them up, and pick the shells out. This process took the longest. Once she had the corn base taken care of, she then would make dumplings. All together the stew would consist of dumplings, “stew meat,” and the acorns. The soup has a very bitter taste. It’s something I had to get used to, just like coffee. Whenever I think of the soup, it reminds me of my Nana.” [Shasta (FNA)]

Gender R oles

Food practices were often gendered in the student narratives. Enactment of traditional gender roles, with women primarily responsible for household food, and men valued as professional chefs or in charge of the grill, was the norm in the majority of students’ families (see Figures 11 to 15).

What role does gender play in who cooks in your family?

“My brother and my dad—they don’t touch the kitchen—they think cooking is too complicated. My dad can’t even warm up a tortilla.” [Candelaria (FHM)]

Where Food Comes From

Congruent with the current food landscape, most students’ families primarily purchased food from grocery stores and restaurants, including fast food outlets. Some also shopped at farmers’ markets and natural grocers. Many of the students expressed an awareness of where food comes from, and that they valued the knowledge and expertise needed to grow food. Farming and/or gardening was part of family and cultural practices for almost half of the students, but it was generally not a major current food source (see Figures 16 to 20).

Do you know where the food came from that you ate for lunch today? 

“I kind of bonded with the cow a little bit and so I was a little sad to see him get

shot in the head….You have to kill it, then you have to clean it, then you have to cut everything up, then you have to dry it so it’s not all bloody. And you have to make sure that the dogs don’t get it. I think I’m a bit traumatized because I wash the organs and I feel their warmth; I can’t bring myself to eat it.” [Shasta (FNA)]

“My grandpa has three pieces of land ( tierras ), or we call it in Mexico, e l llano . He

grows beans, he grows sorghum for his cattle, and he grows corn. Lately, these past years there hasn’t been much rain in Mexico. He grows a little bit of beans to eat and a little bit to sell.” [Vicente (MHM)]

Friction Between Cultural Traditions and Daily Food Practices

Most of the students articulated their awareness of the friction between traditional and daily food practices. Although all of the students were cognizant of this issue, the Hispanic/Latinx and Native American students described these contradictions most vividly (see Figures 21 and 22).

How do you decide what to eat each day?

“Today’s food revolves around convenience, where food as a child was always something that we could all take our time with.” [(Franco (MHN)] “At home my parents [are the influence] because they cook…[if] we don’t like the food in the cafeteria, what should we eat? McDonalds or this place or that place.” [Santiago (MHM1)]

Commercial Influence

Commercial influence, especially the rise of corporate control of the global food system, has been cited as a central cause of overweight and correlated chronic disease (see Figures 23 to 27).

Many traditional dishes include beans, grains, meats, and vegetables, all of which contain vital nutrients that contribute to a healthy diet. Where do you think messages come from that imply that traditional foods are not healthy?

“At my friends’ house I could resort to eating junk.” [John (MA)] “When I’m with my friends we’re usually more tempted to go out and get something… When you cook you have to wash dishes.” [Shasta (FNA)]

Food Security/Food Insecurity and Sharing

Hunger and food insecurity are prevalent in the lives of many students in New Mexico. When several students candidly discussed the lack of food access that their families faced, none of the other students appeared surprised. Despite this, sharing food with extended family and neighbors is a common practice (see Figures 28 to 30).

 Have you or your friends or family ever gone to bed hungry?

Several students reported that sometimes there was limited food available. John (MA) explained, “Our food stamps were shut down the past month, and so I have just been eating…less and less; school lunch has been my main meal. We had some dried beans, but I didn’t want to bother with [them]. I have been eating very little, but it seems like I always have enough to eat to get by.” Isabella (FHM) said, “Obviously we’re not broke because we still have our house, but it’s like the deadline of our budget, and she [mom] says, ‘We’re having ramen tonight.’ That’s when you know we’re at our limit.”

Food Practices and Health

Although multiple factors have an impact on a healthy diet—food access, food preferences, and culture—several students observed that cooking was a way to control the cost and quality of the food that they ate. In a world in which prepared and packaged foods are available on most street corners, food selection and cooking skills support healthy food practices (see Figures 31 to 33).

What does “healthy food” mean to you?

“I wanted to play basketball and I had to have a physical, and they told me that I was pre-diabetic…and my family had to change everything from what I was drinking to what I was eating. We used to have a lot of junk food…sweet bread and chips. Besides being a lot healthier, I feel much better, my self-esteem. I was 230 pounds and I was only 12. It was like a life-changing experience.” [Candelaria (FHM)]

Cooking as a Life Skill

Cooking may range from making toast to creating a four-course meal. Most of the cooking reported by students during the project was relatively simple, with the exception of the traditional dishes that students photographed and described. If one has basic foods, a sharp knife, a few pots and pans, running water, and a heat source, much is possible (see Figures 34 to 43).

How do you define “cooking”?

“We make soups…stuff that you can make fast. Since we’re going to be college students, being able to make something with ease is important.” [(Franco (MHN)] “My friends—everyone can cook a little bit. It’s just a basic need. ’Cause if you can’t cook, what are your options? Eat out—and that takes a lot of money. It’s a life skill.” [David (MHN)]

“I go shopping and try to make a lot of it and freeze it and warm it up for the rest of the week ‘cause I don’t have time to be cooking every night. So I have just been making soup ‘cause it’s easy and fast—chicken soup, chicken curry, beef curry.” [Shasta (FNA)]

“When I go to college next year, I don’t want to be shopping at McDonalds. I want to buy my own food and cook it.” [Lucas (MHM)]

Honor ing Family and Cultural Traditions

Many of the students expressed respect for the food practices of their elders, as well as the desire to preserve their cultural and family heritages by learning how to cook and share traditional foods (see Figures 44 to 47).

How do you think that you will continue your family and cultural food traditions?

Vicente (MHM) observed, “It’s not the c aldo de res , the p ico de g all o , the corn tortillas, the rice or the seasoning—it’s the presence of the people around you that really make the dish worth the time.” Candelaria (FHM) concurred, “We are united because we continue our traditions…. I plan to share these traditions with other people and my own children in the future.”

Discussion Questions

• How might increased access to a variety of foods, including fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, exert positive pressure to enact healthy food practices?
• How might cooking skills increase food access and counterbalance commercial practices of culinary imperialism?
• How have processed foods changed cooking and eating patterns?
• What role do you think that gender plays in who cooks? How has this changed (or not) over the past 100 years?
• What is healthy food? What is good food?

Bartis, P. 2002. Folklife and fieldwork: An introduction to field techniques . Library of Congress.

Collier Jr., J. & Collier, M. 1986. Visual anthropology: Photography as a Research method . Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Collier, M., Hegde, R., Lee, W. Nakayama, T., Yep, G. 2001. “Dialogue on the Edges: Ferment in communication and culture.” In M. Collier (Ed.) International and Intercultural Communication Annual: Transforming communication about culture: Critical new directions, 24: 219–234. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

FAO. 2006. Food Security (Policy Brief No. 2).

Healthy People 2020 .

International Food Policy Institute (IFPRI).

Mak, T.N., Prynne, C.J., Cole, D., Fitt, E., Bates, B., Stephen, A.M. 2013.”Patterns of sociodemographic and food practice characteristics in relation to fruit and vegetable consumption in children: results from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey Rolling Programme (2008–2010).” Public Health Nutrition 16(11): 1912–23. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980013001912

McGee, H. 1984. On Food and Cooking . New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons,.

Rasmussen, K. 2004. “Places for children—Children’s places.” Childhood , 11 (2): 155–173.

Walters, L.M. 2015. “ Through their own eyes: Exploring New Mexico high school students’ perceptions of the influences on their food practices. “

• The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of New Mexico. Written active or passive informed consent was obtained from all study participants and/or their parents, as required. ↵
• Students’ photographs and quotations are identified by pseudonyms, along with demographic descriptors: F/M (female/male); HN (Hispanic/Latinx from New Mexico); HM (Hispanic/Latinx of Mexican descent); M1 (first generation Mexican immigrant); NA (Native American); A (Anglo). ↵
• Walters, Lynn. 2015. “Through Their Own Eyes: Exploring New Mexico High School Students’ Perceptions of the Influences on Their Food Practices.” Communication ETDs, May. https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cj_etds/6. ↵

includes food access and acquisition, food preparation, food preferences, and eating behavior; akin to foodways , the term used in food studies to describe food and meal preparation, religious and symbolic uses of food, and gardening, among other activities.

narrowly defined, the transformation of food through the application of heat; more broadly, a range of food preparation activities, from butchery to preparing food ‘from scratch’ to heating up packaged foods.

the condition that exists when one or more people are not able to gain access to food in sufficient quality and quantity, often due to lack of economic resources, in order to live a healthful and active life; note that there are multiple ways that food insecurity has been defined, depending on context.

one of a number of image making research methods that expands data generation beyond more traditional forms of language-based methods such as interviewing and focus groups.

the customary beliefs, social habits, and traits of racial, religious, and/or social group; culture encompasses language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music, and arts.

Food Studies: Matter, Meaning, Movement Copyright © 2022 by Lynn M. Walters is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.22215/fsmmm/wl56

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What A Week Of Groceries Looks Like Around The World

It seems as a people, we have a fascination with photographing our food. From Henry's series of riders , to looking on instagram we cant help but document what we consume. Photographer Peter Menzel started this intriguing series of one weeks of groceries from around the world, taking traditional food photography to a much larger scale. In his book Hungry Planet , Peter explores both the cultural differences of diets around the world as well investigating how prosperity and poverty influence the diets of different nations.

Here is the book description of Menzel's amazing project:

View the entire series Here in Menzel's Book Hungry Planet.  

If you're passionate about taking your photography to the next level but aren't sure where to dive in, check out the Well-Rounded Photographer  tutorial where you can learn eight different genres of photography in one place. If you purchase it now, or any of our other tutorials , you can save a 15% by using " ARTICLE " at checkout. 

Thomas Ingersoll is a internationally published photographer. He is an expert with strobes but loves to use natural light as well. Thomas has a very clean and polished look to his work. Being very well rounded with fashion, fitness, portraits, and action sports, he is always up to conquer any challenge.

seen that at least twice here on FS.

I don't believe we have posted this here before. I might be wrong tho, please feel free to post the link to the article if we have.

I believe he might be referencing this? http://fstoppers.com/chinese-families-pose-with-all-their-earthly-posses...

No, I concur. This has been posted before....but not by fstoppers. It was posted on www.homelessnation.com on December 24, 2007. http://www.homelessnation.org/en/node/7412

Wow, 2007! Food in the grocery store has changed quite a bit since then.

Wow! Did you see the Australian family with all hat meat on the table - they were ALL extremely overwesight - whilst allthe other regions had little meat and lots of veggies and looked healthy - i was especially tripped out by the regions that had no kitchen or tables at all and were sitting on dirt floors...THIS is the reality we SPOILED fat americans need to be seeing to truly understand that this week an entire family will be eating seed mill while sitting on the ground.... this article was amazing to me - i lOVeD it!

oh and P.S - DO NOT BE BOTHERED BY THE TRIVIAL HATE & PETTINESS..., SOME PEOPLE HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO WITH THEIR USELESS ENERGY...please continue to share this AMAZING article in the near future for all those inquiring minds like myself who would dearly enjoy this study as most of us have. This RELEVANT info can not be posted too often because for each new MIND it captures could be a changed WORLD PERSPECTIVE. And Americans need as much of that exposure as possible...I would have missed this interesting study otherwise if hadnt been for the repeat post. Besides, WHO SAID awesome articles online should be posted just once - how is that narrow minded concept supposed to reach billions of mindsets??? HOW? - geeze - well, THANKS AGAIN!!!!

"all that meat" that nasty stuff is a travesty to the word meat! The Mongolians were eating "meat."

ha! - i concur!

FYI, meat doesn't make you fat. Sugar does. I don't think that Menzel wanted to let people know through his photos that people in the third world have less to eat than people in the first world- you can see that by turning on CNN. These photos look at people and their food from a cultural point. For Americans, like the British, processed "junk" is a staple in their diet, while more health conscious nations, like Italy, France, Turkey, lean towards organic, and most importantly, WHOLE foods. These photos are about culture though food. The Australians that you mentioned are fat because they buy frozen "Fish Fingers". There cannot be any fish in products labeled Fish Fingers.

I'm agree with you, sugar is the enemy, alongside with procesed food. It's better to eat a frugal meal, as many poor people does, but without artificial ingredients, than to eat a big amount of procesed food, as we do in our industrialized countries.

Actually, research it, too much meat, which western culture typically eats too much of does add to weight and other health issues. Sugar does not cause obesity. Not all Americans eat like you see pictured and the same goes for the other countries too. The pictures were taken of the typical/stereotypical of that country.

Sugar is toxic

Actually a lot of it has to do with corn syrup!! Yes sugar also but corn syrup is worse for you. And its in EVERYTHING! YUCK

WOW!!! Seriously? Please tell me you're getting your information from a friend or something and this wasn't done by your own research. I'm a nutrition major graduating in a month and I have to completely disagree with you. Please cite me a credible peer reviewed article citing MEAT as being the main factor in obesity. It is sugar! It's thrown into almost everything we eat to add flavor and instant gratification. Meat isn't good in large amounts I will agree, but your body doesn't store protein like it does carbs (sugar)... So please do us a favor and don't just quote what you've heard or seen in news. DO YOU'RE OWN RESEARCH!

meat isn't good for you.

Have you overdosed on sugar, dear?

I AM A VEGETARIAN AND I WANT EVERYBODY TO KNOW THIS AT ABSOLUTELY EVERY MOMENT!

MEAT ROCKS! I'M HAVING SOME NOW! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, only the adults of the Australian family can really be considered overweight. The four kids are all pretty normal. Same goes for the mexican family. You see that they have lots of vegetables. But if you look at them, the older the family member gets, the more fat they have on their ribs. It's a complex system, and usually it's the sugary stuff you eat on the side that makes you fat. And if you don't move a lot, even more. Meat alone doesn't really hurt you, especially if it's in its original form (not sausages, but steak.).

Those were not Australians in a realistic sense. They were part Aboriginies which you need to specify, and Aus Aboriginies have vastly different gabits/culture than the typical Australian.

Yes I definitely have seen this article posted on here before. It's okay though - it's a good reminder of how we in the USA consume so much more than the rest of the world.

And how much more PROCESSED food we consume. So glad I don't eat much of that anymore...

Yes, this just showed what trashy Americans eat, not all Americans.

Or perhaps what Americans who don't have access to high quality grocers, local markets eat or don't have the funds to shop at places like Whole Foods or Trader Joe's or have never learned how to cook because their parents were working 2 full time jobs and they haven't been able to cook fresh things as much as they'd like because maybe they work a couple of jobs or have a very demanding job that barely pushes the family into the middle class... Your comment is classist and racist in all the expected ways.

Trader Joe's is less expensive than most national chain grocers. Most junk food also costs more than healthy food. Take a look around next time you shop.

We actually just kicked out all the "junk" and sugar in our house and are paying DOUBLE for healthy food.. it's a joke! McD's can get you a hamburger for $1 but to make it at home you have to spend $5-9 to cook one yourself that is much healthier.. Where do you shop that is costs less, because I need to go there!?!?! "they" want us to buy the unhealthy cheap food so we can pay more in the end for health care, medication, etc.

My wife and I buy nothing that is pre-made, we are on a budget and do all our own cooking. Carrots, cabbage, potatoes, onions and a little meat (usually what is on sale) along with dried beans and rice keep us well fed and healthy with a very low cash outlay. A stir fry can be put together quickly and can be varied depending on what's in season. We have not just started cooking this way since retirement but have done it for the last forty years even when we both worked. There is always time for good health.

