Storytelling through photographic images

- I'm here today with photojournalist Paul Taggart. Paul, storytelling is an obvious part of photojournalism. But you take the idea of storytelling really into all of your work, into taking individual shots. So, I wanna talk today about storytelling, and let's start with a definition. What is a story? (laughing) - In the simplest sense, to me it's uh... you've got a character, and they're going through something, and there's you know, the typical, you know, definition, there's a beginning, middle and the end, and we're going through a voyage here.

And I think you're completely right, sometimes that can be in a single frame, which is really hard. I've only done that a couple times. There's some photographers that are masters of that. And, you know, it's a difficult thing. For me, I reply more on photo essays so I'll construct a story, with multiple images, which sometimes the story is told over months or years or, it's a single event you know, that's my kind of narrative that I'm used to working with, and typically it's with photography, but most recently the last three, four years I've been working a lot more in film and television, but it's the exact same skill set as photography, as far as story telling goes.

- So, there's something you're interested in shooting. Do you, do you get interested in it because you've already heard the story, or do you typically find that you're interested in something and then you go find the story? - The latter. (laughs) I'm interested in something, and I always have an idea of what the story's gonna be. And I get excited about that like oh this is, this is how I'm gonna tell the story. This character's gonna do this. You know, I've got all of these sorta stereotypes in my head of how things are gonna work out. And then you get on the ground and you start meeting people and they're all wrong, which is the best part of this job.

It's because, the stories that are really good are the ones you can't come up with, ya know. That's why I keep doing this is, This is going out to the field, meeting somebody, having a preconceived idea what their life is like, and then being completely wrong about it and learning something. - Is it a trouble letting go of your preconceived story? Or do you find that the reality always trumps everything? - For me, it's, it's so much easier when I'm wrong. Because I'm not trying to force what I wanted that story to be on a subject. But I just get to follow them.

And that's-- There's one thing I like to do the most you know, as far as being behind the camera, it's actually following a story as it happens. And lately, with the television show that I'm working on actually, we're just following characters as stories sort of happen naturally and, I love it, because interesting things happen right before your eyes that I couldn't come up with so, I love the real, and letting go of my preconceived idea, and just letting the character be the narrator for their story.

- For still photography as you're shooting, and you're seeing the story unfold, stories unfold in real life a little bit differently then they do in the kind of three act story telling structure that we're used to in movies and books and things. Are you just simply trying to follow and keep up, or are you are you trying to hit what you think are gonna be story points in your-- are you keeping an eye on the finished story that you're constructing in your head? - Yeah, for sure, in a couple of ways I mean, it's in my head, but it's also usually printed out on little five by sevens, and I'm keeping track of it, and then filling in blanks in a timeline that I think I need, or you know, on the laptop.

But no, I'm definitely thinking. For me it's more of a visual thing, like I can kinda see it in my head like oh, this is my opening shot. This is working. And then you know, here's my end shot maybe and then what do I need in between. It'd be a nightmare to me to just to go shoot, and then go home and try to edit together a project. Like, people do that and they do amazing work. That would scare the heck outa me. (laughing) Like, I wanna have a little bit more control over it, so I know when I'm leaving the field I've got what I need, and that's definitely true you know, when I work in TV and film, but it's also true when I'm doing photojournalism as well, doing a photo project.

I'm mean it's true when I'm trying to do a story of my own family and I'm taking pictures of my kids, and I'm trying to create like a, a story there, I'm thinking like, oh okay, this is working, I want it to be five pictures. Actually, we're talking about you know doing a story within one frame, like one of the things I've been doing lately is trying to tell a story in one frame with the photographs that I take of my kids, which is great because they can't go anywhere, they have to let me take their picture! So I get to make a lot more mistakes and try to make that work. - Do you shoot differently, as far as still images go, does the...

does that space in your map of the story that you're trying to fill, dictate a particular type of shooting? Do you always start with a wide shot for opening? Do you-- - No. No, I mean with opening and ending shots at least like, it's kind of a gut reaction, like when you see it you're like, that's it. And actually sometimes the opening and ending shots can like switch spots. But, it's an introduction you know, so sometimes if, you know, if the place that you're shooting is your main character, maybe that wide vista shot is what it is, you know, because that's your main character at this location, but then often times you know, I feel like a lot of my work is focused on an individual, and you know bam! Let's meet that person right up front, you know.

