I’m preparing a series of workshops on storytelling through photography. In preparation, I’ve been looking at TED talks by some excellent photographers and photojournalists for inspiration. Here are 3 talks that inspired me, and why:
“Photography emulates the way that our mind freezes a significant moment” — the editor of National Geographic about our emotional connection to photography, and 3 moving stories told through pictures. (In particular, wait for the last one about sea lions.)
(I can’t seem to embed the talks for some reasons, so here are the links to them)
David Griffin talks about how photography connects us.
This is a completely different style of storytelling through photography from Taryn Simon. Pictures of things where the picture itself is quite plain — a small bottle of clear liquid, say — and the power is entirely in the description — “here is a vial of pure HIV virus, from a Harvard medical research lab”, or a picture of a big cable in an empty room (wow, a cable, you think) — until she reveals that here is a picture of 1 of 3 transatlantic cables that carry all internet data between North America and Europe. Wow. Some of her subject matter is a bit shocking, but very powerful style of storytelling.
Taryn Simon photograps secret sites.
And lastly, here is a talk by Ryan Lobo, about compassion through photography. Here the focus is more on capturing the human story behind various dramatic current events. In particular the story on the Indian fire department was pretty awesome here.
Ryan Lobo: photographing the hidden story
What talks on photography inspire *you* the most?
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