Agreed, and you are not alone. the Average American family does not eat like that picture. That picture is propaganda and is an insult to the Average American family.

This is a super ridiculous assertion, there's no basis in fact for either of those statements.

I have to agree with you on this one... it is a complex issue for sure and I think that yes this article shows the differences between the very poor who are the majority in some nations right a long side the poor in some wealthy nations... what it should do is tell us how lucky some of us are and that we should always find ways to help others not put them down for their choices because we do not know their life circumstances from a picture....just sayin

Actually your the only one being racist and classicist it goes both ways bud. How is John being racist by saying trashy people eat trashy foods. Race has nothing to do with it whatsoever, unless you're trying to suggest that how that American family eats is how all black people eat in America. Your response shows the whole world the way you think, and speak volumes about your character.

These days anyone who thriws around an accusation of racism is almost guaranteed to be full of horse dung.

Thanks, although you completely ignored the photographer's request to comply with his Terms of Use for these images.

I haven't seen it before but it's a really interested photo project idea that makes you stop and compare between the countries. And yes, Chad is a tough one to view...

Why? They've eaten like that fir milleniae. Actually, they're eating FAR better now than they've eaten for milleniae. Your racist, condescending attitude is boring.

The photo from Chad is a bit of a reality check for sure.

The "food" from Usa is a reality check.

agreed 100%, studies show people with less varied diets have increased longevity too...

i have studies that say the opposite and also what exactly are you talking about with less varied diet. Do you think an African with just those grains lives longer than us? Which planet are you on?

I think an African with on-demand clean water, hospitals, a GP, free medicine, condoms, anti mosquito nets, education and "just those grains" might well live longer than a fat, "well" fed American.

It has been proven that if you eat a less varied diet your overall health is better. Obviously these studies take into account a balanced diet and are not taking into account other factors like the poverty level of some of these families, or access to clean drinking water and health care.

No need to be rude, Luke.

I could be wrong, but im pretty sure those studies are for more simple diets. Like eating fruit, veggies, grains, meats. Leaving out all of the other items we can't read. If you only ate rice all your life, you would die. There has to be some kind of balance. Some spices are very good for you. I agree that the photo from Chad is hard to look at, I'm sure it isn't there choice to eat so little and with so little to choose from. But at the same time I was amazed at how much that family eats fast food in just a week in the USA! These pictures are fun to look at, but they do not represent every household in each of the countries.

Give me a break. He picked a junk food family from the USA. We could do that in other countries, too. Most of the people I knew, grew up with, or had as neighbors did not eat all that junk food. Most had lots of fruit and veggies.

Yeah seriously.... they eat a lot of garbage... depressing to see the lack of vegtables and fruit...

SuzyQ, I truly think that they hit the nail on the head with the family from the United States. Reasearch show the US as the largest consumer of GMO's, prepackaged foods and junk food. The United States has the largest percentage of obese people by a huge marker from the nest highest. I would have loved to have grown up where you did. I am a health nut and my family eats very healthy. On the other hand my family, mother, father, brother, brothers now imediate family, friends and other realitives eat exactly like the people represented in this photo. We are a military family and relocate often. The majority (not all) eat as the family does in this photo. I think that you and I and a low percentage of people here in the US eat healthy. Makes me sad. Hoping for a healthier future for our country and the ban of GMO's.

I have to admit, I was completely shocked by the American family! Is this actually normal? My three sisters and I was not raised this way and I did not raise my child this way either. I too am a Military spouse, and first thing I do is find a good farmers market in the area. The American family photographed, from what I could see, only had grapes, a couple of tomatoes, and I think I found a few potatoes. I didn't see any grains and only canned veggies (I hope some of those cans were veggies). Very sad. So much junk food, chips, pizza, McDonald's...every week? And, Really, what is the point of Diet Coke, that I will never understand, you can't "diet" with Coke. Wow!

On the other hand several of the other countries had a lot of carbonated drinks in the background. While places like Mexico, India, Poland, Kuwait, especially Turkey, had a lot of fruits and vegetables. I'd have to say Turkey and Kuwait looked more well balanced to me, meats/proteins, fish, grains, fruits, vegetables. That looks more like what I would buy and love to eat!

In Turkey they eat vegetables but mostly wheat and dairy with lots of olive oil, an amazingly high amount.

I spent about two years living in Mexico, and I drank a lot less water than I usually hope to. Even in Mexico, the general population consumes more soda or fruit drinks than most Americans because of the water quality issue - sugary drinks actually cost a little less than bottled water does - however they also make most of their drinks with REAL sugar, not all the other crap in American soda.

Well, that makes the US economy and the uncle doctor happy. A lot of money wasted for Coca Cola, Mc Donalds and other crap food and millions of ill people. And this is just the beginning. With that GMO´s and all that other crap junk food, the doctors in the US will be rich as hell in the future. It is the American Dream - riches getting richer and pure people believe in all the advertises - that coca cola and mc donalds are healthy...

Believe it or not, the less you eat the more healthy you are. For me, Japan is the winner here. Germany looks healthy too, unfortunately we here in germany have the problem with US GMO´s too. If you dont watch out, you get poisoned by Monsanto and Co.

18 Immersive Photo Essay Examples & Tips

By Tata Rossi 13 days ago, Professional photography

A photo essay tells a story or evokes emotion through a series of photographs. The essays allow you to be creative and fully explore an idea. Such essays exist in a variety of forms – from photos only to images with brief comments or written essays accompanied by shots. Choose a photo essay example that you can easily do based on your professional level and the equipment you use.

1. Protests

• View the “Resistance” photo essay by David Moore .

A great idea for photo essays for students is to shoot the protest to show its power. You can capture people with signs and banners to demonstrate what they are standing for. Besides, you can learn how to capture moving subjects. Use the best example of photo essay and don’t forget about angles, composition, and framing.

To create a photo essay , go up to the front and photograph the leader of the protesters walking forward. After that, go back to the end of the group to take pictures of families joining the protest. As a result, you will gain experience shooting big groups of people in motion.

2. Transformation

• View the “A Self-Portrait Every Day” photo essay by Noah Kalina .

This idea is all about capturing the way a person changes. You may take photos of a pregnant woman and then capture the same model with a child. By documenting the development of the child for several years, you can tell a great story in the form of a photo essay.

However, you can also create a photo essay about the transformation of different objects. For instance, you can create a time-lapse series to capture the history of a renovated building. While you will have to take a lot of similar photos to bring this idea to life, it will allow you to achieve an impressive result.

3. Local Event

• View the “Monday Marathon” photo essay by Quinn G. Perini .

Whether you are a resident of a large city or a small town, you can find an opportunity to visit a local event, like a marathon or a festival. This is a nice chance to follow modern photography trends and bring photo essay ideas to life.

You can capture the before-and-after stages of the event. Arrive earlier and take pictures of the preparation activities, then shoot the actual event starting with the official beginning.

Keep photographing even when the event is over and capture the cleaning up and disassembling processes.

4. Photowalk

• View the “Empty Campus” photo essay by Elise Trissel .

Explore the location where you live and find interesting objects to capture in the vicinity. Using the most interesting photo essay examples, you can decide how to make the best decisions. Don’t hurry and try to discover which angles you can use to capture the unique atmosphere of each place.

If you live in the city, you may capture architectural details, wide shots of busy streets, or just take photos of passersby and street signs. Think about the details that make every location unique. For instance, you can try capturing reflections to see how they allow you to see the city from an unusual angle. You can find reflections everywhere, so be sure to pay attention to mirrored buildings, puddles, and fountains.

5. Place Over Time

• View the “At Home in the Ozarks” photo essay by Kylee Cole .

If you want to document changes and show how the streets, buildings, and parks in your city change over time, select your favorite locations and start to visit them regularly to capture the way they look during different seasons.

• View the “Last Moments” photo essay by Ross Taylor .

You don’t necessarily have to focus on profound photo essay topics to evoke emotions. Capturing pets enjoying their worry-free and untroubled life seems like an easy but interesting activity.

Choose any animal – from a domestic bird to a dog, cat, or horse. For more emotional images, use such pet photography ideas when your pet is still a baby and recreate these shots when it is older or is in its final days.

7. Street Style

• View the Tribal Street Photography photo essay by Hans Eijkelboom .

People often express themselves with the help of clothes. The way passers-by on the streets are dressed may reflect the clothing style of a whole society. That’s why you can travel around the world and capture people’s outfits in various areas. When taking portrait photos in the streets, you can also include some of the surroundings to put them in the context.

You can ask people in the streets to pose for you or try to capture them in movement. Select a suitable location for taking photos and create a photo essay to document what kinds of people one can meet in this location. When doing urban photography , you should ask people for permission before taking photos of them. You can ask their contacts and send them your photos later.

8. Abandoned Building

• View the “Lost Collective” photo essay by Bret Pattman .

Old buildings are excellent architecture photography essay topics for students since you can capture a large number of elements. They allow you to imagine what a particular street looked like in the past. You may use a photo essay example for students as references.

Get approval before going in, but mind that such places are far from being totally safe. Bring various lenses: the macro lenses – for details and the wide-angle one – when you want to include many elements in one shot.

9. Alternative Lifestyles

• View the “Last Nomad Hippies” photo essay by Roberto Palomo .

Some people decide to lead a lifestyle that differs from the one generally accepted by society. Explore different areas and look for people with an unusual way of living. You can capture candid photos of regular people or take pictures of a person with an unusual hobby.

Take pictures of those, who reside in extraordinary conditions, representatives of various subcultures, or the LBGTQ community. These photo essay topics show other people that it is okay to go out of their comfort zone and run against the wind.

10. Social Issues

• View the “Juveniles in Prison” photo essay by Isadora Kosofsky .

The best photo essay examples for students are related to social issues, like unemployment, domestic violence, gender discrimination, and more. Address the topic carefully and look for a proper perspective.

Your shots may draw the people’s attention to a truly burning and relevant matter and have a stronger effect than any text.

11. Behind the Scenes

• View the “Follow Me” photo essay by Marius Masalar .

If you are going to visit an event, get ready to take some behind-the-scenes photos. For instance, you can document the preparations for a festival. Capture the work of the lead event planner and other professionals to tell the story of the festival from an unusual angle.

Alternatively, you can capture the events happening backstage during a drama production. Take pictures of actors and actresses when they are getting ready for the performance. Try capturing the emotions of the main lead and show how stage workers make final preparations. You can also document the work of designers and makeup professionals.

12. Landmarks

• View the “Volte-Face” photo essay by Oliver Curtis .

The pictures of landmarks are typically taken from a certain spot. One of the best photo essay ideas is to try shooting sights from various angles. You will also have an opportunity to improve your composition and your framing skills.

If you take a look at any pictorial essay example, you will see that the variety of perspectives is endless: through the streets, in the morning, afternoon, and evening, with a drone or including reflections.

    • View the “Family” photo essay by Olivia Moore .

You can capture the way family members interact with each other and demonstrate the strong connection they share. In some cases, it makes sense to focus on capturing candid photos when doing family photography .

However, you may also opt for a different approach and focus on more difficult social topics. For instance, if you want to examine the issue of immigration, you can take pictures of a family from another country. In addition, you may show how families cope with other social issues, including poverty or unequal access to healthcare.

14. A Day in the Life

• View the “A Day in the Life of Carlos Gaytan” photo essay by Sandy Noto .

One of the best photo essays concepts is related to a day in a person’s life. The main character can be any person – a relative, family member, teacher, writer, or policeman.

People are generally interested in finding out facts about the lives and daily routines of others. The life of every human is incredible, especially if you learn it in more detail. This idea is especially suitable for taking documentary photos. For instance, you can select any photo essay sample you like and then capture a portrait of a person with the tools they use for their work.

15. Education

• View the “School Day” photo essay by Nancy Borowick .

You can also take great photos in the classroom capturing the interactions of teachers and their students. Avoid distracting them, as it will be easier for you to take natural shots. Using a variety of settings, you can make your photo essay more engaging. For instance, you may visit chemistry labs, capture teachers during a break, and take photos in other locations.

• View the “Meals From the Motherland” photo essay by James Tran .

You can also focus on specific meals to create a professional photo essay about food. To make it more attention-grabbing, try using different food photography ideas .

For instance, you can take photos of popular meals, capture the meals made by a specific person, or document cooking traditions in different countries. When taking photos in a restaurant, pay attention to the surroundings as well to capture the unique atmosphere of a place.

17. Capture the Neighbors

• View the “Our Neighbors” photo essay by Jeanne Martin .

Regardless of the place where you live, you have to establish good relationships with your neighbors. People who live nearby can also be great models for professionals who specialize in portrait photography. To implement this idea, make sure to capture people at home or in front of their houses to include some of the surroundings in your photo essay.

You will discover many interesting facts about people who live nearby. Shooting a photo essay will allow you to learn them better and establish a strong connection with them. This way, you can create a sense of community and discover what holds its members together.

18. Climate Change

• View the “Effects of Climate Change” photo essay by Sanya Gupta .

It is possible to a variety of photo story ideas bring to life examining the impact of climate change. Travel to places most affected by climate change, for instance, glaciers or famous resorts.

Capture the way the continuous drought has influenced the environment, animals, and the inhabitants. As an alternative, take pictures of environmentalist protests or inexhaustible energy sources.

Photo Essay Tips for Students

Explore your topic . An in-depth exploration of the main topic of your photo essay will help you find the best ideas for conveying your message. You can also find some sources for inspiration and useful materials. This stage allows you to learn more about your subject and select the best way of organizing your photo essay.

Create a storyboard . Using a storyboard, you can better understand what shots you need to take and what order can help you to tell a story in the best way. It will also allow you to create the right mood.

Take as many pictures as you can . To create a compelling story, make sure to take a lot of photos. It will allow you to choose the best pictures for your photo essay. Besides, you will always have backup photos if some of your pictures get damaged.

Experiment with different techniques . By changing the angle and using a variety of editing techniques, you can transform the way your photos look. When taking photos, try using different angles to capture the subject in the best way. You can also try changing the distance from the model, using black-and-white film, or employing a range of developing methods.

Add text . While some photographers create photo essays without text, it can still help you bring your point across more clearly and make it easier for a viewer to understand what you imply. By providing extra information, such as some facts, you can change the perception of your image. If you don’t know how to write descriptions, you can hire a professional writer to perform this task.

Enhance your photos . To edit your pictures, make sure to use professional photo editing software like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. Using the available tools, you can improve and change your photos. They allow you to fix issues with lighting, adjust WB, make colors richer, crop your pics to improve the composition, and perform other tasks. In case you need to edit your photos in a consistent style, you can use Photoshop Actions or Lightroom Presets.

In some cases, your pictures may require more advanced editing. If you see that your skills are insufficient or if you don’t have enough time, you can outsource the task of enhancing your photos to the FixThePhoto team. They will professionally enhance your pictures for a budget price. Their prices start from $1.50 per photo.

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A Worldwide Day's Worth of Food

In their new book, What I Eat , photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith D'Aluisio present thought-provoking portraits of individuals around the globe and the food that fuels them over the course of a single day.

• The website of "What I Eat"
• Hungry Planet: What the World Eats
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• Del.i.cious

ENDING POVERTY TOGETHER

We have worked since 1971 to serve the most vulnerable people on earth through purposeful relief and development. Our methodology is informed by our Christian beliefs that every person has intrinsic value and that it is our responsibility to advocate for the poor and the marginalized.

