The Origins of Emotions in Photography
By: Peter Gróf
Tags: Art, Creativity, Photography, Documentary, Emotions

It’s how they make us feel.

Just as in life, also in photography, feelings come from within. They represent attitude, state of mind, they communicate a message. Photography is all about evoking feelings and emotions. They can be hidden and obscure, or specific and obvious. They flow right on the surface of a photograph, slapping you across the face, or swim below, awaiting discovery.

As an artist, there is hardly anything more satisfying, than producing an emotional piece of art. Describing the importance of emotions is easy. Searching for their origin is hard.

Composing for emotion and the link between

Spoiler alert — the link, is the camera. It can hardly be a true source of emotion in photography. It is just a tool, after all. It may inspire to shoot, as oftentimes cameras are also wonderful pieces of art, however, they are not the key component of bringing in the emotion.

The main ingredients for creating emotions are the artist and his subject.

The artist.

Photographer, composer, musician, painter, writer, poet, sculptor, carpenter, designer, florist, hairdresser, barber, dancer… They create because they feel something and want to express that feeling through art. Expression comes in many shapes and forms. In photography, it is through subject selection, composition, and post-processing.

The Subject.

Humans, nature, light, darkness, shadows, cities, food, lifestyle, age, abstract, shapes, juxtaposition, streets, interactions, animals, and all the others you can think of may be used as amplifiers of emotions in photography.

The variety of humankind can just as well bring about all the emotions you can think of. Compassion, fear, love, hate, sadness, happiness. Incorporate people into your images for more impact. Achieve this either by directed portraiture or candid documentary photography. Up to you.

Using light accentuates emotions. Shoot low-key (dark tones) to promote mystery, fear, and the unknown. Shoot high-key (light tones) to promote comfort, happiness, and well-being. Know what you are after and work with light accordingly.

Different perspectives will give you even more freedom of expression. Shoot from below to show power, dominance, or strength. Shoot head-on to imply confrontation. Shoot from far away or above to express how little we are in this world. Shoot details and use negative space to leave areas for interpretation.

Context as a guiding system

Context is everything around the image that helps us understand it better. It can be a historical event, a facial expression, parts of the composition, or multiple images in a series to build the context up gradually.

Single vs. series

One of the most effective ways to build up context is to do it through a series of images. Oftentimes a great photograph by itself does not wield the power to inform about the author’s intentions.

Robert Frank — Trolley, New Orleans, 1955, from The Americans

Look at the image above. Without knowing the context, it’s a well-composed black and white image of people riding a trolley.

Robert Frank — “Americans”

If we bring other images into the series, we start getting a picture of the author’s intentions. We now see a document of several places during what we can say is also a specific time. We can also say these are likely blue-collar workers and by distinctive architecture and landscape, we can say it’s taking place in the United States. Moreover, should we approach “reading” photography pro-actively, we’d research Robert’s work in advance and we’d understand what we are getting into.

Add or subtract context with aperture

The perception of each photograph is also based on the way it was shot. What was the aperture the photographer chose and why? Did he want to show us as much as possible within the frame, or rather hide the background by using shallow depth of field?

Documentary and reportage photography tends to provide more context in a single image. Using higher apertures and getting more of the surroundings into focus makes you explore the image. What is the interaction of a subject with the environment? What’s going on in the background? Are there others the subject interacts with? What of the light? How is the photographer using it to complement the composition? Answers to these questions help us understand the context and therefore read the emotions accordingly.

I’ve borrowed the following quote from the movie The Bang Bank Club:

“f8 and be there”

Using a shallow depth of field throws everything apart from the subject out of focus. The main goal here is for the viewer to guess. Not to read the image, but to finish it by himself. It’s open to interpretation. Like a movie with an open ending. However here, we try the same in a single frame.

Reading the faces

Angry. Happy. Sad. Bored. Excited. Confused. Scared. Contemplative. Determined. Focused. Brave. Vulnerable. Proud. Disappointed… and many many more. We know how to read these. Emotional intelligence guides our reading facial expressions and assuming the way others are feeling. We read this emotion and perhaps even feel the same as a subject.

Incorporating facial expressions into image compositions is a sure-fire way to make them filled with emotion. Look again at the pictures at the beginning of this post.

Situational and historical knowledge

Exceptional images stand out even without knowing the historical context. However knowing it, helps.

Look at the famous image of Tank Man from Tiananmen Square. Without knowing the context of what was going on in China that day, we can read courage, power, anger, disapproval, protest. However, did you know several others did the same thing on the very same day? They’ve not been filmed though. Or did you know the Tank Man has even climbed atop one of the tanks and discussed with the tank commander? Or that eventually he was dragged away by two unknown men to never be heard of again? Or that there are more versions of the same moment, shot by different photographers? This changes the perspective of a single image, doesn’t it?