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How to Create an Engaging Photo Essay (with Examples)

Photo essays tell a story in pictures. They're a great way to improve at photography and story-telling skills at once. Learn how to do create a great one.

Learn | Photography Guides | By Ana Mireles

Photography is a medium used to tell stories – sometimes they are told in one picture, sometimes you need a whole series. Those series can be photo essays.

If you’ve never done a photo essay before, or you’re simply struggling to find your next project, this article will be of help. I’ll be showing you what a photo essay is and how to go about doing one.

You’ll also find plenty of photo essay ideas and some famous photo essay examples from recent times that will serve you as inspiration.

If you’re ready to get started, let’s jump right in!

Table of Contents

What is a Photo Essay?

A photo essay is a series of images that share an overarching theme as well as a visual and technical coherence to tell a story. Some people refer to a photo essay as a photo series or a photo story – this often happens in photography competitions.

Photographic history is full of famous photo essays. Think about The Great Depression by Dorothea Lange, Like Brother Like Sister by Wolfgang Tillmans, Gandhi’s funeral by Henri Cartier Bresson, amongst others.

What are the types of photo essay?

Despite popular belief, the type of photo essay doesn’t depend on the type of photography that you do – in other words, journalism, documentary, fine art, or any other photographic genre is not a type of photo essay.

Instead, there are two main types of photo essays: narrative and thematic .

As you have probably already guessed, the thematic one presents images pulled together by a topic – for example, global warming. The images can be about animals and nature as well as natural disasters devastating cities. They can happen all over the world or in the same location, and they can be captured in different moments in time – there’s a lot of flexibility.

A narrative photo essa y, on the other hand, tells the story of a character (human or not), portraying a place or an event. For example, a narrative photo essay on coffee would document the process from the planting and harvesting – to the roasting and grinding until it reaches your morning cup.

What are some of the key elements of a photo essay?

  • Tell a unique story – A unique story doesn’t mean that you have to photograph something that nobody has done before – that would be almost impossible! It means that you should consider what you’re bringing to the table on a particular topic.
  • Put yourself into the work – One of the best ways to make a compelling photo essay is by adding your point of view, which can only be done with your life experiences and the way you see the world.
  • Add depth to the concept – The best photo essays are the ones that go past the obvious and dig deeper in the story, going behind the scenes, or examining a day in the life of the subject matter – that’s what pulls in the spectator.
  • Nail the technique – Even if the concept and the story are the most important part of a photo essay, it won’t have the same success if it’s poorly executed.
  • Build a structure – A photo essay is about telling a thought-provoking story – so, think about it in a narrative way. Which images are going to introduce the topic? Which ones represent a climax? How is it going to end – how do you want the viewer to feel after seeing your photo series?
  • Make strong choices – If you really want to convey an emotion and a unique point of view, you’re going to need to make some hard decisions. Which light are you using? Which lens? How many images will there be in the series? etc., and most importantly for a great photo essay is the why behind those choices.

9 Tips for Creating a Photo Essay

belief photo essay

Credit: Laura James

1. Choose something you know

To make a good photo essay, you don’t need to travel to an exotic location or document a civil war – I mean, it’s great if you can, but you can start close to home.

Depending on the type of photography you do and the topic you’re looking for in your photographic essay, you can photograph a local event or visit an abandoned building outside your town.

It will be much easier for you to find a unique perspective and tell a better story if you’re already familiar with the subject. Also, consider that you might have to return a few times to the same location to get all the photos you need.

2. Follow your passion

Most photo essays take dedication and passion. If you choose a subject that might be easy, but you’re not really into it – the results won’t be as exciting. Taking photos will always be easier and more fun if you’re covering something you’re passionate about.

3. Take your time

A great photo essay is not done in a few hours. You need to put in the time to research it, conceptualizing it, editing, etc. That’s why I previously recommended following your passion because it takes a lot of dedication, and if you’re not passionate about it – it’s difficult to push through.

4. Write a summary or statement

Photo essays are always accompanied by some text. You can do this in the form of an introduction, write captions for each photo or write it as a conclusion. That’s up to you and how you want to present the work.

5. Learn from the masters

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Making a photographic essay takes a lot of practice and knowledge. A great way to become a better photographer and improve your storytelling skills is by studying the work of others. You can go to art shows, review books and magazines and look at the winners in photo contests – most of the time, there’s a category for photo series.

6. Get a wide variety of photos

Think about a story – a literary one. It usually tells you where the story is happening, who is the main character, and it gives you a few details to make you engage with it, right?

The same thing happens with a visual story in a photo essay – you can do some wide-angle shots to establish the scenes and some close-ups to show the details. Make a shot list to ensure you cover all the different angles.

Some of your pictures should guide the viewer in, while others are more climatic and regard the experience they are taking out of your photos.

7. Follow a consistent look

Both in style and aesthetics, all the images in your series need to be coherent. You can achieve this in different ways, from the choice of lighting, the mood, the post-processing, etc.

8. Be self-critical

Once you have all the photos, make sure you edit them with a good dose of self-criticism. Not all the pictures that you took belong in the photo essay. Choose only the best ones and make sure they tell the full story.

9. Ask for constructive feedback

Often, when we’re working on a photo essay project for a long time, everything makes perfect sense in our heads. However, someone outside the project might not be getting the idea. It’s important that you get honest and constructive criticism to improve your photography.

How to Create a Photo Essay in 5 Steps

belief photo essay

Credit: Quang Nguyen Vinh

1. Choose your topic

This is the first step that you need to take to decide if your photo essay is going to be narrative or thematic. Then, choose what is it going to be about?

Ideally, it should be something that you’re interested in, that you have something to say about it, and it can connect with other people.

2. Research your topic

To tell a good story about something, you need to be familiar with that something. This is especially true when you want to go deeper and make a compelling photo essay. Day in the life photo essays are a popular choice, since often, these can be performed with friends and family, whom you already should know well.

3. Plan your photoshoot

Depending on what you’re photographing, this step can be very different from one project to the next. For a fine art project, you might need to find a location, props, models, a shot list, etc., while a documentary photo essay is about planning the best time to do the photos, what gear to bring with you, finding a local guide, etc.

Every photo essay will need different planning, so before taking pictures, put in the required time to get things right.

4. Experiment

It’s one thing to plan your photo shoot and having a shot list that you have to get, or else the photo essay won’t be complete. It’s another thing to miss out on some amazing photo opportunities that you couldn’t foresee.

So, be prepared but also stay open-minded and experiment with different settings, different perspectives, etc.

5. Make a final selection

Editing your work can be one of the hardest parts of doing a photo essay. Sometimes we can be overly critical, and others, we get attached to bad photos because we put a lot of effort into them or we had a great time doing them.

Try to be as objective as possible, don’t be afraid to ask for opinions and make various revisions before settling down on a final cut.

7 Photo Essay Topics, Ideas & Examples

belief photo essay

Credit: Michelle Leman

  • Architectural photo essay

Using architecture as your main subject, there are tons of photo essay ideas that you can do. For some inspiration, you can check out the work of Francisco Marin – who was trained as an architect and then turned to photography to “explore a different way to perceive things”.