We believe that when communities are trained and equipped to care for their most vulnerable, the entire community is lifted and poverty can be overcome. We serve communities through life-changing resources such as clean water, medical aid, food, equal educational opportunities to girls and boys, vocational training and empowerment in the midst of unimaginable hardships.

The world is hungry, but the emptiness goes far beyond the table. The need is physical and spiritual. People hunger for opportunity, starve for resources, and have been stripped of value. These injustices keep us up at night.

We’re praising God for your willingness to answer the call and serve a child whom you’ve never even met. Your generosity means another child can grow up healthy and educated. We believe that when we equip a community to care for its most vulnerable members, we can serve everyone and see poverty eliminated.

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Photo Essay: Dinner Tables from Around the World

• November 5, 2020

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WRITTEN BY Brooke Wente

Around the world, families come together for meals at the dinner table. Maybe your family has dinner together every night. Or maybe you gather with your greater family once a week for Sunday night dinners. Whatever your routine is, it’s likely that you have some good memories of being together at the dinner table.

Your support of Food for the Hungry (FH) through child sponsorship , giving to 22x match, or donating to other causes, is helping families around the world to do the same: enjoying dinner together.

It might start with farm tools, seeds, and training so meals include more nutritious foods. Or it may include providing small livestock, so families can raise their incomes and stop skipping meals. Your generosity is providing opportunities for families to improve their lives and come together for meals at the dinner table.

We’ve created this photo collection to celebrate the different types of dinner tables and ways families enjoy meals together.

Kenya: Ntisia and Her Children Enjoy a Meal of Moringa and Ugali

Ntisia’s children are eating a dish of moringa and ugali. Moringa is a tree with leaves and seed pods containing protein and other nutrients. It has many health benefits, and is an affordable source of protein for families. Ugali is a maize porridge. It is cooked in boiling water until it thickens to a dough-like consistency. As a part of FH’s programs, the women in their village have learned vital information about nutrition. Now, mothers are growing and harvesting from the moringa trees so their children can have a more protein rich diet.

Cambodia: Proek and His Family Enjoy Eggs from Their Chickens

Eggs from the family’s chickens are the main part of their meal. Proek, the father, has participated in many trainings put on by FH. He has improved his chicken raising practices. One way he’s done so is by building a better chicken coop. Their chickens provide food for their meals as well as additional income for the family.

Peru: Moises Helping his Mom Cook Dinner

Moises is helping his mother prepare a meal. In Peru, it is common for older children to help. Kids are often responsible for tasks like peeling potatoes, carrots, and garlic.

Uganda: Ayen Cooking for Children in a Refugee Settlement

At the time this photo was taken, Ayen, a mother and widow, temporarily lived with her seven children in a refugee settlement in Uganda. They are South Sudanese refugees and were waiting in the settlement until they could settle on a plot of land somewhere. Dinner time is families coming together, standing and sitting, and eating a modest meal. It can be a struggle for families to maintain life together in the chaos of refugee camps but Ayen was trying.

Dominican Republic: Angel and His Uncle Preparing Vegetables from Their Garden

Angel is a young boy who lives with his uncle. FH helped Angel start his own garden where he grows a variety of vegetables. His garden produces so much that there is more produce than he and his uncle can eat. He shares these extras with friends and neighbors. In addition to learning gardening skills, Angel also learned how to best prepare the vegetables he grew.

Nicaragua: Sponsored Children Eating at School

In Nicaragua, FH programs focus on improving both nutrition and education for children. Here, children are eating a healthy meal that their mothers learned to cook. In some schools, children will eat a daily midday meal that helps them concentrate on their studies and stay healthy. Mothers in the community may take turns preparing and serving the meals at school.

Hopefully you feel closer to these families from around the world as you get a glimpse of what their dinner tables look like. And as you sit down for dinner tonight, may you think of the children and families all around the world who you are supporting through FH.

Keep Reading: 30 Days of Thanks Amalia’s Story Update: New Mother Reflects on the Impact of Child Sponsorship What is the Meaning of “Wealth Attracts Many Friends”?

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Photo Essay: Eating On The Road, Almost Literally, With Foster Huntington

Foster Huntington is a photographer and writer who publishes the website A Restless Transplant , and the author of the book Home Is Where You Park It .

For the last two and a half years, I've lived on the road out of my car. The transition from living in Manhattan and eating most of my meals out to cooking on a propane stove in the back of a van has been an adjustment. No more Fette Sau and pork buns from Ippudo. I started eating less meat and focusing on stuff that was easy to cook, and refrigerated items like avocados, eggs and fruit. Food became less of a luxury and more of a way to fuel my days spent surfing and camping. The form of driving around my kitchen changes things. No longer can I leave dishes on the counter and I certainly didn't have a dishwasher in my 1987 VW van.

My go-to meal is a tortilla, preferably a corn/flour hybrid, a ripe avocado and hot sauce like Cholula. It's pretty self-contained and tastes great. I'm embarrassed to admit how many times I've eaten this combo.

Occasionally, I treat myself to a T-Bone steak and cook it with a cast iron, salt, pepper and olive oil. I cook it outside on a backpacking Isobutane stove and cook it until the blood is showing on one side. For veggies I throw some broccoli into the cast iron to soak up the juices.

When I do eat out, I'm often in areas where the best, and most reliable options are hole in the wall Mexican restaurants. I've become a connoisseur of these and shutter at the idea of spending more than $2 on a taco.

The best thing about living, and cooking, out of your car is that you can park your home where you want. The views and freedom is incredible and more than make up for the lack of infrastructure.

Check out some of Huntington's photos from his travels below:

More from Fantasy Travel Week on Food Republic:

• When Food Travel Takes You To The Land Of Milk And Barbecued Rat
• The Magical Saffron Harvest Of Kashmir
• 9 Places To Eat And Drink Incredibly Well In Hong Kong

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What is a Photo Essay? 9 Photo Essay Examples You Can Recreate

A photo essay is a series of photographs that tell a story. Unlike a written essay, a photo essay focuses on visuals instead of words. With a photo essay, you can stretch your creative limits and explore new ways to connect with your audience. Whatever your photography skill level, you can recreate your own fun and creative photo essay.

9 Photo Essay Examples You Can Recreate

• Photowalk Photo Essay
• Transformation Photo Essay
• Day in the Life Photo Essay
• Event Photo Essay
• Building Photo Essay
• Historic Site or Landmark Photo Essay
• Behind the Scenes Photo Essay
• Family Photo Essay
• Education Photo Essay

Stories are important to all of us. While some people gravitate to written stories, others are much more attuned to visual imagery. With a photo essay, you can tell a story without writing a word. Your use of composition, contrast, color, and perspective in photography will convey ideas and evoke emotions.

To explore narrative photography, you can use basic photographic equipment. You can buy a camera or even use your smartphone to get started. While lighting, lenses, and post-processing software can enhance your photos, they aren’t necessary to achieve good results.

Whether you need to complete a photo essay assignment or want to pursue one for fun or professional purposes, you can use these photo essay ideas for your photography inspiration . Once you know the answer to “what is a photo essay?” and find out how fun it is to create one, you’ll likely be motivated to continue your forays into photographic storytelling.

1 . Photowalk Photo Essay

One popular photo essay example is a photowalk. Simply put, a photowalk is time you set aside to walk around a city, town, or a natural site and take photos. Some cities even have photowalk tours led by professional photographers. On these tours, you can learn the basics about how to operate your camera, practice photography composition techniques, and understand how to look for unique shots that help tell your story.

Set aside at least two to three hours for your photowalk. Even if you’re photographing a familiar place—like your own home town—try to look at it through new eyes. Imagine yourself as a first-time visitor or pretend you’re trying to educate a tourist about the area.

Walk around slowly and look for different ways to capture the mood and energy of your location. If you’re in a city, capture wide shots of streets, close-ups of interesting features on buildings, street signs, and candid shots of people. Look for small details that give the city character and life. And try some new concepts—like reflection picture ideas—by looking for opportunities to photographs reflections in mirrored buildings, puddles, fountains, or bodies of water.

2 . Transformation Photo Essay

With a transformation photography essay, you can tell the story about change over time. One of the most popular photostory examples, a transformation essay can document a mom-to-be’s pregnancy or a child’s growth from infancy into the toddler years. But people don’t need to be the focus of a transformation essay. You can take photos of a house that is being built or an urban area undergoing revitalization.

You can also create a photo narrative to document a short-term change. Maybe you want to capture images of your growing garden or your move from one home to another. These examples of photo essays are powerful ways of telling the story of life’s changes—both large and small.

3 . Day in the Life Photo Essay

Want a unique way to tell a person’s story? Or, perhaps you want to introduce people to a career or activity. You may want to consider a day in the life essay.

With this photostory example, your narrative focuses on a specific subject for an entire day. For example, if you are photographing a farmer, you’ll want to arrive early in the morning and shadow the farmer as he or she performs daily tasks. Capture a mix of candid shots of the farmer at work and add landscapes and still life of equipment for added context. And if you are at a farm, don’t forget to get a few shots of the animals for added character, charm, or even a dose of humor. These types of photography essay examples are great practice if you are considering pursuing photojournalism. They also help you learn and improve your candid portrait skills.

4 . Event Photo Essay

Events are happening in your local area all the time, and they can make great photo essays. With a little research, you can quickly find many events that you could photograph. There may be bake sales, fundraisers, concerts, art shows, farm markets, block parties, and other non profit event ideas . You could also focus on a personal event, such as a birthday or graduation.

At most events, your primary emphasis will be on capturing candid photos of people in action. You can also capture backgrounds or objects to set the scene. For example, at a birthday party, you’ll want to take photos of the cake and presents.

For a local or community event, you can share your photos with the event organizer. Or, you may be able to post them on social media and tag the event sponsor. This is a great way to gain recognition and build your reputation as a talented photographer.

5. Building Photo Essay

Many buildings can be a compelling subject for a photographic essay. Always make sure that you have permission to enter and photograph the building. Once you do, look for interesting shots and angles that convey the personality, purpose, and history of the building. You may also be able to photograph the comings and goings of people that visit or work in the building during the day.

Some photographers love to explore and photograph abandoned buildings. With these types of photos, you can provide a window into the past. Definitely make sure you gain permission before entering an abandoned building and take caution since some can have unsafe elements and structures.

6. Historic Site or Landmark Photo Essay

Taking a series of photos of a historic site or landmark can be a great experience. You can learn to capture the same site from different angles to help portray its character and tell its story. And you can also photograph how people visit and engage with the site or landmark. Take photos at different times of day and in varied lighting to capture all its nuances and moods.

You can also use your photographic essay to help your audience understand the history of your chosen location. For example, if you want to provide perspective on the Civil War, a visit to a battleground can be meaningful. You can also visit a site when reenactors are present to share insight on how life used to be in days gone by.

7 . Behind the Scenes Photo Essay

Another fun essay idea is taking photos “behind the scenes” at an event. Maybe you can chronicle all the work that goes into a holiday festival from the early morning set-up to the late-night teardown. Think of the lead event planner as the main character of your story and build the story about him or her.

Or, you can go backstage at a drama production. Capture photos of actors and actresses as they transform their looks with costuming and makeup. Show the lead nervously pacing in the wings before taking center stage. Focus the work of stagehands, lighting designers, and makeup artists who never see the spotlight but bring a vital role in bringing the play to life.

8. Family Photo Essay

If you enjoy photographing people, why not explore photo story ideas about families and relationships? You can focus on interactions between two family members—such as a father and a daughter—or convey a message about a family as a whole.

Sometimes these type of photo essays can be all about the fun and joy of living in a close-knit family. But sometimes they can be powerful portraits of challenging social topics. Images of a family from another country can be a meaningful photo essay on immigration. You could also create a photo essay on depression by capturing families who are coping with one member’s illness.

For these projects on difficult topics, you may want to compose a photo essay with captions. These captions can feature quotes from family members or document your own observations. Although approaching hard topics isn’t easy, these types of photos can have lasting impact and value.

9. Education Photo Essay

Opportunities for education photo essays are everywhere—from small preschools to community colleges and universities. You can seek permission to take photos at public or private schools or even focus on alternative educational paths, like homeschooling.

Your education photo essay can take many forms. For example, you can design a photo essay of an experienced teacher at a high school. Take photos of him or her in action in the classroom, show quiet moments grading papers, and capture a shared laugh between colleagues in the teacher’s lounge.

Alternatively, you can focus on a specific subject—such as science and technology. Or aim to portray a specific grade level, document activities club or sport, or portray the social environment. A photo essay on food choices in the cafeteria can be thought-provoking or even funny. There are many potential directions to pursue and many great essay examples.

While education is an excellent topic for a photo essay for students, education can be a great source of inspiration for any photographer.

Why Should You Create a Photo Essay?

Ultimately, photographers are storytellers. Think of what a photographer does during a typical photo shoot. He or she will take a series of photos that helps convey the essence of the subject—whether that is a person, location, or inanimate object. For example, a family portrait session tells the story of a family—who they are, their personalities, and the closeness of their relationship.

Learning how to make a photo essay can help you become a better storyteller—and a better photographer. You’ll cultivate key photography skills that you can carry with you no matter where your photography journey leads.

If you simply want to document life’s moments on social media, you may find that a single picture doesn’t always tell the full story. Reviewing photo essay examples and experimenting with your own essay ideas can help you choose meaningful collections of photos to share with friends and family online.

Learning how to create photo essays can also help you work towards professional photography ambitions. You’ll often find that bloggers tell photographic stories. For example, think of cooking blogs that show you each step in making a recipe. Photo essays are also a mainstay of journalism. You’ll often find photo essays examples in many media outlets—everywhere from national magazines to local community newspapers. And the best travel photographers on Instagram tell great stories with their photos, too.

With a photo essay, you can explore many moods and emotions. Some of the best photo essays tell serious stories, but some are humorous, and others aim to evoke action.

You can raise awareness with a photo essay on racism or a photo essay on poverty. A photo essay on bullying can help change the social climate for students at a school. Or, you can document a fun day at the beach or an amusement park. You have control of the themes, photographic elements, and the story you want to tell.

5 Steps to Create a Photo Essay

Every photo essay will be different, but you can use a standard process. Following these five steps will guide you through every phase of your photo essay project—from brainstorming creative essay topics to creating a photo essay to share with others.

Step 1: Choose Your Photo Essay Topics

Just about any topic you can imagine can form the foundation for a photo essay. You may choose to focus on a specific event, such as a wedding, performance, or festival. Or you may want to cover a topic over a set span of time, such as documenting a child’s first year. You could also focus on a city or natural area across the seasons to tell a story of changing activities or landscapes.

Since the best photo essays convey meaning and emotion, choose a topic of interest. Your passion for the subject matter will shine through each photograph and touch your viewer’s hearts and minds.

Step 2: Conduct Upfront Research

Much of the work in a good-quality photo essay begins before you take your first photo. It’s always a good idea to do some research on your planned topic.

Imagine you’re going to take photos of a downtown area throughout the year. You should spend some time learning the history of the area. Talk with local residents and business owners and find out about planned events. With these insights, you’ll be able to plan ahead and be prepared to take photos that reflect the area’s unique personality and lifestyles.

For any topic you choose, gather information first. This may involve internet searches, library research, interviews, or spending time observing your subject.

Step 3: Storyboard Your Ideas

After you have done some research and have a good sense of the story you want to tell, you can create a storyboard. With a storyboard, you can write or sketch out the ideal pictures you want to capture to convey your message.

