Photo Story Feuilleton #1: Power of Repetition

Some photos take your breath away. Even more than single photographs, a photo series can blow your mind. It can change the way you see things and it challenges photographers to create powerful stories that they want to share with the world. But how to create interesting photo series? As with art in general, there is no specific recipe or approach. However, when you overlook the photography field you’ll discover some basic angles that might inspire you to go beyond creating single photographs and come up with a true photo story. Starting point is to work with a concept. A second ingredient is to make sure that things happen on more than one layer.

In this feuilleton EAGER – platform for inspiring photo series, approaches the subject photo series from different angles inspiring you to make your very best photo series!

This is the first angle of six, the second angle Time Flies, so Try to Catch It is online too, the third angle Connect Content and Form, is available through this link, the fourth angle Make The Surreal Look Real is to be read here, the fifth angle The Abstract Way is available here, and the last angle Catch Reality in Documentaries here.

Angle 1 – Power of Repetition
The most straightforward way to create a powerful photo series is to choose a certain (visually) interesting subject and repeat it in your photographs. Repetition creates a framework within which you can compare things and make differences visible. Art philosopher Gilles Deleuze claims: “Repetition is also a kind of freedom; without its regular framing and punctuating insistence we would never be able to experience, to relish the new”. And that’s absolutely right!

Not all repetitive photo series are interesting though. You need to come up with a good approach to connect the photos visually while at the same time be sure not to create something boring. And that is a challenge! We all know the posters you can buy all around the world with collections of doors, windows or other elements. That’s not exactly what we mean, that’s a bit too simple, although we love the quote “less is more”. Let’s illustrate this with some examples.

Guido Benschop and Andreas Terlaak are busy creating a photo series on mobile chemical toilets. In this photo series repetition works out very well. First of all they selected a rather original subject. Second, they photograph all photos in a similar way: the chemical toilet usually from the front side along with the context in which they found them. No close-ups. That specific element makes the series get humor. The viewer will see that all found toilets are in rather weird places and you get curious for the next photograph in the series. Each photo in the series adds a new element to the series as a whole. It needs to be unique in its kind. And last but not least: all single photos in the series are interesting by themselves. We’re curious when/whether/where this series will end.

Another example in the same category is the photo series FEBO from Jacqueline Dersjant. Again the concept is simple: photos from a snack wall in a Dutch snack bar. The power of this series lies in the fact that the snack wall has been photographed from the back and the way the boxes repeat in all images. The photographer has added a fun element in the last photograph. That works out really well.

Source: didyousayeager.com