You can also lookup Luisa Lambri. Amongst her series, you’ll find many photo essay examples in which architecture is the subject she uses to explore the relationship between photography and space.

  • Process and transformation photo essay

This is one of the best photo essay topics for beginners because the story tells itself. Pick something that has a beginning and an end, for example, pregnancy, the metamorphosis of a butterfly, the life-cycle of a plant, etc.

Keep in mind that these topics are linear and give you an easy way into the narrative flow – however, it might be difficult to find an interesting perspective and a unique point of view.

  • A day in the life of ‘X’ photo essay

There are tons of interesting photo essay ideas in this category – you can follow around a celebrity, a worker, your child, etc. You don’t even have to do it about a human subject – think about doing a photo essay about a day in the life of a racing horse, for example – find something that’s interesting for you.

  • Time passing by photo essay

It can be a natural site or a landmark photo essay – whatever is close to you will work best as you’ll need to come back multiple times to capture time passing by. For example, how this place changes throughout the seasons or maybe even over the years.

A fun option if you live with family is to document a birthday party each year, seeing how the subject changes over time. This can be combined with a transformation essay or sorts, documenting the changes in interpersonal relationships over time.

  • Travel photo essay

Do you want to make the jump from tourist snapshots into a travel photo essay? Research the place you’re going to be travelling to. Then, choose a topic.

If you’re having trouble with how to do this, check out any travel magazine – National Geographic, for example. They won’t do a generic article about Texas – they do an article about the beach life on the Texas Gulf Coast and another one about the diverse flavors of Texas.

The more specific you get, the deeper you can go with the story.

  • Socio-political issues photo essay

This is one of the most popular photo essay examples – it falls under the category of photojournalism or documental photography. They are usually thematic, although it’s also possible to do a narrative one.

Depending on your topic of interest, you can choose topics that involve nature – for example, document the effects of global warming. Another idea is to photograph protests or make an education photo essay.

It doesn’t have to be a big global issue; you can choose something specific to your community – are there too many stray dogs? Make a photo essay about a local animal shelter. The topics are endless.

  • Behind the scenes photo essay

A behind-the-scenes always make for a good photo story – people are curious to know what happens and how everything comes together before a show.

Depending on your own interests, this can be a photo essay about a fashion show, a theatre play, a concert, and so on. You’ll probably need to get some permissions, though, not only to shoot but also to showcase or publish those images.

4 Best Photo Essays in Recent times

Now that you know all the techniques about it, it might be helpful to look at some photo essay examples to see how you can put the concept into practice. Here are some famous photo essays from recent times to give you some inspiration.

Habibi by Antonio Faccilongo

This photo essay wan the World Press Photo Story of the Year in 2021. Faccilongo explores a very big conflict from a very specific and intimate point of view – how the Israeli-Palestinian war affects the families.

He chose to use a square format because it allows him to give order to things and eliminate unnecessary elements in his pictures.

With this long-term photo essay, he wanted to highlight the sense of absence and melancholy women and families feel towards their husbands away at war.

The project then became a book edited by Sarah Leen and the graphics of Ramon Pez.

belief photo essay

Picture This: New Orleans by Mary Ellen Mark

The last assignment before her passing, Mary Ellen Mark travelled to New Orleans to register the city after a decade after Hurricane Katrina.

The images of the project “bring to life the rebirth and resilience of the people at the heart of this tale”, – says CNNMoney, commissioner of the work.

Each survivor of the hurricane has a story, and Mary Ellen Mark was there to record it. Some of them have heartbreaking stories about everything they had to leave behind.

Others have a story of hope – like Sam and Ben, two eight-year-olds born from frozen embryos kept in a hospital that lost power supply during the hurricane, yet they managed to survive.

belief photo essay

Selfie by Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer whose work is mainly done through self-portraits. With them, she explores the concept of identity, gender stereotypes, as well as visual and cultural codes.

One of her latest photo essays was a collaboration with W Magazine entitled Selfie. In it, the author explores the concept of planned candid photos (‘plandid’).

The work was made for Instagram, as the platform is well known for the conflict between the ‘real self’ and the one people present online. Sherman started using Facetune, Perfect365 and YouCam to alter her appearance on selfies – in Photoshop, you can modify everything, but these apps were designed specifically to “make things prettier”- she says, and that’s what she wants to explore in this photo essay.

Tokyo Compression by Michael Wolf

Michael Wolf has an interest in the broad-gauge topic Life in Cities. From there, many photo essays have been derived – amongst them – Tokyo Compression .

He was horrified by the way people in Tokyo are forced to move to the suburbs because of the high prices of the city. Therefore, they are required to make long commutes facing 1,5 hours of train to start their 8+ hour workday followed by another 1,5 hours to get back home.

To portray this way of life, he photographed the people inside the train pressed against the windows looking exhausted, angry or simply absent due to this way of life.

You can visit his website to see other photo essays that revolve around the topic of life in megacities.

Final Words

It’s not easy to make photo essays, so don’t expect to be great at it right from your first project.

Start off small by choosing a specific subject that’s interesting to you –  that will come from an honest place, and it will be a great practice for some bigger projects along the line.

Whether you like to shoot still life or you’re a travel photographer, I hope these photo essay tips and photo essay examples can help you get started and grow in your photography.

Let us know which topics you are working on right now – we’ll love to hear from you!

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Ana Mireles is a Mexican researcher that specializes in photography and communications for the arts and culture sector.

Penelope G. To Ana Mireles Such a well written and helpful article for an writer who wants to inclue photo essay in her memoir. Thank you. I will get to work on this new skill. Penelope G.

Herman Krieger Photo essays in black and white

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Photo Essay: What My Faith Means to Me

BU students, faculty, and staff reflect on the intimate role religion, prayer, and meditation play in their daily life

Cydney scott, bu today staff.

Boston University began as a Methodist seminary, the Newbury Biblical Institute, in Newbury, Vt., in 1839. And since its beginnings in Boston in 1869 as Boston University, it has been open to people of all sexes and all religions, many who carve out time from their daily studies and work to find moments to pray, meditate, and reflect. 

BU photographer Cydney Scott has long wanted to capture the many ways members of the BU community express their faith. 

“One of the great things about being a photographer is that I have the privilege of stepping into aspects of life that are unfamiliar to me,” Scott says. “Religious faith is one of them. Religion and faith give people solace, guidance, and a sense of community, among other things.” 

Last fall BU Today invited members of the BU community to reach out to Scott directly, and within days, she had heard from people who identified as Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Mormon, and more. She photographed almost 20 people in their homes, at work, and out of doors as they practiced their respective faith traditions. The COVID pandemic made it impossible to photograph most of them in their churches, temples, mosques, and other places of worship, so instead, Scott sought to capture each one in ways that reflect how they pray, worship, and integrate their faith into their daily lives. Each participant also wrote a short essay describing what their faith means to them. 

The resulting photos are deeply personal and intimate, speaking to the breadth and diversity of the BU community and the myriad ways people observe and celebrate faith in their lives.

