The Photographers Story

The Photographers Story - Michael Freeman 

Having purchased a number of Michael Freeman's books for this course, which have included the three books, the photographers eye, mind and vision, I have found them a great source of reference. Not a great surprise seeing that he was the author of this course.

The Photographers Story is a great addition to my library of Freeman books and like all his books has been essential reading to back up the course notes. 

Throughout the book he uses examples of his own photographic stories that he has completed over a number years to illustrate how to plan and shoot narratives.   

Photograph - W. Eugene Smith 1948

One of the narratives explained in the book was 'The Country Doctor' by W. Eugene Smith and was featured in Life magazine in 1948. This photo narrative has been credited as the first photo story of the modern photojournalism age. Smith is also considered by most to have perfected this art form. 

The photo essay followed the work of a Dr Ernest Ceriani in the small Colorado town of Kremmling. Smith spent 23 days shadowing Dr Ceriani, capturing the drama in everyday events in the small town.  His powerful images capture the detail the emotional and physical challenges faced by this hard working rural doctor.  

http://life.time.com/history/life-classic-eugene-smiths-country-doctor/#1

Here is a link to the 'Life' magazine website where you can find more details on this ground breaking photo essay. 

The book then goes into different categories of photo stories such as people, location and commodity stories and explains how to organise such stories. 

In essence this is not a book on how to take a photograph, but on how to take a series of photographs to tell a story. An invaluable book if you are on this course, and even if you are not, but a keen photographer, its still a great book to add to your collection.