You can turn your storyboard into a “shot list” that you can bring with you on site. A shot list can be especially helpful when you are at a one-time event and want to capture specific shots for your photo essay. If you’ve never created a photo essay before, start with ten shot ideas. Think of each shot as a sentence in your story. And aim to make each shot evoke specific ideas or emotions.

Step 4: Capture Images

Your storyboard and shot list will be important guides to help you make the most of each shoot. Be sure to set aside enough time to capture all the shots you need—especially if you are photographing a one-time event. And allow yourself to explore your ideas using different photography composition, perspective, and color contrast techniques.

You may need to take a hundred images or more to get ten perfect ones for your photographic essay. Or, you may find that you want to add more photos to your story and expand your picture essay concept.

Also, remember to look for special unplanned, moments that help tell your story. Sometimes, spontaneous photos that aren’t on your shot list can be full of meaning. A mix of planning and flexibility almost always yields the best results.

Step 5: Edit and Organize Photos to Tell Your Story

After capturing your images, you can work on compiling your photo story. To create your photo essay, you will need to make decisions about which images portray your themes and messages. At times, this can mean setting aside beautiful images that aren’t a perfect fit. You can use your shot list and storyboard as a guide but be open to including photos that weren’t in your original plans.

You may want to use photo editing software—such as Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop— to enhance and change photographs. With these tools, you can adjust lighting and white balance, perform color corrections, crop, or perform other edits. If you have a signature photo editing style, you may want to use Photoshop Actions or Lightroom Presets to give all your photos a consistent look and feel.

You order a photo book from one of the best photo printing websites to publish your photo story. You can add them to an album on a photo sharing site, such as Flickr or Google Photos. Also, you could focus on building a website dedicated to documenting your concepts through visual photo essays. If so, you may want to use SEO for photographers to improve your website’s ranking in search engine results. You could even publish your photo essay on social media. Another thing to consider is whether you want to include text captures or simply tell your story through photographs.

Choose the medium that feels like the best space to share your photo essay ideas and vision with your audiences. You should think of your photo essay as your own personal form of art and expression when deciding where and how to publish it.

Photo Essays Can Help You Become a Better Photographer

Whatever your photography ambitions may be, learning to take a photo essay can help you grow. Even simple essay topics can help you gain skills and stretch your photographic limits. With a photo essay, you start to think about how a series of photographs work together to tell a complete story. You’ll consider how different shots work together, explore options for perspective and composition, and change the way you look at the world.

Before you start taking photos, you should review photo essay examples. You can find interesting pictures to analyze and photo story examples online, in books, or in classic publications, like Life Magazine . Don’t forget to look at news websites for photojournalism examples to broaden your perspective. This review process will help you in brainstorming simple essay topics for your first photo story and give you ideas for the future as well.

Ideas and inspiration for photo essay topics are everywhere. You can visit a park or go out into your own backyard to pursue a photo essay on nature. Or, you can focus on the day in the life of someone you admire with a photo essay of a teacher, fireman, or community leader. Buildings, events, families, and landmarks are all great subjects for concept essay topics. If you are feeling stuck coming up with ideas for essays, just set aside a few hours to walk around your city or town and take photos. This type of photowalk can be a great source of material.

You’ll soon find that advanced planning is critical to your success. Brainstorming topics, conducting research, creating a storyboard, and outlining a shot list can help ensure you capture the photos you need to tell your story. After you’ve finished shooting, you’ll need to decide where to house your photo essay. You may need to come up with photo album title ideas, write captions, and choose the best medium and layout.

Without question, creating a photo essay can be a valuable experience for any photographer. That’s true whether you’re an amateur completing a high school assignment or a pro looking to hone new skills. You can start small with an essay on a subject you know well and then move into conquering difficult ideas. Maybe you’ll want to create a photo essay on mental illness or a photo essay on climate change. Or maybe there’s another cause that is close to your heart.

Whatever your passion, you can bring it to life with a photo essay.

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Rhetoric of Food

Rhe 309k, the university of texas at austin, genre conventions of photo essays.

“Photo essays”are a bit of an interesting genre, as they do not always feature text despite having essay in their name. Instead, photos become the main focus for the author to use to convey some kind of idea. In my five photo essays I’ve chosen, they all feature varying levels of text, but they all have photos.

A Worldwide Day’s Worth of Food This is what school lunches look like around the world Photo Essay: Learning About Olive Oil With California Olive Ranch. How Not to Live: A Photo Essay on State Fair Food. Japan: A Food Photo Essay

Photos: Photos are a must for the photo essay genre. They are featured in all 5 of the sources I have listed above. Their arrangement just might be different and may have the text formatted around it, such as the slideshows in “A Worldwide Day’s Worth of Food” and “This is what school lunches look like around the world,” or just have them in-body as the reader scrolls downwards on the website.

Have a theme: Each of the texts I have picked have a general theme that the author has chosen to put them together as a collection. It could be daily eating habits, school lunches, olive oil, State Fair food, or just Japan, which the authors have chosen to do in the above sources. There is not just a senseless arrangement of pictures.

Convey an idea or illicit emotion: The reason for this arrangement is that the author is trying to give a sense of what is going on with their theme. For example, TIME’s “A Worldwide Day’s Worth of Food” (USA) shows some levels of disparity between cultures, and similarly, Independent’s “This is what school lunches look like around the world” (UK) shows how people should be concerned how their children or eating compared to other countries. Some may just be purely comedic, like “How Not to Live: A Photo Essay on State Fair Food.”

Text: The amount of text may vary for each photo essay, to the point that a photo might not even have a caption, leaving the interpretation up to the viewer. This is the case with “Photo Essay: Learning About Olive Oil With California Olive Ranch,” but not the case for the rest of the texts which always have text with the photo. “Japan: A Food Photo Essay” notably features no introduction and has very short captions.

Slideshow: Of the sources, 3/5 of them actually show the photos in a slideshow with captions alongside the photo. Thinking about it, I feel as though I’ve treated the work I’ve done for Jpop Dallas to be like photo essays , but I wonder if anyone else would think of it as being like a photo essay according to my list of characteristics?

Online or in print: “A Worldwide Day’s Worth of Food” is actually only an excerpt of “What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets,” showing that photo essays can be in print too.

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@lauren.c.short

food photography academy

11th September 2019

Creating a Food Photography Narrative

Composition

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« Stale Food Photos? 6 Creative Photography Ideas to Freshen Up Your Style

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If your food shots do little more than just show food in a very literal and straightforward way, you’re missing out on a big part of what makes food photography so powerful: narrative. In this post I want to consider ways in which we can use visual storytelling techniques to create compelling photographic narratives about food.

What Is a Food Photography Narrative?

A photographic narrative is just a fancy way of saying storytelling with photography. When you look at Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills, or the work of a photographer like Gregory Crewdson, it’s obvious what we mean by photographic storytelling. Although these photos are often quite ambiguous, they depict scenes which suggest all kinds of possible stories. But these are photos featuring actors. And, in the case of Crewdson’s work, usually shot on elaborate sets like a movie. That’s all very well, but what kinds of stories can we tell about food?

When we speak of a narrative in food photography, we mean creating a photo – or most often a series of photos – that does much more than simply show a dish or product in a literal way. Sure, there may not be quite the same scope for storytelling with food photography as there is with, say, fashion or portrait photography, but don’t underestimate just how important storytelling is to good food photography. Creating a narrative with food photography is about using props, angles, lighting, location – in fact all the photographic tools and tricks at your disposal – to create an atmosphere that suggests intriguing and appealing stories in the mind of the viewer. Stories that enhance the appeal of your subject.

Why Is Narrative Important in Food Photography?

Think about high-end fashion photography. Fashion advertising is often less about showing the actual clothing than about creating an aspirational image for the brand – for example, by shooting beautiful models in luxurious locations. In food photography we generally want to see the food, but there’s a lot more to making a dish appear desirable than just shooting it in a flattering light. Just as people will purchase a certain fashion item because it makes them feel transported to another time and place, or because they imagine that it turns them into a more glamorous or exotic version of themselves, food will be more appealing to us if we associate it with a certain atmosphere or image. This is where photographic storytelling comes in.

Narrative in Series

Narrative is particularly important when shooting a series of images. This is for two apparently contradictory reasons: variation and continuity. Firstly, by aiming to create a narrative, you are more likely to produce a series of photos that is varied and diverse – rather than repetitive and boring. If a magazine commissions you to shoot a set of photographs that will run across several pages, they will probably not be happy if you deliver what are essentially just several subtle variations of the same shot. Shooting a series of dishes in an identical and formulaic style (same background, identical lighting, and angle etc.) is a totally valid creative choice in many situations. But unless an editorial client has specifically asked for it, it’s unlikely that this is what they’ll be expecting from you. Instead they will want to see variety. A comprehensive and varied series of images is more likely to retain the viewer’s attention. However, it’s equally important that these images hold together as a unified body of work. Just imagine if you sat down to watch a movie and discovered that each scene was shot by a totally different director in a totally different style: jumping from rough, handheld action-footage one minute, to slick and stylized scenes the next. Confusing. Creating a photographic narrative will help to establish a stylistic thread running through all the images in the series, uniting them as a single piece of work.

Related : Bring Your Food Photography To Life With These Creative Composition Techniques

Shooting a Single-Story Narrative

Food photography that is more directed towards the editorial and lifestyle sectors of the market tends to make a lot of use of photographic storytelling. But narrative techniques can just as equally be applied to shooting a series for other areas of food photography too. Even something as simple as a restaurant menu may benefit from a little photographic storytelling in order to pique interest and stimulate the appetite.

But what does a food photography narrative look like? To be honest, the only real limit here is your imagination. But as a generalization, we could say that storytelling within food photography is often about expanding the range of focus to show much more than just the hero dish. To use a cinema metaphor again, a movie consisting of a single uncut scene, shot from the same static point of view, and featuring the same actors in the same location for 90 minutes would likely be unbearably boring. Instead cinematic storytellers employ a variety of shots – long, mid, close-up, cutaway, detail, establishing, POV etc. – to draw viewers into the narrative, making them feel like they are actually there. It’s the same with food photography.

For example, I recently shot a series of photographs around the theme of tomato dishes. These images were intended to be viewed as a single spread, so they needed to sit together stylistically. Yet I also wanted them to offer some variety so as not to risk boring the viewer. By shooting close ups and wider shots, switching the angles, and also including shots of side dishes alongside the hero, there was sufficient variety for the images to stand up as a series.

There are a whole load of other tricks I could have used here too though. If I was shooting in a restaurant, then a couple of shots of the interior would also have worked well. And what about a portrait of the chef? Perhaps while prepping ingredients? This underlines the fact that, in order to become an excellent food photographer, you really just need to be an excellent all-round photographer.

Photographic storytelling is about creating a vibe, an atmosphere that makes people want to eat. Or to cook. Once you break away from ingrained food photography habits – such as simply prepping and shooting a hero dish under lights and then calling it a wrap – there’s so much that can be done with a food photography narrative. Nothing makes me want to eat in a certain restaurant more than the feeling that there’s a really passionate, fun, and communal vibe going on there. So if I see shots of enthusiastic staff working together to create amazing food, I’m usually sold. But you needn’t be in an actual kitchen in order to inject a little documentary-style energy into a photograph: asking a friend or your assistant to stand in so that you’ve got out-of-focus body parts in the foreground to shoot through can help to suggest a much more lively scenario than just another sterile studio set-up. For a great example of the potential of food photography to create a lively and compelling narrative over an extensive series of images, check out Peden + Munk’s Sun Surf & Sumac .

Food Photography Narrative Ideas

In order to help you improve your photographic storytelling skills, here are some of the main points you may want to consider when developing a photographic narrative.

Research and Development

How you plan a shoot can make a big difference to its narrative effect. Although sometimes it can be enough merely to have a vague image or atmosphere in mind before going into the studio, it can often be helpful to put together a moodboard long before shoot day. And if you really want to be sure of creating a varied and captivating narrative, consider storyboarding some of your shots in advance.

Ingredients

Something as simple as a single ingredient carried across several dishes can be all it takes to give a strong unifying thread to a photographic narrative. Take a mint-themed shoot for example: dishes could vary from salads and pasta, to drinks and dessert, yet they’d all be held together by the consistent theme of the mint.

Angle and Framing

A dish can vary massively in appearance when shot from radically different points of view. But for food photographers looking to create a photographic narrative, angle and framing offer a great deal more than merely allowing you to visually switch things up. What is included, and excluded, from the frame will significantly alter the viewer’s understanding of any photograph. Consider whether there might be other ways of framing a dish or subject that better communicate the story you want to tell.

For example, if you were shooting in a restaurant where the atmosphere is very calm; the decor minimalist; the service polite; and the food meticulously prepared and presented; the best way to communicate this story might be by producing images with very simple and squared-off framing, leaving lots of empty space around the subject. On the contrary, in the case of a restaurant that is primarily appealing because of its raucous and fun-filled atmosphere – with diners eating together at communal tables – this vibe would probably be more effectively represented by the use of cluttered and energetic framing.

Remember though, in order to serve as inspiration for a successful narrative shoot, neither of these hypothetical restaurants need exist anywhere but on a moodboard (see Research and Development above). Even if you are working on a studio shoot featuring just a handful of dishes and little else, imaging that the shoot is taking place in a location such as the ones just described can help to dictate your framing – and indeed every other creative decision too.

Clearly props play a super important role in photographic storytelling. Are you going for a wholesome and natural look? Or perhaps one that’s more about faded decadence and self-indulgence? The props you choose will go a long way towards determining the impression viewers take away from a series of images.

Also, when used in conjunction with some of the other storytelling techniques we look at here, a prop can be used to create continuity between two different shots – by using it twice, to link the two. Or instead you can help differentiate a shot from any similar ones by using a totally unique prop.

Related : How To Use Compositional Techniques To Improve Your Food Photography Your Food Photography Composition

Decisions about colour are central to the creation of any photographic narrative. By sticking to a limited chromatic theme across a series, you can help to unify what otherwise might be a quite diverse group of images. For example, with this series of photos of a lime dessert, I made the decision to restrict the colour palette largely to black, white, and lime green: creating a distinctive visual identity that helps the images to sit together as a unified whole.

Another reason why colour is such an important storytelling tool is that it immediately suggests a certain mood. For example, a tropical-themed shoot needn’t feature any exotic locations, props, or ingredients at all beyond the hero dish, and yet may still very successfully conjure up a strong vibe of sandy beaches, shady palms, and azure waters. All of this could be achieved from the comfort of your studio just through the suggestive use of bold coloured backdrops. In this lime series, I pulled together the idea of a lime theme, plus kept to an analogous colour scheme (focusing on green and blue tones) to create this lime series.

Carefully consider your lighting. Not only will a distinctive lighting style help to create consistency across a series of images, but the kind of lighting you go for will massively alter the story these images communicate to viewers. For example, if you shoot a dish under the harsh midday glare of the tropics, it’s going to tell a totally different story than if you went for the cool diffused light of a north-facing window. Don’t choose a certain kind of lighting for your shoot simply because it looks good though: lighting should always make sense within the narrative you’re trying to create.

Editing and Sequencing

Even once you’ve shot a set of images and finished postproduction, there’s still a lot that you can do to help the series work better as a cohesive story. Unfortunately though, in the age of constant over-sharing, tight and effective editing of a photographic narrative is becoming something of an endangered skill. Often you’ll see photographers who have clearly struggled to whittle down a shortlist of similar – looking photos into a single definitive choice. Their solution? Just use them all. This is a mistake. Sure, it’s quite common to come out of a shoot with several equally good, yet only very subtly different, images of the same subject. And admittedly it’s never fun to have to reject images that you really like. But reject them you must, because by including more than one version of what is effectively the same shot in your final selection, all you are doing is watering down the impact the series will have on viewers. Be ruthless, confident, and decisive in your edit. At the very worst, you could always switch an image or two out if you change your mind later when it comes to showing the work in your portfolio. But don’t just include all of them due to an inability to decide.