Emily Mantz (Sargent’21,’23), Christian

Emily Manz (SAR’23) says grace over her dinner in her Stuvi2 apartment. A tan young woman with black curly hair bows her head over her clasped hands as she sits at her desk in her dorm room.

“There are many ways that I practice my faith on a daily basis. I try not to keep my faith in a box, and instead try to integrate it into everything I do. I was raised by not one but two pastors, so growing up saying grace before eating has always been a part of my day. During my undergraduate years I was heavily involved with BU’s Inner Strength Gospel Choir. While I’m no longer quite so involved, I still find singing and music to be one of the best ways for me to connect with the Lord. I attend church every Sunday and volunteer at the nursery there as well. Finally, I pray and read my Bible every day, twice a day. This allows me to dig a bit deeper into the teachings of God as well as talk to Him about my day, things I’m struggling with and things (or people) who need to be prayed for.

“To me, my faith is my lifeline. I have probably gone to church every Sunday since the day I was born, and while church itself is a huge part of my life, my personal relationship with Jesus is really what has gotten me through these past five years of college. Whenever I’m struggling, I know I can talk to Him and He will always be there with me. Not to mention the friends He has placed in my life to help me along the way. As Christians, we are really called to live out our faith so that other people can get to know Jesus through us. I try to exude that by upholding values of kindness, forgiveness, and patience in all aspects of my life, no matter how hard it may be.”

Aimee Mein (COM’22), Buddhist

A photo of Aimee Mein (COM’22) meditating in her room. A white woman wearing a dark blue cami and pants sits with legs crossed and hands placed in her lap.

“My faith is the lens through which I see the world. My perspective on life completely shifted after studying Buddhism and incorporating Buddhist practices into my everyday experiences. Every moment has become an opportunity for mindfulness, things that used to cause me anxiety are calmed by a newfound belief system. Even my struggles with mental health have improved. Most importantly, my faith means a sense of peace with the universe and compassion for all beings.”

Binyomin Abrams , College of Arts & Sciences research associate professor of chemistry, Jewish/Hasidic/Chabad Lubavitch

Photo of Rabbi Binyomin Abrams, left, learning the Torah with Rafael Kriger (CAS’22) in his Metcalf Science Center office. A Jewish man with a long beard and wearing a yarmulke sits on the other side of a desk and faces a younger Jewish man also wearing a yarmulke. The Torah sits between them

“I’m Jewish, specifically a Lubavitcher (Chabad) chossid. Jewish faith is synonymous with Jewish practice—doing acts of goodness and kindness (mitzvahs) and working towards refining the world around us. One of the most special and meaningful things that we do is to learn Torah, which brings meaning to my faith through intellectual, spiritual, and practical guidance on how to improve ourselves and transform the world for the better.”

Martha Schick (STH’22), United Church of Christ

Photo of Martha Schick (MDiv’22) lighting a candle in Gordon Chapel. A white woman with short hair wearing a mask lights a candle with a long match in a darkened chapel

“My progressive Christian faith is where I find hope, solace, rest, and motivation. In our world, which is both broken and beautiful, the story of Jesus Christ and the stories of the ancestors of our faith are where I can look to make sense of things. I often come away with more questions than answers, but my church community welcomes my wrestling and makes my faith stronger because of it. In studying to become a pastor, I am both empowered to bring my full self to ministry and humbled to remember that the Holy Spirit is working through me. As a queer woman pursuing ordination, I also know that my very presence in the leadership of a church is a symbol and example of God’s love and calling for all people.”

Muhammad Zaman , College of Engineering professor of biomedical engineering and of materials science and engineering and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, Muslim

Photo of Professor Muhammad Zaman during Zuhr (noon) prayers at the ISBU prayer room in GSU. a man wearing a white mask kneels on an ornate rug with hands in prayer in front of him.

“I am a practicing Muslim and consider my faith as a driver for my work. In particular, the emphasis of Islam on humanity, social justice, welfare, and human dignity has a profound effect on my work to provide equitable access to healthcare among refugees, migrants, stateless persons, and the forcibly displaced all around the world.”

Chloe McLaughlin (STH’22), United Methodist Church

Photo of Chloe McLaughlin standing with hands wide as she stands at a wooden podium in Marsh Chapel.

“Faith has always been a huge part of my life. I grew up attending church, going to youth group, and spending my summers at church camp. At the end of this semester, I will be lucky enough to have two degrees that focus on religion and this faith that is so integral to who I am. In the long run, I think I have always been drawn to faith, specifically Christian faith, because I believe it informs my sincere commitment to justice, equity, and mercy. Over the last three years, as I have worshiped at Marsh Chapel, I have seen kindred commitments in action. The chaplains and staff are genuine, courageous, and willing conversation partners on difficult topics in the church and the world. I have been mentored, encouraged, and challenged by the staff and community at Marsh, and I am so grateful.”

Mich’lene Davis (SSW’25), Christian/Pentecostal

Photo of the Davis family. A Black man reads the bible to his wife and three children, two of which are seated on a sofa beside him

“‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen’ (Hebrews 11:1). The wind blows, no one can see it, but you feel it and know that it is there. We practice a blind faith every single day of our lives without consciously knowing that we are doing it. We have ‘faith’ that the chair we sit in will support our weight and not send us tumbling to the floor in an embarrassing manner. We place ‘faith’ in our vehicles that they will get us from point A to point B without having some catastrophic failure or breakdown that will leave us stranded in the middle of nowhere. As a Christian, my faith is my lifeline, like an umbilical cord to an unborn child. Everything I believe about God and His one and only son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, is what feeds my mind, soul, and spirit. I have faith to believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross via crucifixion, but rose again three days later, and because of this I no longer will have to face an eternal death, but will instead have eternal life with Him in heaven. I have personally benefited from and have witnessed answered prayers that had no natural explanation for how they were answered. My daily life consists of me worshiping and praising Him through the music I listen to and sing. Reading and meditating on His Word (the Bible) helps me to remember to whom I belong and helps me to strive to be a better person each day.”

Caitlyn Wise (Sargent’23), Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Photo of Caitlyn Wise (SAR’23), a young white white woman with long blonde hair, sitting in a chair amidst a circle of chairs all facing the center.

“Faith gives me the confidence to live courageously each day. Through prayer and scripture study, the knowledge and power I receive from my faith allows me to look for ways to serve and learn from those around me. Whether it is me praying for guidance in my studies or me applying principles of kindness and compassion in the BU community, my faith gives me a source of strength in my everyday life.”

Adit Mehta (CAS’22), Jainism

Photo of Adit Mehta, a tan man with black hair and beard, sitting cross-legged and wearing a white top and pants, on the floor in his room. He reads a book using the light from the window.

“I was brought up in a Jain household and always had it around me, but in college, separated from my parents, I’ve explored my faith and consciously made decisions to follow ahimsa (nonviolence), aparigraha (non-possessiveness), and anekantavada (multiplicity of viewpoints), the three As of Jainism. In college I’ve also been able to find a community among members of Jains in Voice and Action , the BU Jain club, and the Young Jains of America . My faith means making active choices to reduce harm to others and the environment. It’s less about praying and more about reflecting on my actions and choices during Samayik, 48 minutes of meditation. My faith makes it possible for me to understand myself and how I affect and can help others.”

