What are the "rules" of photographic story-telling?

[TheLostPhotographer]

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4) You gotta have context ... photos of faces, while very interesting ... won't tell the story without context. Photo journalism needs to convey/tell the five W's - Who, What, Where, When and Why. Without the W's you don't have a journalistic story.

Gary

Nice post. Finally we have some 'rules'/traditional guidelines. This is turning into an interesting thread.


I stumbled upon a photograph on the web yesterday evening that told a huge story in a single shot. Here's a link: http://www.stambaughfamily.com/bitterroot.html

A photograph with very little written information that creates the story of the event (and possibly leaves us asking 'what happened next' type questions). It made me wonder how often stories are written around a photograph (or, the photographs) rather than photographs used to illustrate a preconceived story, or writer and photographer working together in real time.

I think this photograph works because it manages to capture everything that matters in the context of the event. In a single image it simply 'tells the whole story'. Great photograph even if it depicts a potentially tragic natural disaster.