Creating a photo essay or picture is a group of related photographs organized to tell the story of an event or to give a detailed account of a personality, a place or an aspect of contemporary life. The photographic sequence is often accompanied by information or commentary in written form. Some photo essays include no words except the headline or title and perhaps a word or two to accompany each picture. Others provide information in a brief paragraph or two or in a series of connected longer captions. In all these cases, the pictures carry the main information. The words only support the message of the picture. In another form of picture story, words and photos are of equal importance. Here a connected sequence of picture is embedded in a text. All picture stories begin with an idea and every element in the story should support that idea. The idea of a picture story can be stated in a sentence. Like the topic sentence, the picture story idea statement should give the topic and make a comment on it. Look at these two examples:
This is Centerville
Centerville’s rapid growth is creating safety hazards
The first sentence makes no comment about Centerville. It does not present an idea for the photo essay to illustrate.
Like a written composition, a photo essay needs to be organized so that it tells a story or explains or proves an idea effectively. The first step in organizing an essay is to choose the pictures that best illustrate the most important points about your idea that you wish to make