Zowie Rico (CAS’23), Lunar Witchcraft

Photo of Zowie Rico (CAS’23), a white woman dressed in orange overalls, as she reads her Tarot and Prism Oracle cards in her Stuvi2 apartment

“My spirituality is something very new for me. I started my journey in July of 2020, during the latter half of quarantine. Before that, I wasn’t really a spiritual person. Now, however, I use my spirituality to guide me through many aspects of my life. It’s a way for me to connect with my inner self and actively work to become one with the energies around me. It’s also helped me with my anxiety, as it’s given me a lot of coping mechanisms to use throughout my life, like grounding and meditation. 

“My spirituality is a part of many aspects of my daily life. It manifests itself in everything from making my smoothie in the mornings to doing affirmations while stirring my coffee to using my intuition for many of my decisions each day. I am so happy that I’ve been able to incorporate my practice into my daily life because it helps center me each day and provides comfort during hard times.”

Jewel Cash, BU Summer Term program manager, Christian

Photo of 7 Black women seated and holding hands around a rectangular dining table with an assortment of food on it

“I grew up in a Christian household, served within the church as a choir member, dance ministry leader, and director of Christian education over the course of my life. My faith has always been an important part of my life. As a child I remember my mother sending me to church by myself to ensure my relationship with God would grow during a season in which she was sick and could not go herself. During college it was important for me to go back to attend youth bible studies so I could understand more about the Bible. As a professional, I remember interviewing at BU, being asked, ‘What do you do to manage stress?’ and surprisingly responding without hesitation ‘Pray. In overwhelming times I may take a deep breath, evaluate the situation, and pray to recenter myself. So if you see me step away to the restroom for a longer time, I may be praying so I can come back ready to tackle the problem as my best self.’ 

“My religious faith means a lot to me. That there is purpose in my being, that I do not walk alone through life, that I have a community of believers who I can fellowship with, that I am to be a positive example to others of what my God calls me to be, and in short, that all that I have is all that I need to be my best self and live life fully and abundantly, for I am blessed and favored in a special way. It means I am not perfect, but as I pray, praise, and push, I am progressing. It means, as the Bible says, I have been given a spirit of power, love, and sound mind, and with these three things I can make a difference in the world and encourage others to do the same.”

Ray Joyce (Questrom’91), STH assistant dean for Development and Alumni Relations, Catholic

Photo of Ray Joyce, a white man with gray hair and black glasses, reading a daily devotional in his West Acton home.

“My faith really means everything to me. It’s how I live through each day, the good and the bad. In the current political climate, I find it’s essential to keep centered. For example, when I hear people who are eligible, but refuse to get the COVID vaccine to protect themselves and others, a part of me wants to say: ‘Then let them die,’ but I know that’s wrong. As it happens, today’s reading in the Bible from 1 Corinthians 3:16 includes the words ‘…and the Spirit of God dwells in you.’ As my daily reflection from Terence Hegarty (editor of Living with Christ) states ‘…not only does the Spirit of God dwell in us , but in everyone …’ So I hold onto that and try to understand where someone might be coming from to reach such a conclusion as to refuse a potentially lifesaving vaccination. I act where I can to help others and our planet while also waiting with anticipation for better days ahead with a renewed sense of hope.”

Mary Choe (CAS’24), Baptist

Photo of Mary Choe (CAS’24), an Asian woman wearing a black mask, as she reads her daily scriptures in a cafe

“Hebrews 11 states: ‘Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.’ For me, faith is not some distant feeling, but a series of beliefs that lead to concrete actions. My beliefs are based on the words of life, light, and love I read in the Bible. Much like life itself, faith is hardly easy or linear. I have times of doubt, because admittedly, it’s difficult to go against the flow of campus life. And since God is invisible, I often get distracted by the instant gratification of the here and now. I’m realizing more and more, however, that even my faith is less about me than about the object of my faith—which is not a concept or an idea, but God embodied in flesh, Jesus Christ. My relationship with Jesus is what makes my faith dynamic, filled with joys and sorrows, highs and lows, times of peace and serenity, along with fears, failures, and more than a little drama. But I take comfort in knowing I’m not on this journey alone. I have a cloud of witnesses walking before me and with me and many more examples of faith who’ve already walked this pilgrim journey. Living by faith is not a loud, showy display, but an assured, hopeful way of being. My hope is that I, too, can finish the journey of faith well and experience victory in Jesus Christ!”

Swati Gupta (SDM’23), Hindu

Photo of Swati Gupta (GSDM’23), a brown woman with neck-length black hair, in her prayer/meditation space in her Boston home. She holds a cup made of copper and has head bowed as multi-colored candles are lit in the space.

“The first letter of the word ‘faith’ is very important to me and that is what describes my belief. For me, ‘f’ stands for flaw. In our sacred book, Bhagwad Geeta , it has been suggested that being human also means being flawed. Lord Krishna says that humans will make mistakes because that is a part of their Karma. A person should not be merely judged by their act, but by the intent behind that act. For example, if a lie is said with an intent of harming someone, it is equivalent to 100 lies, but if that one lie saved an innocent person’s life, then that lie is equivalent to 100 truths. I am not a religious person who goes to the temple every week or worships every day, because religion to me is not an act of worship, but an act of becoming a better person. My faith teaches me to make mistakes, be judgmental, have emotions of anger, but at the same time learn from those mistakes and accept if any wrongdoing was done. Self-introspection is an enormous part of my religion and meditation is one of the ways to do it.”

Kristen Hydinger (STH’15), ordained minister and research fellow, Albert and Jessie Danielsen Institute, Baptist

Photo of Rev. Kristen Hydinger, a white woman with brown hair and wearing a blue jacket, walking down a Boston street. Trees and leaves around her reflect Autumn in their color (yellow)

“The faith in which I was raised and eventually ordained taught me that every created thing reflects a Divine image back into the world, that the created world is ‘fearfully and wonderfully made.’ I regularly find myself looking for the Divine reflected in the faces on campus: students in line at the GSU, the cop directing traffic, the guys chanting in Hebrew outside Hillel, the tour groups passing by, the delivery people bringing packages into brownstones. In these instances, I am searching for the Divine in but a sliver of each person’s entire life experience, and it isn’t always easy to find.”

Kristian C. Kohler (STH’25), ordained minister, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Photo of Kristian, a white man wearing a dark green and black plaid shirt, singing in the Marsh Chapel choir.

“As a Lutheran, faith to me is a bold trust in the amazing grace of God. In short, God is love. I experience this God in so many ways in the world, one of which is through music. Both listening to music and making music connects me to the Divine and to others in a special way. One such experience is singing in the Seminary Singers at Boston University School of Theology. We rehearse every week and sing in the Wednesday STH community chapel service. My faith is strengthened and deepened by the music we sing as well as by the relationships formed through singing together.”

