Sequencing photographs

In trying to understand what makes a good photo story, I knew that sooner or later I would have to look at sequencing photographs. Let’s say you have 20 photos: how should you arrange them to have the most impact?

Most photobooks either present two images at once (one image on the left spread and one image on the right spread) or one image at a time (usually on the right spread). In either case, the photographer has to work out how to sequence the pictures.

This is an example of the reinforce principle. If you just saw the image on the left, you might think about frogs, ponds, or Spring. But when it’s combined with the statue on the right, the Reinforce principle means you immediately think of eyes, or being stared at.

An obvious way of dealing with this is to sequence the images chronologically. This may work for some documentary photo stories, but it won’t work for all of them, for example where the story is thematic in nature, or if the images are a collection of unrelated images in a portfolio.

Here’s an example of the catalyse principle (not especially subtle I agree).

As I mulled over this idea, I came to the realisation that there are three general principles to follow when pairing images. You can combine images to reinforce, contrast and/or catalyse.

• Reinforce: One way of pairing photographs is to reinforce a concept. It’s like using a highlighter pen to direct the viewer’s attention to something common in both images.
• Contrast: Whereas Reinforcement is about emphasising similarity, contrast is about emphasing differences.
• Catalyse. The Reinforce and Contrast principles are additive in their effect. With the Catalyse principle, you create a third emotion, feeling or idea that was never part of the original two images. It’s like 1+1=3.

I decided to pair up some of my photographs to explore this idea.

These two images reinforce the notion of time.

At first glance this looks like a single image, but it is two images taken on separate days under similar lighting. It uses both reinforcement (the light and shadow) and contrast (human v bottle).

The image on the left is smoke from a joss stick. The bokeh on the right is from a canal near Birmingham. I think this is both contrast and reinforcement.

A dripping tap and a detail from Birmingham International Railway Station.

A lens hood and a view through the Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin. This reinforces the circular graphic form but there’s also a ‘catalyse’ thing going on here as your mind wonders if this is like a cut scene in a movie (‘Here’s the photographer and here’s what he is photographing’).

The Jurassic Coast and a shadow on my drive. Both contrast and reinforcement are at play here.

The coast near Brisbane, Australia and the view through my window on a wet evening in Winter.

The one pound coins contrast with an out of focus shot of the Millenium Bridge in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The Millenium Bridge in Newcastle and the incoming tide in Langland Bay, near Swansea.

A bird in my garden combined with the dancer Heather Young that I photographed in the University Library in Lincoln.

This looks like one image but it’s two. The one on the left was taken in Carnaby Street, London and the one on the right was taken in Singapore. I didn’t try to make the join seamless, it just turned out that way.

The line of the Selfridges building in Birmingham echoes the line of rocks in Llandwyn Island, Anglesey. I think this is an example of contrast (urban versus rural), reinforcement (line) and catalyse.

I tend not to take many vertical shots these days, so apologies if you needed to scroll to get this one.

Smoke from a steam train at Cheddleton Railway and a still life with pipe.

These two images are deliberately offset. I think this is one way to use the ‘Catalyse’ principle, as if the different images are bleeding one into the other.

This is photo story 22/52. More details about this project.

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