Mobile Photo Essays – Some Great Tips!
I have detailed below some excellent tips to create your own Mobile Photo Essays. I’ve also added a few links to some excellent favorite essays of my own.
Go here to read our Structuring Tips
Wonderful example photo essay links:
NYTimes
MotherJones
Magnumphotos
Time Lightbox
Photo Essay Tips – Signature Photo
A photo that summarizes the entire issue and illustrates essential elements of the story. This might be a photo of woman — maybe your main character — as with the example above and the link here to the complete photo Essay.
Establishing or Overall Shot
A wide-angle shot to establish the scene.The idea of the establishing shot is this: When you do a photo story you are taking your viewers on a journey. You need to give them a sense of where they are going, an image that allows them to understand the rest of the story in context.
Close-Up
A detail shot to highlight a specific element of the story. Close-up, sometimes called detail shots, don’t carry a lot of narrative. Meaning, they often don’t do a lot to inform the viewer on a literal level but they do a great deal to dramatize a story.
Portrait
This can be either a tight head shot or a more environment portrait in a context relevant to the story. As mentioned above, photo essays are built around characters. You need to have good portrait that introduces the viewers to the character.
Interaction
Focuses on the subject in a group during an activity. Images of your character interacting with others — all helps give a human dimension to your character.
How-To Sequence
This is photo or group of photos that offer a how-to about some specific element of the story or process.
The Clincher
A photo that can be used to close the story, one that says “the end.”
Please help us…
TheAppWhisperer has always had a dual mission: to promote the most talented mobile artists of the day and to support ambitious, inquisitive viewers the world over.
As the years pass TheAppWhisperer has gained readers and viewers and found new venues for that exchange. All this work thrives with the support of our community.
Please consider making a donation to TheAppWhisperer as this New Year commences because your support helps protect our independence and it means we can keep delivering the promotion of mobile artists that’s open for everyone around the world.
Every contribution, however big or small, is so valuable for our future.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter is a British photography journalist, editor, curator, and the founder of *TheAppWhisperer.com*, one of the world’s leading platforms dedicated to mobile photography and art. Since its launch in 2009, TheAppWhisperer has become an international hub for artists of all levels to discover, learn, exhibit, and engage with contemporary photographic practice.Built on principles of inclusivity, accessibility, and artistic excellence, Joanne has spent almost two decades championing mobile photography as a serious artistic medium. Through interviews, critical essays, exhibitions, competitions, and education, she has helped shape and document the evolution of mobile art on a global scale.Her work has taken her internationally, lecturing on photography and mobile art at institutions and events including the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea, alongside appearances in the UK and Europe. She has served as a juror for international photography and mobile art awards across Portugal, Canada, the United States, South Korea, Italy, and the UK.Joanne is also the founder of *TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com*, one of the first online galleries dedicated exclusively to collectible mobile art, connecting artists with collectors across Europe, the United States, and Asia.Before founding TheAppWhisperer, Joanne worked extensively in print journalism and photographic publishing, including roles at a paparazzi photo agency and as deputy editor of a leading photography magazine. Her freelance journalism, criticism, and commentary have been published widely in both the UK and the US, with bylines in *The Times*, *The Sunday Times*, *The Guardian*, *Popular Photography*, *NikonPro*, *DPReview*, *Which?*, *Vogue Italia*, *LensCulture*, the *BBC*, and more recently, the *Financial Times*, where her published letters on photography continue to contribute to wider conversations around the medium.Alongside her editorial and curatorial work, Joanne’s own photographic practice has been exhibited internationally across the UK, Europe, South Korea, and the United States. Her work increasingly explores themes of grief, loss, death, memory, and the body.Her current research interests centre on grief, death, and poverty, with forthcoming postgraduate study leading towards doctoral research in these areas.Joanne is currently developing new long-form writing and photographic projects and is available for commissions, editorial projects, speaking engagements, and collaborations.Contact: joannetheappwhisperer@gmail.com)