It’s not only about what you do and don’t include in a narrative series that matters though: equally important is how you include it. The sequencing and pacing of images can make an enormous difference to the final impression a photographic series has on the viewer. Every photographer has their own preferences and methods, but generally you’ll find that it works best to pace out similar shots, rather than grouping them all together; break up the monotony with a few stylistically different images in between.

When sequencing, some photographers like to look for a visual link between adjacent images; others create a more literal narrative in their heads, imagining a story unfolding from one image to the next. While others just choose the order of images more intuitively. All are valid techniques. What matters is that you think about the sequencing carefully and find a method that works for you.

Narrative Across a Portfolio

One area that’s often overlooked is the use of narrative techniques when putting together a portfolio. Just because most of the images in your portfolio were shot at totally different times and places, and for different purposes, doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t work together to create a cohesive narrative. Whether we’re talking about an online portfolio, a digital presentation, or a physical book of prints, many of the same storytelling principles we’ve looked at above still apply.Just as with an individual narrative photographic series, a portfolio needs to hold together in terms of both story and style. Stylistically, you want to leave viewers in no doubt as to what it is that you do. Story-wise, the narrative shifts away from being about the subject of the individual photographs, instead becoming a story about you, the photographer. Look upon your portfolio as a short movie, with yourself in the lead role. This is your opportunity to tell clients who you are as a photographer. And like any good story, your portfolio should have a dramatic beginning to grab the viewer’s attention; a strong middle to keep their interest, and then an action-packed ending that leaves them awestruck. And just as we mentioned earlier, all of this needs to be presented in a stylistically-unified and convincing manner, or you’ll risk confusing people. In practice this will likely mean excluding certain images – ones that you may be very proud of if they don’t fit with the overall narrative of your portfolio.

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This is so helpful, thanks so much. Your printed portfolios are gorgeous !!

Thank you so much Lauren! It takes a lot to prepare a cohesive look and narrative for a bigger project BUT it is totally wortj it at the end! I would love love love to see and actual example of your planning process before a bigger project. Maybe also on a Youtube 🙂

Very helpful! Thank you.

So well written and comprehensive. Thanks for putting the time and effort into this informative post! I learned a lot and will now be considering many factors before starting a shoot 🙂

So glad this was helpful Patty!

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Photo Essay: Celebrating Food in the Keweenaw

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The winning images from the Western Upper Peninsula Food Stories Photo Contest showcase local food, farms, forage and community.

The Western Upper Peninsula Food Systems Collaborative (WUPFSC) launched the contest in collaboration with a class taught by Angie Carter , assistant professor of environmental and energy justice at Michigan Technological University.

The students in the course — Communities and Research SS4700 — reached out to local gardeners, growers, foodies and anyone who eats to share what local foods in the Keweenaw mean to them. Since a picture is worth 1,000 words, they asked people to share their experiences in a visual format. The course is based on transdisciplinary research methods, teaching students how to develop projects driven by needs identified from community members to ensure that their research would directly serve and empower the community.

The class gathered all the photos on Flickr and here are some of the winning images from eight categories: Food as Community; Homeraised and Homegrown; Hunting, Fishing, Gathering; Local Festivals and Markets; Health and Wellbeing; Make it, Bake it, and Preserve it; Food Culture & Histories; and Self Chosen.

Local Foods: Traditions, Bites and Solace

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17 Awesome Photo Essay Examples You Should Try Yourself

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If you’re looking for a photo essay example (or 17!), you’ve come to the right place. But what is the purpose of a photo essay? A photo essay is intended to tell a story or evoke emotion from the viewers through a series of photographs. They allow you to be creative and fully explore an idea. But how do you make one yourself? Here’s a list of photo essay examples. Choose one that you can easily do based on your photographic level and equipment.

Top 17 Photo Essay Examples

Here are some fantastic ideas to get you inspired to create your own photo essays!

17. Photograph a Protest

16. Transformation Photo Essays

15. Photograph the Same Place

14. Create a Photowalk

13. Follow the Change

12. Photograph a Local Event

11. Photograph an Abandoned Building

10. Behind the Scenes of a Photo Shoot

9. Capture Street Fashion

8. Landmark Photo Essay

7. Fathers & Children

6. A Day In the Life

5. Education Photo Essay

4. Fictitious Meals

3. Photograph Coffee Shops Using Cafenol

2. Photograph the Photographers

1. Capture the Neighbors

Photo essays tell stories. And there are plenty of amazingly interesting stories to tell! Photographing photo essays is a great way to practice your photography skills while having fun. You might even learn something! These photo essay examples are here to provide you with the inspiration to go out and tell your own stories through photos!

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Photo Essay Ideas to Take Your Skills Up a Notch

Have you ever wondered how to tell a story through pictures? Or perhaps you've snapped countless photos but aren't sure how to piece them together into a cohesive narrative. Fear not! Our essay writing service is here to guide you through the process step by step, offering plenty of creative and easy photo essay ideas along the way.

You've probably heard the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. That's exactly the beauty of a photo essay - capturing a moment in time that speaks volumes. So, if you're itching for a creative boost and ready to venture into uncharted territories, look no further! This article brims with photo essay examples and ideas to ignite your creativity and propel you to new heights.

What is a Photo Essay?

A photo essay uses pictures instead of words to tell a story, sharing ideas, experiences, or emotions through carefully chosen photos. Photographers choose images that reveal different aspects of the subject and arrange them to guide the story. These essays cover various topics, such as social issues, cultural traditions, or personal journeys, allowing viewers to see the world from the photographer's perspective.

To aid understanding, photo essays often include captions or short descriptions that provide additional details or convey the photographer's thoughts. By combining images with words, as a photographer, you can communicate your complex photo essay idea in a simple manner.

They can depict anything, from everyday moments to significant global issues, offering a fresh perspective that prompts reflection. Whether showcased in magazines, galleries, or online platforms, photo essays engage audiences of all backgrounds through the compelling language of imagery.

If this sounds too good to pass up, buy essay from our experts and let us take care of your boring school assignments while you dive into this exciting project!

How to Create a Photo Essay with Simple Steps?

Once you understand what a photo essay is, you might wonder how to make one yourself. It's a creative process that starts with choosing a topic or theme you're passionate about. Think about what story you want to tell and what message you want to convey through your photos. Then, gather your equipment—a camera or even just your smartphone—and start capturing images that capture different aspects of your chosen subject.

Next, organize your pictures in a logical photo essay format that guides the viewer through your narrative. Consider the flow of the story and how each image connects to the next. You can use captions or short descriptions to provide context and enhance understanding, just like you've seen in other photo essays. Remember, the goal is to engage your audience and evoke emotions or thoughts through your imagery.

As you create a photo essay, don't be afraid to experiment with different angles, compositions, and lighting to make your photos stand out. And most importantly, once you've poured your heart into it, feel free to share it with the world. Your unique perspective and passion have the power to inspire and move others.

So, if you're all set to move forward and share your powerful story, go ahead and buy essays online . That way, you'll have more time to kick off your storytelling adventure.

Creative Photo Essay Examples to Spice Up Your Skills

Now that you've got the basics covered, let's check out some creative and easy photo essay ideas to inspire and enhance your skills. Looking at these examples can give you tips to use in your own work!

And as we look through them, we notice how the photographers play with composition, lighting, and the order of their photos to tell a captivating story visually. These are perfect photo essay ideas for highschool students or any academic level, firing up your imagination and passion for telling stories through pictures.

And if you're pressed for time on other assignments, buy an essay online - it's an easy yet effective way to meet those deadlines with our expert help!

Day in the Life Photo Essay

Everyone has a story, even if they don't realize it. Some people hesitate to share because they think their lives are dull. But what seems ordinary on the surface can hold unexpected beauty. By taking a step back, we can appreciate the moments more often.

Instead of words, photos can reveal the essence of a person or a place throughout the day. Each image freezes a moment, offering a peek into someone's daily life or a memorable occasion. It's a simple yet powerful way to share a full day's worth of experiences visually.

Graduation Day

We shouldn't miss out on this photo essay project idea for a special occasion like Graduation Day. From the excitement of getting ready in the morning to the celebrations in the evening, every moment is part of the story.

You can start with the anticipation of getting ready in the morning, then capture the proud walk across the stage, and finally, the joyous gatherings with friends and family!

Each photo will capture a unique moment of the day, telling the story of achievement, camaraderie, and celebration. It's a wonderful way to cherish and share life's milestones, one snapshot at a time.

The Art Studio

Take your camera into the art studio and tell the artist's story - it's a lively mix of colors, creativity, and a touch of chaos in every shot. See paintbrushes dance on canvases, sculptures take form from clay blocks, and sketches come alive on paper.

Each photo can reveal the artist's passion, focus, and the magic of bringing imagination to life. Here, ideas flow freely, and every corner sparks new inspiration, leaving you pleasantly intrigued.

Family Photo Essay

From the morning rush to get everyone ready for the day to the chaos of meal times and the quiet moments before bedtime stories, every part of the day tells a story.

So, by capturing different aspects of family life, from the silly antics to the tender moments, you can create a visual narrative of love, laughter, and togetherness. It's a way to preserve the ordinary moments that make family life extraordinary.

From the rush for morning showers to late-night study sessions, you can paint a unique picture with every moment. Imagine the busy energy of students preparing for the day, the bonds in shared spaces, and the calm before lights out.

Each photo would freeze-frame dorm life: the friendships made, the challenges overcome, and the unforgettable moments. Through this journey of college highs and lows, you can display the bonds formed and the growth experienced by students in each picture. If you're intrigued by this idea, buy college essays from our experts. That way, you'll have plenty of time to leisurely capture your dorm life memories.

Photo Essay Books

Each book holds stories, knowledge, and memories. Ever wondered what tales those well-read pages could tell? Or how about the fresh ones, bursting with new adventures? You can zoom in to see the details of worn-out pages and aged spines. Then, step back for wide-angle views of shelves filled with books in every color of the rainbow. With these photos, you can celebrate how special and beautiful books are.

Innovative Learning

Each snapshot here can show a different side of learning. You can tell stories of learning beyond textbooks, encouraging us to rethink education. In one, students could work together at a table, emphasizing teamwork. Another might capture a student experimenting in a lab, showing hands-on learning. And then there's a picture of a teacher using technology, making lessons engaging. These photos would reveal creativity, curiosity, and the joy of discovery.

Digital Photo Essay

The digital world surrounds us every day - from the screens we're glued to, to the gadgets we can't live without, it's everywhere! Through close-up shots of glowing screens and zoomed-out views of bustling cityscapes filled with gadgets, you can capture the essence of our digital age. From social media to online learning, the essay will showcase how technology connects us, entertains us, and empowers us in our modern lives.

Volunteering and Community Service

Why not use your knowledge of your hometown to create a photo essay about volunteering and community service? Imagine volunteers planting trees in a park, serving meals at a homeless shelter, or teaching children after school. These photos can shine a light on the selflessness and generosity that define volunteering, inspiring others to give back to their communities and make a difference in the world.

Art Performances

Art performances are truly something special! Every picture shows the excitement and feeling of the stage, whether it's a ballet dancer gracefully jumping or a musician caught up in their music.

With these photos, you can show how art can inspire, challenge, and bring people together. From plays to street shows, you can share a tale of creativity and dedication, reminding us of the wonderful range of human talent.

Photo Essay about School

As a student, your photos offer a peek into school life. Each one shares a tale of learning, growing, and being part of a community. From the lively hallways to the quiet library spots, we'd see students studying, making friends, and discovering what interests them.

These pictures capture the essence of school—the fun, the challenges, and the successes. Through this photo essay, you can help people see why education matters in shaping our lives and futures.

Mental Health Photo Essay

How about making a photo essay about mental health? Each picture could illustrate what it's like to live with mental illness. Maybe we'll see someone feeling happier outdoors, showing how nature can be comforting. Or perhaps we'll see a group of people chatting and supporting each other, highlighting the importance of connection and empathy.

These photos encourage us to rethink mental health—how can we offer better support to one another? What lessons can we draw from these experiences? Perhaps we'll come to understand that mental health is crucial for everyone.

Historical Traditions

You can also explore our historical traditions, where each picture takes us to a special moment in time, showing rituals, parties, and customs that have been around for a long time. It could be a colorful cultural festival, a serious religious event, or someone carefully making something the old-fashioned way.

These photos could show us where we come from and who we are, making us wonder: What traditions do we have? How do they connect us to our past? Through these historical pictures, you can help us understand how different and unique human cultures are and how important tradition is to us.

The Science Lab

How about taking a look at the science lab with some awesome photos? Each one can teach us something neat about discovery and trying new things. Maybe we'll see a scientist looking through a microscope, finding out secrets about tiny stuff. Or we might see students doing experiments and looking really interested and happy. Looking at these pictures would help us see how science helps us figure things out and make new stuff.

Fashion Photo Essay

In the world of fashion, a lively photo essay can reveal the art, creativity, and variety of the industry. From dazzling runway events to everyday street looks, we see how clothes can express who we are and where we come from.

Whether it's bright colors, detailed patterns, or daring styles, these photos can highlight the countless ways fashion can excite and uplift. This visual adventure would help us see how fashion influences our lives and mirrors the mood of our era.

Green Initiatives

Can you picture a photo essay that focuses on green initiatives and environmental activism? Each picture would show how people are working to protect our planet through community gardens, recycling programs, and renewable energy projects. Maybe we'd see volunteers cleaning up a beach or activists marching for climate change. These pictures encourage us to get involved and remember how crucial it is to take care of the Earth for our kids and grandkids.

Capture Hands

Hands represent connection, creativity, and expression. Each picture in this series could show hands busy with different tasks, like making art, playing music, farming, or helping others. These photos can reveal how diverse human life is and how hands play a big role in shaping it. With this essay, you can honor the beauty and importance of this often-underappreciated part of our bodies.

Local Artists

How about you highlight local artists with an exciting photo essay? Each picture would showcase the skill, love, and imagination of artists in our neighborhoods. Maybe we'd see painters creating in their studios, musicians playing at cozy spots, or sculptors crafting art from scratch. These photos really get to the heart of artistic expression and how artists make our culture richer. Through this visual trip, you can help us see the special ideas and viewpoints that local artists share with us, encouraging us to go back and enjoy what they do.

Street Photography Photo Essay

Imagine an engaging photo essay photography that guides us through the streets of different cities and towns. Each picture gives us a glimpse of daily life, showing the liveliness, variety, and loveliness of city scenes. We might spot busy markets, vibrant street art, brief moments of people connecting, or the peaceful calm of an empty alley. These photos help us understand city life better—its pace, its heartbeats, and the people and tales that fill its streets.

Food Photo Essay

How about we indulge in a delightful photo essay celebrating food? Through this photo essay about food, you can show off delicious dishes from different cultures, whether they're from street vendors or fancy restaurants. You might find yourself craving hot bowls of noodle soup, sizzling skewers straight from the grill, or desserts so gorgeous you hesitate to dig in. Try to bring back memories of sharing meals with loved ones, highlight how food connects us across cultures, and showcase the talents of chefs everywhere.

Religious Traditions

Isn't it fascinating to explore the richness and diversity of religious traditions in a moving photo essay? Each picture can give us a peek into the customs, ceremonies, and symbols that are part of various faiths and spiritual beliefs. You might spot worshippers praying at a mosque, temple, church, or synagogue or taking part in special festivals and parades. You can show how religion influences communities, brings people together, and offers comfort and purpose to believers worldwide.