Jonathan Allen (LAW’19), BUild Lab Innovator-in-Residence, Interfaith

Photo of Interfaith leader Jonathan Allen sitting on a long stone bench along the Charles River. The sun can be seen peaking from behind the buildings in the background for a scenic photo.

“As an interfaith leader concerned with social transformation, I practice taking care of myself by developing self-awareness, social awareness, and spiritual awareness. Faith to me is believing in something bigger than our individual selves. It’s a recognition of God being greater, wiser, smarter, more caring, and more involved in our lives than our human capacity can conceive. 

“Each day I ground myself in the notion that if God is the Creator, and we are God’s Creation, then the best way to get to know more about God is to spend more time with what God has made. I believe that we need each other regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, educational level, religious background, or even political party. 

“Irrespective of our religious affirmations, God’s love and heart for justice transcends doctrine. We have an obligation, a collective responsibility, to treat all living things with dignity and respect. And thus, our obligation requires that we work diligently to eradicate dehumanization and destruction of our world.”

Kayla Marks (Pardee’23), Jewish

Photo of Kayla Marks (Pardee’23), a Jewish woman with long brown hair, demonstrating the lighting of one candle and the reciting of a blessing. She holds a lit match as she prepares for the lighting.

“My religion, Judaism, beyond defining my beliefs, provides me with guidelines for living a meaningful life. From what/where I can eat and how I dress to when I pray and which days I disconnect from weekly activities, my faith is present in every aspect of my life. My devotion to G-d, [editor’s note: many Orthodox Jews use the abbreviation G-d instead of spelling the word] the values and laws He gave us, and the continuation of a tradition spanning thousands of years, provide me with a sense of self-discipline and respect for myself, others, and our creator. Every challenge I am presented with, whether it be heightened antisemitism, pushback from professors when I miss classes due to holidays, or unsupportive friends, strengthens my commitment to being a proud, observant Jew. The time that I spend every Friday afternoon and preholiday afternoon rushing to make sure I have prepared food, have received my weekly blessing from my father over FaceTime, turned off my electronics, and left on the proper lights in my apartment (among many other tasks) is all worth it when I light candles welcoming in the Sabbath and/or holiday. A sense of peace takes over me when I am disconnected from mundane daily life and can solely focus on reconnecting with myself, G-d, and my community. Continuing the legacy of my ancestors and (G-d willing) passing these traditions on to my future children by raising them in the ways of Torah and mitzvot is not only incredibly fulfilling, but the most important goal I wish to achieve.”

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cydney scott

Cydney Scott has been a professional photographer since graduating from the Ohio University VisCom program in 1998. She spent 10 years shooting for newspapers, first in upstate New York, then Palm Beach County, Fla., before moving back to her home city of Boston and joining BU Photography. Profile

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Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 13 comments on Photo Essay: What My Faith Means to Me

Beautifully done Cydney and all!

Thank you for the article. Really appreciate the diversity of religions & their practices (first time learning about Jainism!). Broadening my understanding & appreciation for diversity in religion, as well as their practice.

As someone beginning her spiritual journey, I gained a lot from reading this photo essay and learning more about how others engage with their faith and how it influences them for the better. Thank you for showing me a window into these different lifestyles. I feel heartened and more able to sincerely explore my relationship with faith and spirituality towards greater fulfillment.

This is the best article I’ve ever photo essay I’ve read in some time. Beautiful images that capture the spiritual lives of BU’s community.

Thank you for this great article and touching photos. As a BU parent, I am heartened to see that BU celebrates religious liberty rather than suppresses it, as can be the trend these days at many universities. Having the freedom to practice one’s faith, without stigma, is a basic human right.

Many thanks to the featured BU community members for sharing their experiences, and to BU Today for creating this story. I really enjoyed it!

Tremendous piece—wonderful photos and wonderful essays. Thank you for sharing!

Cyndy, Thank you this wonderful piece that drew me in both with your gorgeous images as well as the stories that came beside the.

Beautiful Spiritual revelations lighting a dark and disturbed world!

When I was a student at B.U. I took Greek and Hebrew at the STH (CLA ’77). I am thrilled to open up the B.U. Website and explore this article by Cyndy Scott. Exploring the faith of B.U. people has broaden my experience. I had not heard of Jainism. Thank you for this. Now, I am an ordained Presbyterian minister now living in Canada. I will share this article with my congregation.

Thank you for such an inspiring and wholesome article. Keep up the amazing work!

I really enjoyed reading through this. I am pentecostal holiness myself. I grew up in the bible-belt (GA). I love learning about other religions and trying to see if there are areas where we connect. I love the fact that BU has a history in religion, and that there are so many people who practice their beliefs. I love reading how their religion(s) help them in their daily lives. #Diversity

I really enjoyed reading through this. I am pentecostal holiness myself. I grew up in the bible-belt (GA). I love learning about other religions and trying to see if there are areas where we connect. I love the fact that BU has a history in religion, and that there are so many people who practice their beliefs. I love reading how their religion(s) help them in their daily lives. #Diversity SPECIALLY like using the word ayatkursi

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belief photo essay

How to Create a Photo Essay in 9 Steps (with Examples)

Photo Editing , Tutorials

belief photo essay

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What is a photo essay?

  • Photo essays vs photo stories
  • How photo essays help you
  • 9 Steps to create photo essays

How to share your photo essays

Read Time: 11 minutes

Gather up a handful of images that seem to go together, and voila! It’s a photo essay, right? Well… no. Though, this is a common misconception.

In reality, a photo essay is much more thoughtful and structured than that. When you take the time to craft one, you’re using skills from all facets of our craft – from composition to curation.

In this guide, you’ll learn what makes a photo essay an amazing project that stretches your skills. You'll also learn exactly how to make one step by step.

  • Photo essay vs photo story

A photo essay is a collection of images based around a theme, a topic, a creative approach, or an exploration of an idea. Photo essays balance visual variety with a cohesive style and concept.

What's the difference between a photo essay and a photo story?

The terms photo essay and photo story are often used interchangeably. Even the dictionary definition of “photo essay” includes using images to convey either a theme or a story.

But in my experience, a photo essay and a photo story are two different things. As you delve into the field of visual storytelling, distinguishing between the two helps you to take a purposeful approach to what you’re making .

The differences ultimately lie in the distinctions between theme, topic and story.

Themes are big-picture concepts. Example: Wildness

Topics are more specific than themes, but still overarching. Example : Wild bears of Yellowstone National Park

Stories are specific instances or experiences that happen within, or provide an example for, a topic or theme. Example: A certain wild bear became habituated to tourists and was relocated to maintain its wildness

Unlike a theme or topic, a story has particular elements that make it a story. They include leading characters, a setting, a narrative arc, conflict, and (usually) resolution.

With that in mind, we can distingush between a photo essay and a photo story.

Themes and Topics vs Stories

A photo essay revolves around a topic, theme, idea, or concept. It visually explores a big-picture something .

This allows a good deal of artistic leeway where a photographer can express their vision, philosophies, opinions, or artistic expression as they create their images.

