Read This If You Want to Take Great Photographs

The importance of intrigue

Pose questions, not answers

For other examples:

Joel Sternfeld p. 68

Holly Andres p. 87

René Burri p. 93

Melanie Einzig p. 103

Elliott Erwitt p. 111

Who sits in this chair? Why has the window been blacked out? There’s beauty in those clashing colours and patterns. Did someone consciously bring them together or are they just a random collection of items that occupy the same room?

Alec Soth’s photographs of strangers, places and objects that he encounters on the road never quite tell us the whole story. They serve more as glimpses into moments observed and it’s left up to us to fill in the blanks.

Don’t feel like your photographs have to explain themselves. Hold a little back. Give our imagination somewhere to go.

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