Construction of a Building

Ever wondered how a building comes to be? It may not sound thrilling, but in a series of photos, each one shows the hard work, machinery, and materials needed to make it happen. You might see workers pouring concrete, putting up steel beams, or fitting in glass windows. These photos reveal the careful planning and teamwork it takes to turn architectural plans into an actual building. Starting from digging the ground to adding the final touches inside, this essay can display the cleverness and skill of the construction world.

Nature Photo Essay

And lastly, don't miss out on discovering the beauty of nature through an amazing photo essay. Show off stunning landscapes, different ecosystems, and intricate patterns you can find in nature. You might spot big mountains, calm forests, colorful coral reefs, or blooming flowers. Through this series, remind us how strong and fragile our Earth is, and why it's crucial to take care of it. Whether it's a massive waterfall or the graceful flutter of butterflies, this essay can celebrate nature and motivate us to treasure and look after our planet.

The Final Wrap

As we wrap up our article, let's take a moment to reflect on the power of visual storytelling. These photo essay ideas have the power to convey stories of joy, sorrow, and everything in between. Whether capturing the hustle and bustle of construction or the peaceful beauty of a sunset, you can share various narratives through each image.

Ultimately, it's about how we see the world. Use these photo essay examples to find beauty in unexpected places and learn new things about life. And remember, if you need it, you can always buy college essay . In your free time, commit to embracing those special moments that make life extraordinary!

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From the Good Earth: A Photo Essay of Traditional Agriculture Around the World

Bioneers | Published: August 13, 2024 Food and Farming Article

In the 1980s, on a quest to understand the regionally-adapted ways in which traditional agriculture is able to feed people while tending the health of the land, Michael Ableman set out,  on a journey to photograph agrarian cultures around the world to learn the “ valuable information [they had] for modern destructive society.”  Michael was accompanied, on part of the journey (to the  Russian Far East and Mongolia) by legendary environmentalist David Brower who was a key supporter of the project. A master photographer and author of four books on the relationships between food, land, people and culture, Michael is, most of all, a great farmer who considers himself, even after almost 50 years of farming, “a beginner.” In this photo essay, Michael reflects back on that journey and some of the photographs that appeared in his first book   From The Good Earth, A  Celebration of Growing Food Around the World.

Michael Ableman currently operates  Sole Food Street Farm  as well as the large, highly-diverse, rural  Foxglove Farm  in British Columbia. 

All photos are copyrighted and cannot be distributed, reproduced, or reused in any way without the explicit permission of the photographer (Michael Ableman).

Photos are from these books authored by Michael Ableman: Fields of Plenty: A Farmer’s Journey in Search of Real Food and the People Who Grow It, From the Good Earth: A Celebration of Growing Food Around the World, and Street Farm: Growing Food, Jobs, and Hope on the Urban Frontier.

 This article is a transcribed, edited excerpt of a conversation with Michael Ableman

MICHAEL ABLEMAN: By the early 1980s, I had already been farming for a while, and I was interested in understanding more about this 7,000-year tradition I’d stepped into, considering myself, as I still do today after 44 years, a beginner. I was interested in what the lineage is and whose shoulders I’m standing on. At the same time, I was fascinated with the idea of hiking in the Himalayas, the highest mountain range in the world.

On the way there, I stopped to see a friend who was living and working in China and ended up in the city of Xindu. In those days, there weren’t a lot of foreign visitors in China and visiting rural areas was not something that was encouraged, but I was curious, so I walked for hours on the outskirts of the city on a path that led up a hill, and what I saw was remarkable. There was a vast network of fields being farmed by multigenerational families—kids with their parents and grandparents and, in some cases, even their great grandparents. Those fields had been farmed the same way, over and over, for thousands of years, and yet still appeared fertile and productive without the use of industrial methods. The thought struck me: “How is it possible? There were places near where I was farming in California where the land had been made useless after just a single decade.” I thought it was incredible, and I began photographing feverishly.

This image exemplifies the ability the Chinese had, at that time (1983), to feed a billion people on only 11% of their land base using the techniques that had been passed down since the Han dynasty. It is a highly intensive system. When I returned home from that journey, I was on fire with curiosity. I was young and fearless at that point of my life (neither of which I am now). I was intensely curious, and I was completely amazed and fascinated at the possibility that the profession I had chosen had a deep-rooted, vast, indigenous knowledge and history. I wanted to learn from it, and I wanted to understand how the work I was doing related to these other cultures that had been doing it for thousands of years.

But it wasn’t some sort of romantic quest for a mythic golden age; I wasn’t that stupid. I knew that the places, people and situations that I was looking at were also fraught with challenges and problems. It was more of an intense desire to learn and to record what I was seeing. I spent another winter in China because it was the oldest traditional agriculture in the world. I thought there was no better place to start exploring.

This two-acre onion field was being watered by hand. It was fascinating–like watching a well-choreographed dance. The equipment, which seems so rudimentary, is really well made, and the process is extremely balanced. The man was using both containers at the same time. I watched the entire thing and what was really profound is that two men using watering buckets could irrigate a two-acre field in about two hours without a word spoken. They both were in their 70s and had enormous physical strength, but what I saw was less about physical exertion and more about careful planning and balance. There was a great calm about the whole experience. It was a beautiful, silent dance.

I spent the entire next winter in the Andes in terraced fields built by the Incas that were so steep that farmers were known to fall out of them.

Capturing this image was a three-day process in order to get the lighting right. It gave me a lot of respect for Ansel Adams who would sit and wait for days just to make one frame.

I also traveled to East and Central Africa to try to catch a glimpse of the remnants of the few traditionally agrarian tribes that were still there. Pastoralists were dominant in those regions, but there were some really interesting examples of agrarian people making their own tools and doing some pretty cool stuff.

This photo was taken in the mountains of Burundi at the market in a little town called Ijenda where I lived for a while. The sorghum that the women are working with is made into a slightly fermented drink that’s sipped communally out of a common gourd with straws cut from a local tree. At the time, it was a very popular drink, but you would never see somebody sitting at home alone drinking it. It was a communal and social experience.

There’s an energy to this image of the women, a kind of excitement and enthusiasm around what’s happening. It’s a swirl of color and energy.

There was, at times, a tendency for me to romanticize the experiences I was having with the people I was visiting and sometimes to project my own ideas onto what I was seeing, feeling and experiencing as I was photographing them, but I had to keep all that in check.

People are basically just trying to survive, but the simplicity of some of those farming systems and the long history of those people on the land hold valuable information for modern destructive society.

The Moroccan markets are just incredible. I love the visual perspective of the passing of feet, the colorful clothing, the robes that people were wearing, and the vendor on the ground selling citrus and other items.

After Africa, I went to Southern Europe to Sicily and other places where I could photograph remnants of the traditional agriculture of that region.

In this image of an Italian olive merchant, you can see the diversity of olive varieties. There is also a diversity in the ways that olives were prepared, which is an almost lost art, but one that is coming back.

Traveling in Italy, I saw olive and carob trees that were four to five thousand years old growing wrapped around each other. The planting together was intentional because the carob is a legume that fixes nitrogen and feeds the olive tree.

Those ancient, long-term perennial systems are some of the most interesting to me because I’ve always believed that the fundamental structure of a farm has to be the perennial. The perennials have to be the anchor on the farm on many different levels—holding soil, creating habitat, reducing the churning of the ground, providing shade, etc. The folks in Italy know so much about all of that, as well as the importance of having a lot of diversity in their cultivars.

This image is from the Russian far east near Ulan-Ude in East Siberia. It’s so emblematic of the time: the style of dress, the soldiers and the seriousness with which people reflect on their cabbages.

David Brower had invited me to go to the Russian far east to Baikal the year I turned 40 (27 years ago). He had just turned 80. David had a longtime interest in Lake Baikal in Siberia because it is the oldest, deepest and largest body of freshwater on the planet with species that don’t exist anywhere else. David felt that it was one of the planet’s critical ecological cornerstones that needed to be preserved.

It was an extremely hard trip—long flights followed by long train trips. Transportation was not terribly functional. Food was not good; in fact, it was awful. When we eventually got to Ulan-Ude on Lake Baikal, David said to me, “Michael, I want to go to the Mongolian side of Baikal.”

So, we went down to the Mongolian consulate in Ulan-Ude and they said, “You’ve got to be kidding. You should have started six months ago to get that visa; there’s no possibility.” David had written two autobiographies, and he had one of them with him; I asked him to give it to me. There’s a page in that book with him and the Dalai Lama arm-in-arm with big smiles, so I opened it up to that page and I slid it on the table over to the consular agent. Then things happened fast. We got the visas right away. The agent even phoned and got us a ride in an ambulance. It was a hellish trip, super hard but super interesting.

The ambulance could only take us so far, so we took a train to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. As we were standing on the train platform, a drunk guy came right up to my face and out of the blue for no reason punched me as hard as he could in the stomach and put me out onto the ground.

After that, I decided to take a taxi to the marketplace, which is miles up above the city. I began photographing what was quite an incredible scene, but I didn’t realize that I shouldn’t have been there. A gang of young people chased me and pelted me with rocks; I barely got the hell out of there.

I began to realize that photographing those different cultures could be interpreted as appropriation of ideas, information and images that I could never really understand because I wasn’t from those places, and that would be a reasonable criticism. I questioned myself. I heard about people in various parts of the world who thought that taking their photographs was akin to stealing their spirits.  Some Western people would laugh at that idea, but I began to believe that there may be some truth to it. Was I stealing the spirits of the people that I was photographing?

But I felt what I was doing was fundamentally different. I was not a journalist or photojournalist. I didn’t step out of my office at The New York Times and fly off to some remote place. My daily work for most of the year was using my hands to grow food for my own community. Everywhere I went, I carried in my back pocket a little booklet of photographs of my farm and of me out in my fields. I thought that was critical because I shared a connection to the land and a shared interest in farming with the people I was taking photos of. Mind you, some people were farming from pure personal survival perspectives, some were farming to feed more than themselves. I was farming for both reasons, to feed my family and as a livelihood.

But the common thread was farming; that was a bridge. I’m sure I made mistakes, but I feel like that gave me a valid reason to be doing what I was doing. Often, when people see the portraits I made of other farmers, they comment that in many of the photos the farmers are looking into the camera, and you can see that there was a relationship there. Those images could not have been made without some connection. When I say relationship, I don’t mean that I was living with them or that I spent weeks there, but there was some sort of commonality established before the camera got pulled out. 

I never made a photograph of anyone without first developing even just the briefest of relationships. David Brower, who was involved in this project from its inception, said at a public event, “Notice how people in Michael’s photographs are connecting to the person behind the camera.”

There’s a sister image to this, which is of our friend Caroline, a Hopi elder, whom we spent a lot of years with at Hotevilla-Bacavi on Third Mesa in Arizona. Why would I be mentioning her in the context of this Karen tribesman? At the entrance of Hotevilla, there were hand-painted signs saying “no photographing, no drawing, no recording, no filming.” I was always very respectful of that, but in time Caroline gave me the permission to take some photographs of her, also winnowing beans. She had an amazing collection of bean seeds. When the time came for the book to be published, I knew there was no way I could use an image of her without her explicit permission.

So, I showed her a series of different images, and she said, you can use one of them if it’s next to the one of the Karen people winnowing beans. She understood acutely that there was a relationship that existed between Indigenous people all over the world, and she wanted to be thought of in relationship to that.

I took this photo in Todos Santos in the mountains of Guatemala, a little village where we spent a month living with a local family. This is a man on his way to the market outside an old church to sell his wares. The entire village, at that time, was made up of widowed mothers, children and old people. Inside the church where the market was held, the walls were riddled with bullet holes because all of the young men of that village were herded into the church during the civil war and murdered there.

This picture was taken looking south. Directly to my back, to the north, would have been Trump’s steel wall. We guard the borders and build fences and walls to keep out the very people whose hands are doing all the work to grow our food. We’re talking about people who risk their lives to make that journey. The craziest damn stories: being put in a refrigerated truck for hours and hours, stuffed into trunks of cars, all kinds of crazy shit to do the work in service industries, restaurants, factories and farms, that most Americans will no longer do. It’s an absurd situation, and it’s heartbreaking to see what people have to go through to survive.

Hilario slipped over the border in his late teens as an “illegal” farm worker and eventually became a farm owner employing 100 people with a very successful farming operation. It’s one of those rare but important stories to tell because, historically, people like Hilario are not celebrated for their contributions. He’s an exceptional farmer.

I wrote the book The Good Earth: A Celebration of Growing Food Around the World based on these journeys, but when I completed those incredible international visits recording those traditional cultures, I realized that, in a sense, I had been looking at the remnants of where agriculture has come from. I felt that I should also look at what’s happening now and what we are moving towards in the future, so, I delved into the hardest images that I made, the ones of industrial agriculture in California’s Central Valley, the largest feedlot in the world. I went up in helicopters that spray pesticides and did all sorts of crazy shit just to get striking visual examples of industrial agriculture for people who were unaware of the scale of its impact and devastation. I thought if they could see it, maybe they’d want to do something about it.

This very emblematic image taken after the harvest in a California Central Valley cotton field has been used repeatedly by Patagonia and others to illustrate how incredibly destructive we have been in a very short amount of time to the land which we are inextricably tied to and dependent on. The contrast is stark between this field likely totally depleted in less than a decade and some of the fields I saw in China and Peru that were being farmed continuously for thousands of years and were still fertile and productive.

This is a celery field in the Oxnard Plain in Ventura County being fumigated. You can see the sprayer in the background. I didn’t sneak this photograph. The man is posing. He’s looking at me. I think his stance, his willingness to pose, demonstrates a certain pride. This is not a critique of this person. That’s an important point. He was part of a system. The system and the thinking behind the system are all wrong. And yet, I think there was a certain pride in the power of chemistry, the power of the industrial mindset, the power of the ability to control and manipulate the natural world.

This is the same celery field in Oxnard. That chemical being sprayed directly onto the crop’s leaves and stems enters the plant’s cells and then subsequently enters into our cells when we eat it. I believe that in those days they sprayed every 10 days, so you’ve got to understand that the chemical became fully embedded in the crop.

This farmer is pouring fertilizer into a furrow irrigation ditch. It’s crazy, it’s one of the hottest places in California, and they’re furrow irrigating (flooding the rows between crops). This is not precision farming. The day I was there, it was probably 110 degrees, and probably 80% of that overhead irrigation that you see in the background was evaporating into the atmosphere. So, the whole process makes no sense.

• Tackling Student Hunger: An Interview with Francis Ge of the Basic Needs Program at UC Santa Cruz 
• The Dark Secret of Student Hunger: An Interview of Tim Galarneau of the University of California
• Weaving Past and Future: McCormack Ranch’s Journey in Regenerative Farming

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The New York Times

Magazine | the dizzying grandeur of 21st-century agriculture, the dizzying grandeur of 21st-century agriculture.

Photographs by GEORGE STEINMETZ OCT. 5, 2016

From cranberry bogs to cattle feedlots, George Steinmetz captures the grand and disturbing nature of our expansive food system.

O ur industrialized food system nourishes more people, at lower cost, than any comparable system in history. It also exerts a terrifyingly massive influence on our health and our environment. Photographer George Steinmetz spent nearly a year traveling the country to capture that system, in all its scope, grandeur and dizzying scale. His photographs are all the more remarkable for the fact that so few large food producers are willing to open themselves to this sort of public view.

