 Picture if you will the UK in the late 1970s and a very young impressionable Alex has been given his very first camera. Into these very hands was placed a Spider-Man toy camera but you know what it took film it it made real photographs so you know it's it's a real camera and I did what every one of us has done the very first time that we picked up a camera is that we photographed the things that interested in us that Andrew standing in front of my parents front door doing silly shapes and what have you fair game the apple trees in the back garden the Star Wars toys all of these things were photographed for the simple pleasure of just photographing the the things that amused me as a child I didn't give any thought about composition or lighting or any of the stuff that would come later on it was simply just that process of there's a thing that interests me take a picture end up with a print yeah job done it was only later on one side got into grips with the technical side of photography that the the specter of does this photograph have meaning started to loom it loom large you know but are we being told through reading many books about you know photography and how to improve as photographers that photographs should have stories they should have some sort of hidden depth and hidden meaning for the viewer to one pick and in certain circle that's that's probably true certainly documentary photography or if you're photographing with the express intent of trying to create an emotion then sure these things matter but for you know for you if you just want to take photographs for the sheer pleasure of taking photographs are your images somehow lacking simply because they fall into the realms of I didn't think much more about this photograph then simply I liked what I saw and I just photographed and it's as simple as that if you've been involved in competition photography or camera clubs or anything like that at some point no doubt you have come across these these gatekeepers if you want to call it that who guard the great mysteries of photography and and throw out little little baubles for us to play with from time to time and they will quite often say to you is what what is the meaning in this photograph I'm not really getting the meaning what's your intent what's your purpose with this photo that you know the idea within their minds is if there is no meaning no intent that you just created it without adding any of these elements that somehow then it's deficient that god forbid you should create something just because it looks pretty that's and that was probably you know certainly for me when I was younger one of the most damning pieces of praise you could ever get you know why would I create pictures that are pretty and of course now that we are sort of becoming more you know so more mature as photographer certainly I'm becoming more mature as a photographer I am less inclined to try and shoehorn story and meaning into my photographs where there really isn't any to be had so that leaves us with two options either we are going to photograph with the intent of having story in our images or we're just going to go well I don't really want any stories and stuff so how do we how do we go about achieving those two goals and because it's probably useful at this juncture always is to look at some photography and I you know this is why we're here we love photography and let's look at story first there are two photographers whose images jump to mind immediately whenever I think of story or narrative in a photographer who's not working in in documentary circles and the first guy is Dwayne Michaels his photo stories his little essays his little comics if you want to call them that something like that they are fantastic and the very first time that I saw one of these images it lingered just me not because of the story not because of the the the narrative that was building up throughout his photography but from a from a technical point of view I was like well how how does he do this kind of cyclical nature of these photographs it is a wonderful thing to look at his photography and think you know certainly in regards to how is this planned out in his head because obviously he's gone off and photographed this with purpose with intent it is not just the result of of random photographs and and he's quite happy also to use the you know use words use words that go beyond just simply a title you've no doubt seen these kind of titles at some point in sort of print judging competition or something that you know here's a picture of of you know child with a bear and it's it's oh the boy's best friend or you know that sort of kind of odd thing I never understood titling photographs but Dwayne is bringing into his photography a story not just visually but also with text and and I think that's kind of it's fairly on the nose you know if you want to talk about story in photography that here is Dwayne Michaels giving you a visual story and they're sort of telling you much of what's about it but that's that's fine if you don't overdo it so if you want to include text and stories with your images don't feel that just because you worry a photographer that you only have to have just images and that you cannot have have text you can certainly do do both the second photographer who is into storytelling and has a very strong idea of of narrative and lots of depth in his photography is Erwin Olaf and his photographs are unlike Dwayne Michaels they're not really a series they have a bit of a theme but individually they stand alone there's nothing else to suggest a story beyond the confines of the frame so we are left as viewers to kind of look at it and go wow you know what is going on here and he's planting little ideas for our minds to seize upon and work through and it is a great idea or a great example rather of how photographs can have many elements within them that can draw upon us as a viewer in a way that we are is so open to interpretation that all of us would look at Erwin Olaf's photographs and see different things there's a feature you know there's a clown that features quite often in a lot of his photography and you know the way that you interpret the figure of a clown is going to change the way that you think about the photograph now one of the problems with both of Erwin Olaf and Dwayne Michaels is that they are open to interpretation and we can get a little bit serious about the images we can go well it's all about this and it's all about that and and we we gravitate into the strokey beard world of of of sort of naval gazing and ending up with books and