“How A Picture Can Tell a Story”

A story can be told to you not just by words, but by pictures. Pictures can tell you a great deal. They can convey emotion, ideas, the mood and important messages all of which are very significant elements in story telling. Even if photographs do not reveal everything, they still capture moments and that is the reason that people become so fond of photography.

In the book The Power of Photography by Edward Burtynsky and the documentary Manufactured Landscapes there is allot of important and meaningful images. Edward Burtynsky uses his pictures to tell reveal the manufacturing industry in China. He has taken a series of photographs and each one enhances the ideas that he is trying to express. I think Burtynsky is trying to show the effect that the manufacturing industry is having on the workers. The conditions show that their environment is very orderly, precise, crowded and routine. In the documentary it is shown the skill that the workers needs is the ability to work quickly, with focus and to endure long hours for little pay. At one point, workers are seen handling and sorting disposed material. They are wearing masks, but it looks like a situation that could be hazardous to their health. Workers are treated poorly and are spoken to with little respect. One group that had a poor production over a certain time period was being criticized and berated by their group leader. He did not talk to them in a way that would motivate, but more like he was trying to frighten them into working harder and faster. The mood of the photographs and the documentary are that the workforce is not treated much differently than soldiers in the military. The workers are in uniform and everyone looks the similar. There is no place for personal expression.

Burtynsky's photographs were effective. I believe that they showed the conditions that the workers experience. The collection of photographs was complete enough to show that the situation was happening in many places in China, not just in one or two isolated factories. Not only did he reveal the working conditions and the toll that is being taken on the Chinese workers, he showed the environmental impact that the manufacturing industry is having on China. Huge amounts of waste and garbage are being created.

I chose the photograph below as an example of another work that brings out similar ideas and emotions relating to the manufacturing industry. Although no individual workers are part of this image, it shows the human costs of manufacturing. Industry is polluting the environment and it shows that working in this kind of environment may cause health issues. It is a powerful photograph because of the way the lighting enhances the image.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12936340@N06/3486289605/in/photostream/

Photographs like Edward Burtynsky's tell a visual story that can even be more informative than a written one. They help us to understand what other people are experiencing and feeling. I mean as the saying goes "A picture is worth a thousand words"