Cranberry cultivation began in Massachusetts, and it still brings to mind quaint images of New England. But the bogs that farmers have created in Wisconsin can be more efficient — they’re both flatter and neatly rectangular, making them easier for machines to fertilize, irrigate and harvest.

Lifts tip trucks to pour out their cranberry hauls. Ocean Spray, a cooperative owned by more than 700 growers, is the largest processor of cranberries on earth — last year, this facility alone took in 1.5 million barrels, nearly 13 percent of the entire global cranberry crop.

During its busiest season, Gary’s Gobblers might have up to 60,000 turkeys living on five acres of its 160-acre facility. The worker seen here is spraying an antibacterial solution into the turkey pens to prevent disease.

Newborn females arrive from local dairies and spend their first 180 days at Calf Source — first in one of 4,896 hutches, like the ones seen here, and then in larger group pens. Trucks pass down each of 72 rows, dispensing water and milk. After a transfer to Heifer Source, another facility owned by the Milk Source company, the cows are inseminated and then returned — seven months pregnant, and just under 2 years old — to the dairies they came from.

Grimmway is one of the largest carrot growers in the world. In this part of the Malaga facility, whole carrots are washed, sized and cut into two-inch “baby” pieces before passing through color sorters — where 360-degree high-speed cameras and sensors spot defective carrots and air jets push them off the line for use in juices or cattle feed.

This Salt Lake City store is, by square footage, the largest Costco Warehouse location on the planet — combining the chain’s usual “warehouse club” offerings with an expanded selection of goods from Costco Business Centers. In an average week, more than 25,000 Costco members will visit the store.

Taylor Farms doesn’t grow vegetables — it processes them, taking produce from some 200 farms and and preparing products consumed by one in three Americans. This entire facility follows the lettuce-growing season, moving 1,400 tons of machinery from Salinas, Calif., to Yuma, Ariz., in November, then back again in April. Each move only interrupts processing — like the washing lines seen here — for 56 hours.

By World War II, the J.R. Simplot Company had become the nation’s largest shipper of fresh potatoes; by 2005, it was said to be the source of more than half of all McDonald’s French fries. This 750-acre feedlot resulted from a realization by its billionaire owner, John Richard Simplot, that he could also use the waste products of his potato operation to fatten cattle.

The product being harvested here, Artisan Lettuce, requires seeding a variety of greens in each row — scheduling them all to come to maturity simultaneously — so they can be packaged in the field and sold as a salad-ready assortment.

(Left) Throughout the day, employees at the plant do a series of ergonomic stretches to prevent injuries. (Right) Cuts of meat are hand-trimmed by some of the plant’s 175 employees.

The hills of the Palouse region, stretching along the border between Idaho and Washington, have some of the most productive wheat-growing conditions in the country, with average yields that can run over 100 bushels per acre. Landowners are reluctant to sell, but they increasingly lease their fields to neighboring family farms. The wheat seen here is planted in rows perpendicular to slopes of up to 45 degrees, and it is harvested with specially modified combines.

(Above) At 376 feet, with a net more than half a mile long, the Alaska Ocean is the largest “catcher-processor” vessel in the United States fleet. (Below) On a given day, the ship’s facilities might process Alaska pollock or Pacific whiting into 60,000 pounds of fishmeal and 125,000 pounds of frozen fish — to appear in fish burgers, fish sticks and surimi, a minced fish product used to make foods like imitation crab sticks.

The two rotating carousels of this milking parlor operate 22 hours a day, milking 7,900 cows three times each. Rosendale Dairy, like Calf Source and Heifer Source, is owned by Milk Source.

Fair Oaks Farms is both a working farm and an educational tourist attraction, with a Pig Adventure area showing visitors the seven-month cycle, from birth to sale, of a pig. Here, sows are penned on their sides when nursing, while piglets spend the majority of each day feeding and growing rapidly.

The “baby greens” harvester used at Earthbound Farm, with its self-sterilizing blade and air-jet collecting mechanism, can harvest 10,000 pounds of lettuce per hour using a crew of only 12 — something that once would have taken a 40-person crew all day. Four workers advance on foot, checking for debris and scaring away pests before the machine arrives. Harvesting begins before dawn and concludes before midday, to keep the greens cooler.

George Steinmetz is a photographer who specializes in aerial photography. He has published several books of his photographs, including “New York Air,” a documentation of all five boroughs of New York City from above.

Why Did the Obamas Fail to Take On Corporate Agriculture?

Activists hoped President Obama would fight for stronger regulation. Eight years later, they’re still waiting.

Is It Possible to Make a More Healthful Frozen Pizza?

And even if you could, would anyone want to eat it?

The Fight Over Transparency in the Meat Industry

Undercover watchdogs have touched off a battle for true openness in the factory farm system — and everyone is losing.

The Quest to Make a True Blue M&M

In an effort to remove artificial colors from their products, the Mars company is tinkering with the chemistry of some of America’s most beloved candies.

More on NYTimes.com

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23 Photo Essay Ideas and Examples (to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing!)

A Post By: Kevin Landwer-Johan

Looking for inspiration? Our 23 photo essay ideas will take your photography skills to new heights!

A single, strong photograph can convey a lot of information about its subject – but sometimes we have topics that require more than one image to do the job. That’s when it’s time to make a photo essay: a collection of pictures that together tell the bigger story around a chosen theme.

In the following sections, we’ll explore various photo essay ideas and examples that cover a wide range of subjects and purposes. From capturing the growth of your children to documenting local festivals, each idea offers an exciting opportunity to tell a story through your lens, whether you’re a hobbyist or a veteran professional.

So grab your camera, unleash your creativity, and let’s delve into the wonderful world of photo essay examples!

What is a photo essay?

Simply put, a photo essay is a series of carefully selected images woven together to tell a story or convey a message. Think of it as a visual narrative that designed to capture attention and spark emotions.

Now, these images can revolve around a broad theme or focus on a specific storyline. For instance, you might create a photo essay celebrating the joy of companionship by capturing 10 heartwarming pictures of people sharing genuine laughter. On the other hand, you could have a photo essay delving into the everyday lives of fishermen in Wales by following a single fisherman’s journey for a day or even a week.

It’s important to note that photo essays don’t necessarily have to stick to absolute truth. While some documentary photographers prefer to keep it authentic, others may employ techniques like manipulation or staging to create a more artistic impact. So there is room for creativity and interpretation.

Why you should create a photo essay

Photo essays have a way of expressing ideas and stories that words sometimes struggle to capture. They offer a visual narrative that can be incredibly powerful and impactful.

Firstly, photo essays are perfect when you have an idea or a point you want to convey, but you find yourself at a loss for words. Sometimes, emotions and concepts are better conveyed through images rather than paragraphs. So if you’re struggling to articulate a message, you can let your photos do the talking for you.

Second, if you’re interested in subjects that are highly visual, like the mesmerizing forms of architecture within a single city, photo essays are the way to go. Trying to describe the intricate details of a building or the play of light and shadows with words alone can be challenging. But through a series of captivating images, you can immerse your audience in the architecture.

And finally, if you’re aiming to evoke emotions or make a powerful statement, photo essays are outstanding. Images have an incredible ability to shock, inspire, and move people in ways that words often struggle to achieve. So if you want to raise awareness about an environmental issue or ignite a sense of empathy, a compelling series of photographs can have a profound impact.

Photo essay examples and ideas

Looking to create a photo essay but don’t know where to start? Here are some handy essay ideas and examples for inspiration!

1. A day in the life

Your first photo essay idea is simple: Track a life over the course of one day. You might make an essay about someone else’s life. Or the life of a location, such as the sidewalk outside your house. 

The subject matter you choose is up to you. But start in the morning and create a series of images showing your subject over the course of a typical day.

(Alternatively, you can document your subject on a special day, like a birthday, a wedding, or some other celebration.)

2. Capture hands

Portraits focus on a subject’s face – but why not mix it up and make a photo essay that focuses on your subject’s hands?

(You can also focus on a collection of different people’s hands.)

Hands can tell you a lot about a person. And showing them in context is a great way to narrate a story.

3. Follow a sports team for a full season

Sports are all about emotions – both from the passionate players and the dedicated fans. While capturing the intensity of a single game can be exhilarating, imagine the power of telling the complete story of a team throughout an entire season.

For the best results, you’ll need to invest substantial time in sports photography. Choose a team that resonates with you and ensure their games are within a drivable distance. By photographing their highs and lows, celebrations and challenges, you’ll create a compelling photo essay that traces their journey from the first game to the last.

4. A child and their parent

Photographs that catch the interaction between parents and children are special. A parent-child connection is strong and unique, so making powerful images isn’t challenging. You just need to be ready to capture the special moments as they happen. 

You might concentrate on a parent teaching their child. Or the pair playing sports. Or working on a special project.

Use your imagination, and you’ll have a great time with this theme.

5. Tell a local artist’s story 

I’ve always enjoyed photographing artists as they work; studios have a creative vibe, so the energy is already there. Bring your camera into this environment and try to tell the artist’s story!

An artist’s studio offers plenty of opportunities for wonderful photo essays. Think about the most fascinating aspects of the artist’s process. What do they do that makes their art special? Aim to show this in your photos.

Many people appreciate fine art, but they’re often not aware of what happens behind the scenes. So documenting an artist can produce fascinating visual stories.

6. Show a tradesperson’s process

Do you have a plumber coming over to fix your kitchen sink? Is a builder making you a new deck?

Take photos while they work! Tell them what you want to do before you start, and don’t forget to share your photos with them.

They’ll probably appreciate seeing what they do from another perspective. They may even want to use your photos on their company website.

7. Photograph your kids as they grow

There’s something incredibly special about documenting the growth of our little ones. Kids grow up so quickly – before you know it, they’re moving out. Why not capture the beautiful moments along the way by creating a heartwarming photo essay that showcases their growth?

There are various approaches you can take, but one idea is to capture regular photos of your kids standing in front of a distinct point of reference, such as the refrigerator. Over a year or several years, you can gather these images and place them side by side to witness your childrens’ incredible transformations.

8. Cover a local community event

A school fundraiser, a tree-planting day at a park, or a parade; these are are all community events that make for good photo essay ideas.

Think like a photojournalist . What type of images would your editor want? Make sure to capture some wide-angle compositions , some medium shots, and some close-ups.

(Getting in close to show the details can often tell as much of a story as the wider pictures.)

9. Show fresh market life

Markets are great for photography because there’s always plenty of activity and lots of characters. Think of how you can best illustrate the flow of life at the market. What are the vendors doing that’s most interesting? What are the habits of the shoppers?

Look to capture the essence of the place. Try to portray the people who work and shop there.

10. Shoot the same location over time

What location do you visit regularly? Is there a way you can make an interesting photo essay about it?

Consider what you find most attractive and ugly about the place. Look for aspects that change over time. 

Any outdoor location will look different throughout the day. Also think about the changes that occur from season to season. Create an essay that tells the story of the place.

11. Document a local festival

Festivals infuse cities and towns with vibrant energy and unique cultural experiences. Even if your own town doesn’t have notable festivals, chances are a neighboring town does. Explore the magic of these celebrations by documenting a local festival through your lens.

Immerse yourself in the festivities, arriving early and staying late. Capture the colorful displays and the people who make the festival come alive. If the festival spans multiple days, consider focusing on different areas each time you visit to create a diverse and comprehensive photo essay that truly reflects the essence of the event.

12. Photograph a garden through the seasons

It might be your own garden . It could be the neighbor’s. It could even be the garden at your local park.

Think about how the plants change during the course of a year. Capture photos of the most significant visual differences, then present them as a photo essay.

13. Show your local town or city

After spending several years in a particular area, you likely possess an intimate knowledge of your local town or city. Why not utilize that familiarity to create a captivating photo essay that showcases the essence of your community?

Delve into what makes your town special, whether it’s the charming streets, unique landmarks, or the people who shape its character. Dedicate time to capturing the diverse aspects that define your locale. If you’re up for a more extensive project, consider photographing the town over the course of an entire year, capturing the changing seasons and the dynamic spirit of your community.

14. Pick a local cause to highlight

Photo essays can go beyond passive documentation; they can become a part of your activism, too!

So find a cause that matters to you. Tell the story of some aspect of community life that needs improvement. Is there an ongoing issue with litter in your area? How about traffic; is there a problematic intersection?

Document these issues, then make sure to show the photos to people responsible for taking action.

15. Making a meal

Photo essay ideas can be about simple, everyday things – like making a meal or a coffee.

How can you creatively illustrate something that seems so mundane? My guess is that, when you put your mind to it, you can come up with many unique perspectives, all of which will make great stories.

16. Capture the life of a flower

In our fast-paced lives, it’s easy to overlook the beauty that surrounds us. Flowers, with their mesmerizing colors and rapid life cycles, offer a captivating subject for a photo essay. Try to slow down and appreciate the intricate details of a flower’s existence.

With a macro lens in hand, document a single flower or a patch of flowers from their initial shoots to their inevitable wilting and decomposition. Experiment with different angles and perspectives to bring viewers into the enchanting world of the flower. By freezing these fleeting moments, you’ll create a visual narrative that celebrates the cycle of life and the exquisite beauty found in nature’s delicate creations.

17. Religious traditions

Religion is often rich with visual expression in one form or another. So capture it!

Of course, you may need to narrow down your ideas and choose a specific aspect of worship to photograph. Aim to show what people do when they visit a holy place, or how they pray on their own. Illustrate what makes their faith real and what’s special about it.

18. Historic sites

Historic sites are often iconic, and plenty of photographers take a snapshot or two.

But with a photo essay, you can illustrate the site’s history in greater depth.

Look for details of the location that many visitors miss. And use these to build an interesting story.

19. Show the construction of a building

Ever been away from a familiar place for a while only to return and find that things have changed? It happens all the time, especially in areas undergoing constant development. So why not grab your camera and document this transformation?

Here’s the idea: Find a building that’s currently under construction in your area. It could be a towering skyscraper, a modern office complex, or even a small-scale residential project. Whatever catches your eye! Then let the magic of photography unfold.

Make it a habit to take a photo every day or two. Watch as the building gradually takes shape and evolves. Capture the construction workers in action, the cranes reaching for the sky, and the scaffolding supporting the structure.

Once the building is complete, you’ll have a treasure trove of images that chronicle its construction from start to finish!

20. Document the changing skyline of the city

This photo essay example is like the previous one, except it works on a much larger scale. Instead of photographing a single building as it’s built, find a nice vantage point outside your nearest city, then photograph the changing skyline.

To create a remarkable photo essay showcasing the changing skyline, you’ll need to scout out the perfect vantage point. Seek high ground that offers a commanding view of the city, allowing you to frame the skyline against the horizon. Look for spots that give you an unobstructed perspective, whether a rooftop terrace, a hillside park, or even a nearby bridge.

As you set out on your photography expedition, be patient and observant. Cities don’t transform overnight; they change gradually over time. Embrace the passage of days, weeks, and months as you witness the slow evolution unfold.

Pro tip: To capture the essence of this transformation, experiment with various photographic techniques. Play with different angles, framing, and compositions to convey the grandeur and dynamism of the changing skyline. Plus, try shooting during the golden hours of sunrise and sunset , when the soft light bathes the city in a warm glow and accentuates the architectural details.

21. Photograph your pet

If you’re a pet owner, you already have the perfect subject for a photo essay!

All pets , with the possible exception of pet rocks, will provide you with a collection of interesting moments to photograph.

So collect these moments with your camera – then display them as a photo essay showing the nature and character of your pet.

