One Picture. Many Stories.

Good stories explore ideas, feelings, and experiences of your characters on a deeper level. They also explore certain themes and ideas to convey a message. What about telling a story another way? What about a photographic story? We've all heard the adage: "a picture is worth a thousand words." So, how can a complex idea be conveyed in a single image?

Let's take a look at how themes help tell a story in photography. 

Visual Style - using colors, shapes, lighting, and repetition to create evocative imagery and set the mood of a photograph.

Subject Matter - using a series of images selected from within a certain context (ex: nature, cars, buildings, etc.)

Locations - capturing the essence of places - landscapes, cities, neighborhoods, villages, etc.

Portraiture - capturing the spirit of a person or in the case of a group; showing the dynamic relationship between the subjects.

I love looking at professional photographs, and below are some amazing shots. Indeed, there is a story to be told in each one of them. 

Hadza Man, Tanzania
Photograph by Martin Schoeller
"Long vistas and the dry season's withered vegetation enable keen eyes to spot game miles away. From a wind-bowed tree on a ridge, a man named Mahiya peers across rough Tanzania terrain where Hadza bands range."

Mbukushu Mother and Child, Botswana 
Photograph by Frans Lanting
"A Mbukushu mother and child cross Botswana's Okavango River, whose seasonal floods bring life to a parched land."

Rajasthan Women Digging a Reservoir, India
Photograph by Steve McCurry
"During the dry season herding activity slackens, and the Rabari people alter their routines. In Rajasthan, women turn to grueling wage labor, earning two dollars a day for digging a reservoir."

Circumcision Ritual, South Africa
Photograph by James Nachtwey, National Geographic
"Xhosa teens, initiated into manhood in a centuries-old circumcision ritual called ulwaluko, stay in seclusion outside their Eastern Cape village, wrapped in ceremonial blankets and painted with white clay for purification. Hospital surgeries reduce the infection rate, but many boys opt for the old rite."

Young Indian Nomad, India
Photograph by Steve McCurry
"A roof overhead is new for Punkti, a shepherd's daughter in Rajasthan. Family men still live under the stars, staying close to their animals."

Fountain, Tel Aviv
Photograph by Dima Vazinovich
"Israeli children playing at the local fountain in Tel Aviv city."

New York City

Photograph by Juan Pablo Velasco

"The girl looking at the lens was something I only realized when I saw the picture on my computer," says  Velasco.

What about you? Do you have a favorite photo story to share? 

All photographs © 2011 National Geographic.