Visual Literacy

Photographing food was far from my mind when I first picked up my camera. The night sky, my mother’s flower garden, and the lush green hills of my home called me. I would set up my tripod in the middle of the night at -17 F (yes -17 F!) in December when the air was so cold, that your warm breath immediately crystalized in the air. I set a timer anywhere from 15 - 30 minutes to capture the star trails in the inky, velvet wintery sky. Maybe it was the surprise and delight of seeing the star trails in my camera or the rush of it feeling like an adventure with just me and the night sky. I was hooked and even took a local class at my community center on night photography. But what does this all have to do with visual storytelling?

I think we wildly underestimate how different genres of photography can teach us so much. Maybe you say you’re a food photographer. That’s all well and good but there is much to learn from at least dabbling in other genres of photography too. Those frigid nights when I couldn’t feel my hands made me appreciate the value of patience and the process of taking or rather creating a photo. It wasn’t as simple as just clicking the shutter button. There were so many other things to consider that all had to come together in harmony to create the image I wanted. The more I’ve grown in my work, I’ve appreciated the different skills and disciplines within different genres. What’s more, is the importance of visual literacy and learning how to use the visual elements of composition, color, lines, shapes, etc to tell your story. We can learn so much from different styles from our own. Exposing yourself to all sorts of different styles of photography builds a creative foundation and helps you carve away at your own style. Having visual literacy helps you understand and analyze different techniques, styles, and cultural, or aesthetic components that you wouldn’t otherwise be familiar with.

My mother is an artist and most of our family holidays were in Europe which always included a portrait gallery or museum of some sort with works of art like Musée D’Orsay and the Louve in Paris. She would pause in front of a painting that wasn’t particularly her style, take a moody Rembrandt, and say there was always something to take away and learn from different styles of styles. How they use light or how they compose the painting, and how they use color. For example, I never was into street photography, but now I’m watching various street photographers’ YouTube channels because I find it so interesting how they are so spontaneous and observant. It’s made me see things differently. It’s made me reconsider how I use these visual elements in my own work. If we don’t expand our horizons and appreciate these visual elements across all genres, we live in our own bubble. It’s like never leaving your neighborhood to travel to the other side of the state or country. Your world is just your world as you see it. There are so many ways to experience a place, just like there are thousands of ways to capture a scene. We widen our creative world when we explore and stretch ourselves to learn from others who may do something a little bit differently than us.

When you boil it down, visual literacy is the universal language spoken in photography which is composition, shapes, lines, colors, and textures. It’s a universal visual language used to communicate and influence the viewer. While you may not appreciate abstract black-and-white photography, you can see how the image “works” by considering the fundamental elements of composition and shapes. By exposing ourselves to a variety of different photography, we can train our eyes to tune to visual elements like lines, shapes, forms, color, texture, negative space, and patterns. This brings us back to seeking out photography that is different than ours because within it we can appreciate its use of these different visual elements. Visual language is universal across all genres and styles. So the more you expose yourself to different styles, the more you will be able to tell the story you want to share in your own unique way knowing how to use these essential elements. By exposing yourself to different photographers, you can learn how they used these elements of visual language to create the photo they wanted or tell a story. You can learn so much from the deliberate choices they make in how they lit or composed the subject. In the end, visual literacy is an understanding of how visual media works to influence the viewer and be able to interpret what a photograph means, and also how to make creative and technical choices on how to tell the story we want to tell from our perspective. The more visually literate you are, the more you can use these components to your advantage to create the photo you want, evoke a specific feeling, or tell a tale. When you are visually literate you can decipher how to choose which color tones are better for your scene or what composition or angle would be best to evoke the emotion you want. So by studying other types of photography, you can learn how to use these visual tools best. Do you know what the best angle would be for creating a dramatic, powerful feel? That is visual literacy. What colors and composition would evoke a sense of nostalgia and peace? That is visual literacy. Knowing how to achieve the feel or look you want to tell in your story. That’s why I think its essential to expose ourselves to all sorts of photography to deepen our understanding of how best to use these components. Maybe I’m wrong and some would say just stick to what you know and surround yourself with those similar tastes and styles, but personally, I think there is so much we can learn from how others use these fundamental components of visual storytelling.