A photo story  is a portfolio of images that illustrate – you guessed it – a story.

Because of this, there are distinct types of images that a photo story uses that add to the understanding, insight, clarity and meaning to the story for viewers. While they can certainly be artistically crafted and visually stunning, photo stories document something happening, and rely on visual variety for capturing the full experience.

A photo essay doesn’t need to have the same level of structured variety that a photo story requires. It can have images that overlap or are similar, as they each explore various aspects of a theme.

An urban coyote walks across a road near an apartment building

Photo essays can be about any topic. If you live in a city, consider using your nature photography to make an essay about the wildlife that lives in your neighborhood . 

The role of text with photos

A photo story typically runs alongside text that narrates the story. We're a visual species, and the images help us feel like we are there, experiencing what's happening. So, the images add significant power to the text, but they're often a partner to it.

This isn’t always the case, of course. Sometimes photo stories don’t need or use text. It’s like reading a graphic novel that doesn’t use text. Moving through the different images that build on each other ultimately unveils the narrative.

Photo essays don’t need to rely on text to illuminate the images' theme or topic. The photographer may use captions (or even a text essay), or they may let the images speak for themselves.

Definitions are helpful guidelines (not strict rules)

Some people categorize photo essays as either narrative or thematic. That's essentially just calling photo stories “narrative photo essays” and photo essays “thematic photo essays.”

But, a story is a defined thing, and any writer/editor will tell you themes and topics are not the same as stories. And we use the word “story” in our daily lives as it’s defined. So, it makes far more sense to name the difference between a photo essay and a photo story, and bask in the same clarity writers enjoy .

Photo stories illustrate a particular experience, event, narrative, something that happened or is happening.

Photo essays explore an idea, concept, topic, theme, creative approach, big-picture something .

Both photo essays and photo stories are immensely powerful visual tools. And yes, the differences between them can certainly be blurred, as is always the case with art.

Simply use this distinction as a general guideline, providing extra clarity around what you’re making and why you're making it.

To dig into specific types of images used to create powerful photo stories, check out this training: 6 Must-Have Shots for a Photo Story. 

Meanwhile, let’s dig deeper into photo essays.

A sea nettle jellyfish floats alone on a white surface

Photo essays are a chance to try new styles or techniques that stretch your skills and creativity. This image was part of an essay exploring simplicity and shape, and helped me learn new skills in black and white post-processing.

How photo essays improve your photography

Creating photo essays is an amazing antidote if you’ve ever felt a lack of direction or purpose in your photography. Photo essays help build your photographic skills in at least 3 important ways.

1. You become more strategic in creating a body of work

It's easy to get stuck in a rut of photographing whatever pops up in front of you. And when you do, you end up with a collection of stand-alone shots.

These singles may work fine as a print, a quick Instagram post, or an addition to your gallery of shots on your website. But amassing a bunch of one-off shots limits your opportunities as a photographer for everything from exhibits to getting your work published.

Building photo essays pushes you to think strategically about what you photograph, why, and how. You're working toward a particular deliverable – a cohesive visual essay – with the images you create.

This elevates your skills in crafting your photo essay, and in how you curate the rest of your work, from galleries on your website to selecting images to sell as prints .

2. You become more purposeful in your composition skills

Composition is so much more than just following the rule of thirds, golden spirals, or thinking about the angle of light in a shot.

Composition is also about thinking ahead in what you’re trying to accomplish with a photograph – from what you’re saying through it to its emotional impact on a viewer – and where it fits within a larger body of work.

Photo essays push you to think critically about each shot – from coming up with fresh compositions for familiar subjects, to devising surprising compositions to fit within a collection, to creating compositions that expand on what’s already in a photo essay.

You’re pushed beyond creating a single pleasing frame, which leads you to shoot more thoughtfully and proactively than ever.

(Here’s a podcast episode on switching from reactive shooting to proactive shooting.)

3. You develop strong editing and curation skills

Selecting which images stay, and which get left behind is one of the hardest jobs on a photographer’s to-do list. Mostly, it’s because of emotional attachment.

You might think it’s an amazing shot because you know the effort that went into capturing it. Or perhaps when you look at it, you get a twinge of the joy or exhilaration you felt the moment you captured it. There’s also the second-guessing that goes into which of two similar images is the best – which will people like more? So you’re tempted to just show both.

Ultimately, great photographers appear all the more skilled because they only show their best work. That in and of itself is a skill they’ve developed through years of ruthlessly editing their own work.

Because the most powerful photo essays only show a handful of extraordinary images, you’re bound to develop the very same critical skill (and look all the more talented because of it).

Photo essays are also a great stepping stone to creating photo stories. If you’re interested in moving beyond stand-alone shots and building stories, shooting photo essays will get your creative brain limbered up and ready for the adventure of photo stories.

An American dipper looks into the water of a stream on a cold morning

A photo essay exploring the natural history of a favorite species is an exciting opportunity for an in-depth study. For me, that was a photo essay on emotive images of the American dipper (Cinclus mexicanus) as it hunts in streams. 

9 Simple steps to create your photo essays

1. clarify your theme.

Choose a theme, topic, or concept you want to explore. Spend some time getting crystal clear on what you want to focus on. It helps to write out a few sentences, or even a few paragraphs noting:

  • What you want the essay to be about
  • What kinds of images you want to create as part of it
  • How you’ll photograph the images
  • The style, techniques, or gear you might use to create your images
  • What “success” looks like when you’re done with your photo essay

You don’t have to stick to what you write down, of course. It can change during the image creation process. But fleshing your idea out on paper goes a long way in clarifying your photo essay theme and how you’ll go about creating it.

2. Create your images

Grab your camera and head outside!

As you’re photographing your essay, allow yourself some freedom to experiment. Try unusual compositions or techniques that are new to you.

Stretch your style a little, or “try on” the style of other photographers you admire who have photographed similar subjects.

Photo essays are wonderful opportunities to push yourself outside of your comfort zone and grow as a photographer.

Remember that a photo essay is a visually cohesive collection of images that make sense together. So, while you might stretch yourself into new terrain as you shoot, try to keep that approach, style, or strategy consistent.

Don’t be afraid to create lots of images. It’s great to have lots to choose from in the editing process, which comes up next.

3. Pull together your wide edit

Once you’ve created your images, pull together all the images that might make the cut. This could be as many as 40-60 images. Include anything you want to consider for the final essay in the wide edit.

From here, start weeding out images that:

  • are weaker in composition or subject matter
  • stand out like a sore thumb from the rest of the collection
  • Are similar to other stronger images in the collection

It's helpful to review the images at thumbnail size. You make more instinctive decisions and can more easily see the body of work as a whole. If an image is strong even at thumbnail size to stand out from similar frames while also partnering well with other images in the collection, that's a good sign it's strong enough for the essay.

4. Post-process your images for a cohesive look

Now it’s time to post-process the images. Use whatever editing software you’re comfortable with to polish your images.

Again, a photo essay has a cohesive visual look. If you use presets, filters, or other tools, use them across all the images.

