Theatrical and themed portraiture: Story telling

I love films, it is the reason I did a degree in film making. Unfortunately, I never made it successfully into the film industry but the passion remains and I try to bring my story telling abilities into my photography. Unlike a film, a photo only tells a part of the situation., it doesn’t tell the whole story. It leaves the rest to the viewer and that is how I like to tell a story.

In the above photo. You see a very angry man, with a clenched fist and hammer in his hand. This would suggest a villain of some kind but then we have the cross, which tells a different story. Why is he wearing a cross but so aggressive? That is not for me to say but for the viewer to decide.

If we add a second photo, like the one above. It adds substance to the first photo but it still leaves the main story to the imagination. Is he sad because he lost his temper, could he have lost a family member, maybe he has been caught and will seen face the consequences. If I had reversed the photos with the crying image first, that would tell a completely different story. The grief shown would be leading to the violent outburst but it would still be for the viewer to interoperate the story.

This is one of the reasons, I love photography and portraiture.