So, it just depends on the story you're telling I guess. - Right, right. Are you personally drawn to a particular story, do you notice that you're seeing the same types of things that attract you're attention repeatedly? - I can think of different parts of my life, at different stages I was interested in different things. Early on being like a, a young guy, I was way more interested in conflicts and wars, then I am today. I'm still interested in that as somebody that reads the newspaper, but not as interested in going out there and photographing that.

Right now, with the television stuff that I'm doing, I'm way more interested in character-driven stories. I'm very interested in people kind of living the lives that they wanna live, kinda off the grid and out in nature I mean, I recently moved outa New York City, and bought a farmhouse in Pennsylvania, and moved my family out to like, a little farmhouse in Amish country, so I'm kinda, you know, selfishly drawn to other people that are doing similar things with their lives, which I think is natural, I'm gonna place my career where I can kinda go do that. And so, right now I've spent probably the last year doing different television programs for National Geographic that all of my characters are kind of living off the grid, out in the woods.

So, character-driven stories now I guess. - So, a lot of people just wander around and they just take pictures of things that catch their eye and, that they find attractive and they wanna make nice looking pictures, which is great, you need to do that in the context of a photographic essay also. Why should they listen to anything you're saying right now? What's the, what's the great value that you're getting out of telling stories through images rather than capturing very compelling single stand-alone images? - Yeah. Well, I appreciate those people, cuz I have a really hard time just walking down the street and making a picture.

Cuz I'm always thinking about like it's gotta be a story, it's gotta be a project, and you need to have a reason. And so I have a hard time street shooting for instance. But for people like that that are really just getting these individual images, and I teach workshops and classes sometimes and I see these portfolios and there's some like very similar imagery that kinda shows up, and I think the problem is, is they don't have a-- it doesn't have to be a story necessarily, but a project you know, a full project with multiple images that all kind of work together to say one message. And I'd say to them like, give it a try and maybe, maybe it's in the editing, your selection process.

Maybe you've got a thousand great images you like, and now whittle it down to 20, and figure out the similarities between the images that you enjoy, and make a project out of it. And I think oftentimes you can possibly make a story out of it too. But I think, to those people I'd say, just give it a shot and listen to me for a second, because I think it'd be really satisfying. It's very satisfying to you know at the end of the year, look back at the work that you did, and have a portfolio or a story, rather than just one image. - You asked them to listen to you for just a little bit.

They can actually listen to you a lot more. Cuz you're getting ready to do a course here for the library on story telling. What's gonna be in it? What are you, what are you doing? - We're gonna do a fundamentals course or a foundation course that basically sets up a lot of the other courses in the library about story telling, because what I do is I go out in the field, and I will be out in the field photographing for instance, a dog-sledding competition, an ice sculpture competition. Previously I've done a wildlife reserve and a circus, and you can actually see how I tell stories in the field.

You know, from the get go, from the inception of it through the editing process and the final product. - Great. There you have it, that's the next thing you should watch in the library. Go dig around in Paul's collection of movies. You can get them all off of his landing page, and they're gonna take you through this process of learning to tell a story with your images, and I got to agree with Paul, I think that it's something that's worth trying if you normally don't do that, just because it's a different way of shooting. But I think very often, it's also that through the process of telling a story, there's a better chance that your, your own personal vision is going to come out, cuz there's simply more latitude for that to happen so, everything he's saying here is really worth giving a try on your own, and his courses are a great way for you to get started doing that.