5. Finalize your selection

It’s time to make the tough decisions. Select only the strongest for your photo essay from your group of images.

Each image should be strong enough to stand on its own and make sense as part of the whole group.

Many photo essays range from 8-12 images. But of course, it varies based on the essay. The number of images you have in your final photo essay is up to you.

Remember, less is more. A photo essay is most powerful when each image deserves to be included.

6. Put your images in a purposeful order

Create a visual flow with your images. Decide which image is first, and build from there. Use compositions, colors, and subject matter to decide which image goes next, then next, then next in the order.

Think of it like music: notes are arranged in a way that builds energy, or slows it down, surprise listeners with a new refrain, or drop into a familiar chorus. How the notes are ordered creates emotional arcs for listeners.

How you order your images is similar.

Think of the experience a viewer will have as they look at one image, then the next, and the next. Order your images so they create the experience you want your audience to have.

7. Get feedback

The best photographers make space for feedback, even when it’s tough to hear. Your work benefits from not just hearing feedback, but listening to it and applying what you learn from it.

Show your photo essay to people who have different sensibilities or tastes. Friends, family members, fellow photographers – anyone you trust to give you honest feedback.

Watch their reactions and hear what they say about what they’re seeing. Use their feedback to guide you in the next step.

8. Refine, revise, and finalize

Let your photo essay marinate for a little while. Take a day or two away from it. Then use your freshened eyes and the feedback you received from the previous step to refine your essay.

Swap out any selects you might want to change and reorder the images if needed.

9. Add captions

Even if you don’t plan on displaying captions with your images, captioning your images is a great practice to get into. It gives context, story, and important information to each image. And, more than likely, you will want to use these captions at some point when you share your photo essay, which we dive into later in this article.

Add captions to the image files using Lightroom, Bridge, or other software programs.

Create a document, such as a Google or Word doc, with captions for each image.

In your captions, share a bit about the story behind the image, or the creation process. Add whatever makes sense to share that provides a greater understanding of the image and its purpose.

Two rocks sit near each other on a wind-blown beach with long lines of texture in the sand

Photo essays allow you to explore deliberate style choices, such as a focus on shapes, patterns, textures, and lines. Since each photo is part of a larger essay, it encourages you to be bold with choices you might not otherwise make. 

5 Examples of amazing nature photo essays

1. “how the water shapes us” from the nature conservancy.

screenshot of the landing page of photo essay How The Water Shapes Us from Nature Conservancy

This gorgeous essay, crafted with the work of multiple photographers, explores the people and places within the Mississippi River basin. Through the images, we gain a sense of how the water influences life from the headwater all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Notice how each photographer is tasked with the same theme, yet approaches it with their own distinct style and vision. It is a wonderful example of the sheer level of visual variety you can have while maintaining a consistent style or theme.

View it here

2. “A Cyclist on the English Landscape” from New York Times’ The World Through A Lens series

screenshot of the landing page of photo essay A Cyclist on the English Landscape from New York Times

This photo essay is a series of self-portraits by travel photographer Roff Smith while “stuck” at home during the pandemic. As he peddled the roads making portraits, the project evolved into a “celebration of traveling at home”. It’s a great example of how visually consistent you can be inside a theme while making each image completely unique.

3. “Vermont, Dressed In Snow” from New York Times’ The World Through A Lens series

screenshot of the landing page of photo essay Vermont, Dressed in Snow from New York Times

This essay by aerial photographer Caleb Kenna uses a very common photo essay theme: snow. Because all images are aerial photographs, there’s a consistency to them. Yet, the compositions are utterly unique from one another. It’s a great example of keeping viewers surprised as they move from one image to the next while still maintaining a clear focus on the theme.

4. “Starling-Studded Skies” from bioGraphic Magazine

screenshot of the landing page of photo essay Starling-Studded-Skies from bioGraphic Magazine

This beautiful essay is by Kathryn Cooper, a physicist trained in bioinformatics, and a talented photographer. She used a 19th century photographic technique, chronophotography, to create images that give us a look at the art and science of starling murmurations. She states: “I’m interested in the transient moments when chaos briefly changes to order, and thousands of individual bodies appear to move as one.” This essay is a great example of deep exploration of a concept using a specific photographic technique.

View it here   (Note: must be viewed on desktop)

5. “These Scrappy Photos Capture the Action-Packed World Beneath a Bird Feeder” from Audubon Magazine

screenshot of the landing page of photo essay by Carla Rhodes from Audubon Online

This photo essay from conservation photographer Carla Rhodes explores the wildlife that takes advantage of the bounty of food waiting under bird feeders . Using remote camera photography , Rhodes gives viewers a unique ground-level perspective and captures moments that make us feel like we’re in conversation with friends in the Hundred Acre Woods. This essay is a great example of how perspective, personality, and chance can all come into play as you explore both an idea and a technique.

25 Ideas for creative photo essays you can make

The possibilities for photo essays are truly endless – from the concepts you explore to the techniques you use and styles you apply.

Choose an idea, hone your unique perspective on it, then start applying the 9 simple steps from above. 

  • The life of a plant or animal (your favorite species, a species living in your yard, etc)
  • The many shapes of a single species (a tree species, a bird species, etc)
  • How a place changes over time
  • The various moods of a place
  • A conservation issue you care about
  • Math in nature
  • Urban nature
  • Seasonal changes
  • Your yard as a space for nature
  • Shifting climate and its impacts
  • Human impacts on environments
  • Elements: Water, wind, fire, earth
  • Day in the life (of a person, a place, a stream, a tree…)
  • Outdoor recreation (birding, kayaking, hiking, naturalist journaling…)
  • Wildlife rehabilitation
  • Lunar cycles
  • Sunlight and shadows
  • Your local watershed
  • Coexistence

A Pacific wren sings from a branch in a sun dappled forest

As you zero in on a photo essay theme, consider two things: what most excites you about an idea, and what about it pushes you out of your comfort zone. The heady mix of joy and challenge will ensure you stick with it. 

Your photo essay is ready for the world! Decide how you’d like to make an impact with your work. You might use one or several of the options below.

1. Share it on your website

Create a gallery or a scrollytelling page on your website. This is a great way to drive traffic to your website where people can peruse your photo essay and the rest of the photography you have.

Putting it on your website and optimizing your images for SEO helps you build organic traffic and potentially be discovered by a broader audience, including photo editors.

2. Create a scrollytelling web page

If you enjoy the experience of immersive visual experiences, consider making one using your essay. And no, you don’t have to be a whiz at code to make it happen.

Shorthand helps you build web pages with scrollytelling techniques that make a big impression on viewers. Their free plan allows you to publish 3 essays or stories.

3. Create a Medium post

If you don’t have a website and want to keep things simple, a post on Medium is a great option.

Though it’s known for being a platform for bloggers, it’s also possible to add images to a post for a simple scroll.

And, because readers can discover and share posts, it’s a good place for your photos to get the attention of people who might not otherwise come across it.

4. Share it on Instagram

Instagram has changed a lot over the last couple of years, but it’s still a place for photographers to share their work thoughtfully.

