Tell a story

photo © Jarno Dijkstra

It’s a funny anecdote about Jarno who forgot to take his backpack with him when he left the train, that he had to ran back when he remembered and that a friendly NS employee had secured it for him. And obviously Jarno blamed the entire story on his backpack who was to lazy to come with him and was laying back the rack where he had put it. He posted the above photo with his story, calling the backpack colourful names.

Jarno is an adequate writer and photographer to say the least. However this picture would have been meaningless without the story behind it. And the same thing goes for the story. It would not have been half as funny or catchy without this picture.

We always talk about photography and images. But only a few of them has a story. Personally I always try to convey a story with my photography and I know that I’m always drawn to pictures with a story. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but lets make those words count and lets try to put them to our use and tell a story.

In my mind a photographer is a storyteller, a writer, a friend and a magician who can show you things, tell you things and hide things from you. A photographer can cheer you up, bring you down and entertain you and manipulate you, if he wants to.

He just has to know how to use his tools.