22. Tell the story of a local nature preserve

Ah, the wonders of a local nature preserve! While it may not boast the grandeur of Yosemite National Park, these hidden gems hold their own beauty, just waiting to be discovered and captured through the lens of your camera.

To embark on this type of photo essay adventure, start by exploring all the nooks and crannies of your chosen nature preserve. Wander along its winding trails, keeping an eye out for unique and captivating subjects that convey the essence of the preserve.

As you go along, try to photograph the intricate details of delicate wildflowers, the interplay of light filtering through a dense forest canopy, and the lively activities of birds and other wildlife.

23. Show the same subject from multiple perspectives

It’s possible to create an entire photo essay in a single afternoon – or even in a handful of minutes. If you don’t love the idea of dedicating yourself to days of photographing for a single essay, this is a great option.

Simply find a subject you like, then endeavor to capture 10 unique images that include it. I’d recommend photographing from different angles: up above, down low, from the right and left. You can also try getting experimental with creative techniques, such as intentional camera movement and freelensing. If all goes well, you’ll have a very cool set of images featuring one of your favorite subjects!

By showcasing the same subject from multiple perspectives, you invite viewers on a visual journey. They get to see different facets, textures, and details that they might have overlooked in a single photograph. It adds depth and richness to your photo essay, making it both immersive and dynamic.

Photo essay ideas: final words

Remember: Photo essays are all about communicating a concept or a story through images rather than words. So embrace the process and use images to express yourself!

Whether you choose to follow a sports team through a thrilling season, document the growth of your little ones, or explore the hidden treasures of your local town, each photo essay has its own magic waiting to be unlocked. It’s a chance to explore your creativity and create images in your own style.

So look at the world around you. Grab your gear and venture out into the wild. Embrace the beauty of nature, the energy of a bustling city, or the quiet moments that make life special. Consider what you see every day. What aspects interest you the most? Photograph those things.

You’re bound to end up with some amazing photo essays!

Now over to you:

Do you have any photo essay examples you’re proud of? Do you have any more photo essay ideas? Share your thoughts and images in the comments below!

Read more from our Tips & Tutorials category

Kevin Landwer-Johan is a photographer, photography teacher, and author with over 30 years of experience that he loves to share with others.

Check out his website and his Buy Me a Coffee page .

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How to Create an Engaging Photo Essay (with Examples)

Photo essays tell a story in pictures. They're a great way to improve at photography and story-telling skills at once. Learn how to do create a great one.

Learn | Photography Guides | By Ana Mireles

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Photography is a medium used to tell stories – sometimes they are told in one picture, sometimes you need a whole series. Those series can be photo essays.

If you’ve never done a photo essay before, or you’re simply struggling to find your next project, this article will be of help. I’ll be showing you what a photo essay is and how to go about doing one.

You’ll also find plenty of photo essay ideas and some famous photo essay examples from recent times that will serve you as inspiration.

If you’re ready to get started, let’s jump right in!

Table of Contents

What is a Photo Essay?

A photo essay is a series of images that share an overarching theme as well as a visual and technical coherence to tell a story. Some people refer to a photo essay as a photo series or a photo story – this often happens in photography competitions.

Photographic history is full of famous photo essays. Think about The Great Depression by Dorothea Lange, Like Brother Like Sister by Wolfgang Tillmans, Gandhi’s funeral by Henri Cartier Bresson, amongst others.

What are the types of photo essay?

Despite popular belief, the type of photo essay doesn’t depend on the type of photography that you do – in other words, journalism, documentary, fine art, or any other photographic genre is not a type of photo essay.

Instead, there are two main types of photo essays: narrative and thematic .

As you have probably already guessed, the thematic one presents images pulled together by a topic – for example, global warming. The images can be about animals and nature as well as natural disasters devastating cities. They can happen all over the world or in the same location, and they can be captured in different moments in time – there’s a lot of flexibility.

A narrative photo essa y, on the other hand, tells the story of a character (human or not), portraying a place or an event. For example, a narrative photo essay on coffee would document the process from the planting and harvesting – to the roasting and grinding until it reaches your morning cup.

What are some of the key elements of a photo essay?

• Tell a unique story – A unique story doesn’t mean that you have to photograph something that nobody has done before – that would be almost impossible! It means that you should consider what you’re bringing to the table on a particular topic.
• Put yourself into the work – One of the best ways to make a compelling photo essay is by adding your point of view, which can only be done with your life experiences and the way you see the world.
• Add depth to the concept – The best photo essays are the ones that go past the obvious and dig deeper in the story, going behind the scenes, or examining a day in the life of the subject matter – that’s what pulls in the spectator.
• Nail the technique – Even if the concept and the story are the most important part of a photo essay, it won’t have the same success if it’s poorly executed.
• Build a structure – A photo essay is about telling a thought-provoking story – so, think about it in a narrative way. Which images are going to introduce the topic? Which ones represent a climax? How is it going to end – how do you want the viewer to feel after seeing your photo series?
• Make strong choices – If you really want to convey an emotion and a unique point of view, you’re going to need to make some hard decisions. Which light are you using? Which lens? How many images will there be in the series? etc., and most importantly for a great photo essay is the why behind those choices.

9 Tips for Creating a Photo Essay

Credit: Laura James

1. Choose something you know

To make a good photo essay, you don’t need to travel to an exotic location or document a civil war – I mean, it’s great if you can, but you can start close to home.

Depending on the type of photography you do and the topic you’re looking for in your photographic essay, you can photograph a local event or visit an abandoned building outside your town.

It will be much easier for you to find a unique perspective and tell a better story if you’re already familiar with the subject. Also, consider that you might have to return a few times to the same location to get all the photos you need.

2. Follow your passion

Most photo essays take dedication and passion. If you choose a subject that might be easy, but you’re not really into it – the results won’t be as exciting. Taking photos will always be easier and more fun if you’re covering something you’re passionate about.

3. Take your time

A great photo essay is not done in a few hours. You need to put in the time to research it, conceptualizing it, editing, etc. That’s why I previously recommended following your passion because it takes a lot of dedication, and if you’re not passionate about it – it’s difficult to push through.

4. Write a summary or statement

Photo essays are always accompanied by some text. You can do this in the form of an introduction, write captions for each photo or write it as a conclusion. That’s up to you and how you want to present the work.

5. Learn from the masters

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Making a photographic essay takes a lot of practice and knowledge. A great way to become a better photographer and improve your storytelling skills is by studying the work of others. You can go to art shows, review books and magazines and look at the winners in photo contests – most of the time, there’s a category for photo series.

6. Get a wide variety of photos

Think about a story – a literary one. It usually tells you where the story is happening, who is the main character, and it gives you a few details to make you engage with it, right?

The same thing happens with a visual story in a photo essay – you can do some wide-angle shots to establish the scenes and some close-ups to show the details. Make a shot list to ensure you cover all the different angles.

Some of your pictures should guide the viewer in, while others are more climatic and regard the experience they are taking out of your photos.

7. Follow a consistent look

Both in style and aesthetics, all the images in your series need to be coherent. You can achieve this in different ways, from the choice of lighting, the mood, the post-processing, etc.

8. Be self-critical

Once you have all the photos, make sure you edit them with a good dose of self-criticism. Not all the pictures that you took belong in the photo essay. Choose only the best ones and make sure they tell the full story.

9. Ask for constructive feedback

Often, when we’re working on a photo essay project for a long time, everything makes perfect sense in our heads. However, someone outside the project might not be getting the idea. It’s important that you get honest and constructive criticism to improve your photography.

How to Create a Photo Essay in 5 Steps

Credit: Quang Nguyen Vinh

1. Choose your topic

This is the first step that you need to take to decide if your photo essay is going to be narrative or thematic. Then, choose what is it going to be about?

Ideally, it should be something that you’re interested in, that you have something to say about it, and it can connect with other people.

2. Research your topic

To tell a good story about something, you need to be familiar with that something. This is especially true when you want to go deeper and make a compelling photo essay. Day in the life photo essays are a popular choice, since often, these can be performed with friends and family, whom you already should know well.

3. Plan your photoshoot

Depending on what you’re photographing, this step can be very different from one project to the next. For a fine art project, you might need to find a location, props, models, a shot list, etc., while a documentary photo essay is about planning the best time to do the photos, what gear to bring with you, finding a local guide, etc.

Every photo essay will need different planning, so before taking pictures, put in the required time to get things right.

4. Experiment

It’s one thing to plan your photo shoot and having a shot list that you have to get, or else the photo essay won’t be complete. It’s another thing to miss out on some amazing photo opportunities that you couldn’t foresee.

So, be prepared but also stay open-minded and experiment with different settings, different perspectives, etc.

5. Make a final selection

Editing your work can be one of the hardest parts of doing a photo essay. Sometimes we can be overly critical, and others, we get attached to bad photos because we put a lot of effort into them or we had a great time doing them.

Try to be as objective as possible, don’t be afraid to ask for opinions and make various revisions before settling down on a final cut.

7 Photo Essay Topics, Ideas & Examples

Credit: Michelle Leman

• Architectural photo essay

Using architecture as your main subject, there are tons of photo essay ideas that you can do. For some inspiration, you can check out the work of Francisco Marin – who was trained as an architect and then turned to photography to “explore a different way to perceive things”.

You can also lookup Luisa Lambri. Amongst her series, you’ll find many photo essay examples in which architecture is the subject she uses to explore the relationship between photography and space.

• Process and transformation photo essay

This is one of the best photo essay topics for beginners because the story tells itself. Pick something that has a beginning and an end, for example, pregnancy, the metamorphosis of a butterfly, the life-cycle of a plant, etc.

Keep in mind that these topics are linear and give you an easy way into the narrative flow – however, it might be difficult to find an interesting perspective and a unique point of view.

• A day in the life of ‘X’ photo essay

There are tons of interesting photo essay ideas in this category – you can follow around a celebrity, a worker, your child, etc. You don’t even have to do it about a human subject – think about doing a photo essay about a day in the life of a racing horse, for example – find something that’s interesting for you.

• Time passing by photo essay

It can be a natural site or a landmark photo essay – whatever is close to you will work best as you’ll need to come back multiple times to capture time passing by. For example, how this place changes throughout the seasons or maybe even over the years.

A fun option if you live with family is to document a birthday party each year, seeing how the subject changes over time. This can be combined with a transformation essay or sorts, documenting the changes in interpersonal relationships over time.

• Travel photo essay

Do you want to make the jump from tourist snapshots into a travel photo essay? Research the place you’re going to be travelling to. Then, choose a topic.

If you’re having trouble with how to do this, check out any travel magazine – National Geographic, for example. They won’t do a generic article about Texas – they do an article about the beach life on the Texas Gulf Coast and another one about the diverse flavors of Texas.

The more specific you get, the deeper you can go with the story.

• Socio-political issues photo essay

This is one of the most popular photo essay examples – it falls under the category of photojournalism or documental photography. They are usually thematic, although it’s also possible to do a narrative one.

Depending on your topic of interest, you can choose topics that involve nature – for example, document the effects of global warming. Another idea is to photograph protests or make an education photo essay.

It doesn’t have to be a big global issue; you can choose something specific to your community – are there too many stray dogs? Make a photo essay about a local animal shelter. The topics are endless.

• Behind the scenes photo essay

A behind-the-scenes always make for a good photo story – people are curious to know what happens and how everything comes together before a show.

Depending on your own interests, this can be a photo essay about a fashion show, a theatre play, a concert, and so on. You’ll probably need to get some permissions, though, not only to shoot but also to showcase or publish those images.

4 Best Photo Essays in Recent times

Now that you know all the techniques about it, it might be helpful to look at some photo essay examples to see how you can put the concept into practice. Here are some famous photo essays from recent times to give you some inspiration.

Habibi by Antonio Faccilongo

This photo essay wan the World Press Photo Story of the Year in 2021. Faccilongo explores a very big conflict from a very specific and intimate point of view – how the Israeli-Palestinian war affects the families.

He chose to use a square format because it allows him to give order to things and eliminate unnecessary elements in his pictures.

With this long-term photo essay, he wanted to highlight the sense of absence and melancholy women and families feel towards their husbands away at war.

The project then became a book edited by Sarah Leen and the graphics of Ramon Pez.

Picture This: New Orleans by Mary Ellen Mark

The last assignment before her passing, Mary Ellen Mark travelled to New Orleans to register the city after a decade after Hurricane Katrina.

The images of the project “bring to life the rebirth and resilience of the people at the heart of this tale”, – says CNNMoney, commissioner of the work.

Each survivor of the hurricane has a story, and Mary Ellen Mark was there to record it. Some of them have heartbreaking stories about everything they had to leave behind.

Others have a story of hope – like Sam and Ben, two eight-year-olds born from frozen embryos kept in a hospital that lost power supply during the hurricane, yet they managed to survive.

Selfie by Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer whose work is mainly done through self-portraits. With them, she explores the concept of identity, gender stereotypes, as well as visual and cultural codes.

One of her latest photo essays was a collaboration with W Magazine entitled Selfie. In it, the author explores the concept of planned candid photos (‘plandid’).

The work was made for Instagram, as the platform is well known for the conflict between the ‘real self’ and the one people present online. Sherman started using Facetune, Perfect365 and YouCam to alter her appearance on selfies – in Photoshop, you can modify everything, but these apps were designed specifically to “make things prettier”- she says, and that’s what she wants to explore in this photo essay.

Tokyo Compression by Michael Wolf

Michael Wolf has an interest in the broad-gauge topic Life in Cities. From there, many photo essays have been derived – amongst them – Tokyo Compression .

He was horrified by the way people in Tokyo are forced to move to the suburbs because of the high prices of the city. Therefore, they are required to make long commutes facing 1,5 hours of train to start their 8+ hour workday followed by another 1,5 hours to get back home.

To portray this way of life, he photographed the people inside the train pressed against the windows looking exhausted, angry or simply absent due to this way of life.

You can visit his website to see other photo essays that revolve around the topic of life in megacities.

Final Words

It’s not easy to make photo essays, so don’t expect to be great at it right from your first project.

Start off small by choosing a specific subject that’s interesting to you –  that will come from an honest place, and it will be a great practice for some bigger projects along the line.

Whether you like to shoot still life or you’re a travel photographer, I hope these photo essay tips and photo essay examples can help you get started and grow in your photography.

Let us know which topics you are working on right now – we’ll love to hear from you!

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Ana Mireles is a Mexican researcher that specializes in photography and communications for the arts and culture sector.

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A Photo Essay from a Day in a Chef's Kitchen

I woke up on this day with plans for a couple of kitchen projects, but a mid-morning delivery from a nearby friend inspired an expansion of the plans. We had recently visited her new home on Memorial Day and had gotten a tour of her mushroom growing setup before admiring her young fruit tree which was in the midst of ripening some unidentified stone fruit. A couple weeks have passed and the stone fruit has been identified (apricots, still warm from the sun, never refrigerated, and with a sweet floral aroma seeping through the paper bag), and some newly opened chestnut mushrooms have been harvested and brought to our door. I knew the best way to maximize the freshness of this produce would be to use them as soon as I possibly could. I decided to work them into my culinary plans for the day, including a dinner I had planned to make. What follows is a fairly laconic account of my projects over the course of the day.

I didn’t want a mint julep, so I opted for the second most obvious choice: a mojito. Unfortunately mojitos call for club soda which we’re out of at the moment. Fortunately, I can fix that. I filled up an old Topo Chico bottle with filtered water and put it in the freezer to chill.

Paid my dues to the fiancee. Cool shirt, right?

Topics: pastry , seasons , summer , herbs , mushrooms , chicken , spring , fresh herbs , apricot , laminated dough

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