Relationship In Photography: Telling Better Stories In Our Images

Something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is the idea of relationship in photography and how creating interesting relationships in our images helps us not only tell better stories, but create better images.

In acting class, the teacher will often ask the actor, “What is your relationship to the other character in this scene?” This is of course an important question, as it forces the actor to consider how he is interacting with the other character. If the character is in a scene talking to his sister as though he is in love with her, that certainly affects the story being portrayed to the audience, now doesn’t it?

Similarly, I have found this idea of relationship to be important to photography; It is often the difference between an image that is merely pretty and one that is truly compelling. In my opinion, anyone can learn to take a photo that is aesthetically pleasing, but it takes good storytelling skills to create images that are engaging to its viewers.

But how then does one convey a story in a medium without dialogue or motion and with only a single shot to do it? One of the ways we imply story through photos is through the use of relationship. Here are a couple of the main ways we can create relationship in our photos:

Relationship to Others:
This might be the most obvious one to come to mind. Putting more than one person in frame interacting with one each other immediately implies some sort of a relationship, and thus makes the image much more interesting. We see this often in couple portraits or in documentary images where people are interacting with each other on the street. A few less obvious uses of this type of relationship, could be a relationship to animals, or in the case of a self-portrait artist like me, relationship to multiple selves repeated within the shot. In my shot, Duality, the relationship of these two selves implies a story about the different sides of my personality:

Relationship to Surroundings:
Another relationship that helps tell an interesting story is the relationship of a person to his or her environment. It can be as simple as a wall that they are touching, or as expansive as a field. What’s most important here is how they relate to their surroundings and what emotion or story it conveys. In the case of my image, An Unforeseen Calling, it is not the sun shining through the clouds, nor the wind tossing the character’s hair that makes it interesting (although they do add to the aesthetic quality of the image). It is the relationship of the character to the sun which seemingly beckons her forward that makes this image interesting in terms of story.

Relationship to an Object/Prop:
The relationship of a person to a prop- be it a book, a mask, a television, or even something less obvious like a piece of fabric used in a creative way can be a great way to tell a story and make an image more compelling. This inspires a lot of creativity, because a person can have any number of different relationships to a single inanimate object- there are literally countless ways to interact with them.
In this recent image, The Death of Innocence, the characters relationship to the mummy implies a plethora of possible backstories stories to the viewer:

Or in the case of the image IF, my relationship to a simple thread creates a conflict for the because I am trapped by it.

Relationship to Self:
This type of relationship is a bit more abstract but it is used often in emotive portraits, especially self-portraits. The relationship here is more inward, and by the gesture or expression of the person we are drawn into the internal emotions being conveyed. In the image ‘My Passion Has No Voice,’ we see a women filled with regret and longing, and we are pulled into her inner conflict.

And last but not least…

Relationship to Camera:
This is a relationship I often see used in more straight-forward portraits. The person looks directly at the camera which could be boring and lifeless, and yet in certain photographs it is quite compelling because the expression implies a relationship to the camera. I would put the Mona Lisa in this category as well as a lot of great documentary photography I’ve seen, especially this very famous one.

All these kinds of relationships help tell a better photographic story and make our images more captivating to the viewer. For those not interested in photographing people or telling stories, this idea might not apply, but I have found it to be very useful in my own photography, especially in self-portraits, where there is usually no one else to interact with, so I am forced come up with new and exciting types of relationships to convey. So next time you’re wondering how to make a more interesting photo, consider what type of relationship within the photo you are trying to convey. I find very often the images that don’t work for me conceptually are ones where I haven’t established a good relationship to anything in the photo. Props and people are a boundless source of inspiration for relationship because there are so many ways you can interact with them. If you are lacking inspiration, you can always try changing your relationship in the photo or using a different kind of relationship, as described above.

Hope this article was helpful, and happy shooting!
xo