books and books he says trying to pull them all out like this they're all talking about how you interpret a photograph and it's like do we really need a pile of books like this to tell us how to interpret photographs it's wonderful to hear so many stories from photographers like yourself from all around the world and if you are new here just you know drop us a high in the comments below let us let us know where you are watching these videos from if you read all of those would you get any lesser or more enjoyment from Dwayne Michaels or Erwin Olaf I don't know it's I it's certainly not really changed the way that I enjoy those kind of photographers and and the messages I don't feel that I am getting any more from the images because I've read Zontag it doesn't really make a difference so it's kind of up to you so those stories those images that have stories and and if you want to create images that have story then just say that it's got a story you know ultimately the story that you want it to have is not going to be read by anybody else because everyone else is going to interpret your photographs differently boom there we go right so that noise just is in and out done and dusted it has no purpose beyond just simply you know a little loud shop noise but it's still music after a fashion and photography is very much like that that you know we have images that have gravitas and that meaning in that story that we've just been talking about but also they're on the flip side of that coin these photographs that fall into this lollipop sort of idea so these are photographs that really don't have much of an impact on us much like that snap of my clap of my hands is now faded from me it's not it hasn't these photographs too they they we see them and we go oh that's nice and it moves on and in certain circles people will give you a hard time about this they will say that oh no you know photography if you want to be a proper photographer with a capital P your photographs need to have some sort of purpose they need to have an intent that goes beyond I just quite liked this photograph and I'm sure we've all met people who think that way from time to time but much like from time to time I like to go out to a fancy restaurant and eat fancy food I also like to eat lollipops or suckers depending on where you are in the world and there's nothing wrong with that and to illustrate this I'm going to share as a rare treat some of my own photography which regular viewers of the channel will know I don't really share my photography because it's it's it's personal and it's it's for me but in this case this is a great example because these photographs are not created for any intent or purpose beyond I like the thing that I saw the thing that I saw in front of me I wanted to see what it's how would look on on on film for want of a better word and and so that's kind of their their their whole reason for being is that I just wanted to photograph that thing in front of me and that's and nothing more than that there's no hidden meanings in them there's no there's no depth I wasn't thinking of story I wasn't thinking of of you know hidden layers of meaning they're just photographs that that scene intrigued me for whatever reason and and I photographed it now of course that does mean that you know that there was an intent behind them and don't don't you know don't confuse intent with with story because the two are very different things there is so much photography that doesn't have story specifically in you know in it certainly people like Dwayne Marcus and Erwin Olaf there's a lot of story in there and and portrait I believe has story as well but beyond that there are you know people like you people who take photographs of musicians you know live performances there isn't really a story they're trying we you know we weave in some sort of narrative into them they're just you know photographing the things that are in front of them you know you know sports photographers they are also they're not really creating anything that's beyond the the the the action that's happening in front of them and interpreting that in an artistic sort of way they're not building story on it so don't feel absolutely do not feel that you are required to constantly put narrative to put story throughout all your photographs don't get hung up on this idea that you have to have these things because it stops you being creative you should be having fun with your photography and it's something that I'd like to you know touch on in other videos is is we so easily lose sight of the fact that the thing that drew us that that spider camera that was exciting that was fun was just that it was exciting and fun and I was seeing the world in a way that was new and and I wasn't worried about compositions and all the things that we let our our minds get wrapped up in so much when we take photographs we should be just doing it for you know just because we like the thing in front of us it doesn't matter what other people think about it doesn't matter if if somebody says well there's there's no meaning to your photography it doesn't it makes no difference just do your own thing I'm going to issue a challenge that's it so yes you you there right I'm going to give you a challenge is for the next few weeks whenever you got taking photographs try and not worry about stories try not worry about meaning try and be more reactive in your photographs just respond to the things that interest you that intrigue you go out take photographs take them for that sheer pleasure of just seeing the world represented in in in whatever format that you choose use film or digital doesn't really matter just experience the world without trying to make it more than it is just just relax for a minute in your photography if you like doing stories that's that's cool right but just relax let's just just just lean back let's just chill and put our feet up and and just just have fun just just be be present in in the moment and just you know put all the academic stuff to one side put all the the theory and the and trying to be a better photographer you know just just yeah just hang it up for a minute right and just go off and just have fun man you know I'm guilty of being strokey beard I've you know I'm also there so let's remember let's just let's take up that challenge let's try and just have a bit more fun with our photography and if you're struggling to kind of get into the concept of fun and how it all comes together I put a video together that I'm going to link to right here that talks about the idea of putting fun back into images