The story you don’t expect is a better story
As a counterpoint to my April 29 post, in which I criticized a much-lauded photojournalism story hosted by MediaStorm.org, I’d like to praise a different photojournalism story, also at MediaStorm.org.: Common Ground, by Scott Strazzante.
My student Travis brought this story to my attention when he critiqued it for an assignment. He wrote:
I came expecting a tale of paradise lost — a farmer, devastated as his fields turn into a colorless suburban hell-hole where everything looks the same and the callous new settlers scoff at pre-modern life in the dirt.
And that’s the story we don’t get.
What impressed me about this story was the delight in discovery that I experienced. It had less to do with its being a “positive” or “happy” story than with the connection I felt to the people in the photos — and to the photojournalist. By juxtaposing similar images from two very different lifestyles (which have in common the land on which they occur, formerly a family farm and now a suburban subdivision), Strazzante gave me a gift, a new way of understanding, a way of looking at suburban families that is different from the way I (a product of a suburban subdivision family) was accustomed to regarding them before.
This is a rare achievement, and maybe too likely to be overlooked when the subject matter is so everyday, so familiar. But I would offer this: It’s easy to make someone gasp or feel appalled. Just show something horrible, shocking, or brutal. How hard is it to get people to gasp, or feel changed, when you show them things they see all the time?
Thank you for sharing this. This was truly great storytelling.
May 5, 2009 at 11:40 amA photographer is supposed to tell stories with is camera. The more he is esxperienced more he can create really strong images it doesen’t matter the subject.
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May 12, 2009 at 7:59 am[...] Mindy McAdams points out, the juxtaposition in the photos is effective in evoking a response in the viewer. This [...]
May 12, 2009 at 2:23 pm