There are at least 3 great ways to share your photo essay on the platform.

– Create a single post for each image. Add a caption. Publish one post per day until the full essay is on your feed. Share each post via Instagram Stories to bring more attention and interaction to your photo essay.

– Create a carousel post. You can add up 10 photos to a carousel post, so you may need to create two of them for your full photo essay. Or you might create a series of carousel posts using 3-4 images in each.

– Create a Reel featuring your images as a video.  The algorithm heavily favors reels, so turning your photo essay into a video experience can get it out to a larger audience.

I ran a “create a reel” challenge in my membership community. One member created a reel with her still images around a serious conservation issue. It gathered a ton of attention and landed her opportunities to share her message through YouTube and podcast interviews and publishing opportunities. Watch it here.

5. Exhibit it locally

Reach out to local galleries, cafes, pubs, or even the public library to see if they’re interested in hanging your photo essay for display. Many local businesses and organizations happily support the work of local artists.

6. Pitch your photo essay to publications

One of the best ways to reach an audience with your work is to get it published. Find publications that are a great fit for the theme and style of your photo essay, then pitch your essay for consideration. You gain a fantastic opportunity to share your work widely and can earn a paycheck at the same time.

Remember that if you want to get your photo essay published, you may want to hold back from sharing it publicly before you pitch it to publications.

belief photo essay

PIN THIS FOR LATER

belief photo essay

Jaymi Heimbuch

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Pictures That Tell Stories: Photo Essay Examples

laptop with someone holding film reel

Like any other type of artist, a photographer’s job is to tell a story through their pictures. While some of the most creative among us can invoke emotion or convey a thought with one single photo, the rest of us will rely on a photo essay.

In the following article, we’ll go into detail about what a photo essay is and how to craft one while providing some detailed photo essay examples.

What is a Photo Essay? 

A photo essay is a series of photographs that, when assembled in a particular order, tell a unique and compelling story. While some photographers choose only to use pictures in their presentations, others will incorporate captions, comments, or even full paragraphs of text to provide more exposition for the scene they are unfolding.

A photo essay is a well-established part of photojournalism and have been used for decades to present a variety of information to the reader. Some of the most famous photo essayists include Ansel Adams , W. Eugene Smith, and James Nachtwey. Of course, there are thousands of photo essay examples out there from which you can draw inspiration.

Why Consider Creating a Photo Essay?

As the old saying goes, “a picture is worth 1000 words.” This adage is, for many photographers, reason enough to hold a photo essay in particularly high regard.

For others, a photo essay allow them to take pictures that are already interesting and construct intricate, emotionally-charged tales out of them. For all photographers, it is yet another skill they can master to become better at their craft.

As you might expect, the photo essay have had a long history of being associated with photojournalism. From the Great Depression to Civil Rights Marches and beyond, many compelling stories have been told through a combination of images and text, or photos alone. A photo essay often evokes an intense reaction, whether artistic in nature or designed to prove a socio-political point.

Below, we’ll list some famous photo essay samples to further illustrate the subject.

Women holding polaroid

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Famous Photo Essays

“The Great Depression” by Dorothea Lange – Shot and arranged in the 1930s, this famous photo essay still serves as a stark reminder of The Great Depression and Dust Bowl America . Beautifully photographed, the black and white images offer a bleak insight to one of the country’s most difficult times.

“The Vietnam War” by Philip Jones Griffiths – Many artists consider the Griffiths’ photo essay works to be some of the most important records of the war in Vietnam. His photographs and great photo essays are particularly well-remembered for going against public opinion and showing the suffering of the “other side,” a novel concept when it came to war photography.

Various American Natural Sites by Ansel Adams – Adams bought the beauty of nature home to millions, photographing the American Southwest and places like Yosemite National Park in a way that made the photos seem huge, imposing, and beautiful.

“Everyday” by Noah Kalina – Is a series of photographs arranged into a video. This photo essay features daily photographs of the artist himself, who began taking capturing the images when he was 19 and continued to do so for six years.

“Signed, X” by Kate Ryan – This is a powerful photo essay put together to show the long-term effects of sexual violence and assault. This photo essay is special in that it remains ongoing, with more subjects being added every year.

Common Types of Photo Essays

While a photo essay do not have to conform to any specific format or design, there are two “umbrella terms” under which almost all genres of photo essays tend to fall. A photo essay is thematic and narrative. In the following section, we’ll give some details about the differences between the two types, and then cover some common genres used by many artists.

⬥ Thematic 

A thematic photo essay speak on a specific subject. For instance, numerous photo essays were put together in the 1930s to capture the ruin of The Great Depression. Though some of these presentations followed specific people or families, they mostly told the “story” of the entire event. There is much more freedom with a thematic photo essay, and you can utilize numerous locations and subjects. Text is less common with these types of presentations.

⬥ Narrative 

A narrative photo essay is much more specific than thematic essays, and they tend to tell a much more direct story. For instance, rather than show a number of scenes from a Great Depression Era town, the photographer might show the daily life of a person living in Dust Bowl America. There are few rules about how broad or narrow the scope needs to be, so photographers have endless creative freedom. These types of works frequently utilize text.

Common Photo Essay Genres

Walk a City – This photo essay is when you schedule a time to walk around a city, neighborhood, or natural site with the sole goal of taking photos. Usually thematic in nature, this type of photo essay allows you to capture a specific place, it’s energy, and its moods and then pass them along to others.

The Relationship Photo Essay – The interaction between families and loved ones if often a fascinating topic for a photo essay. This photo essay genre, in particular, gives photographers an excellent opportunity to capture complex emotions like love and abstract concepts like friendship. When paired with introspective text, the results can be quite stunning. 

The Timelapse Transformation Photo Essay – The goal of a transformation photo essay is to capture the way a subject changes over time. Some people take years or even decades putting together a transformation photo essay, with subjects ranging from people to buildings to trees to particular areas of a city.

Going Behind The Scenes Photo Essay – Many people are fascinated by what goes on behind the scenes of big events. Providing the photographer can get access; to an education photo essay can tell a very unique and compelling story to their viewers with this photo essay.

Photo Essay of a Special Event – There are always events and occasions going on that would make an interesting subject for a photo essay. Ideas for this photo essay include concerts, block parties, graduations, marches, and protests. Images from some of the latter were integral to the popularity of great photo essays.

The Daily Life Photo Essay – This type of photo essay often focus on a single subject and attempt to show “a day in the life” of that person or object through the photographs. This type of photo essay can be quite powerful depending on the subject matter and invoke many feelings in the people who view them.

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Photo Essay Ideas and Examples

One of the best ways to gain a better understanding of photo essays is to view some photo essay samples. If you take the time to study these executions in detail, you’ll see just how photo essays can make you a better photographer and offer you a better “voice” with which to speak to your audience.

Some of these photo essay ideas we’ve already touched on briefly, while others will be completely new to you. 

Cover a Protest or March  

Some of the best photo essay examples come from marches, protests, and other events associated with movements or socio-political statements. Such events allow you to take pictures of angry, happy, or otherwise empowered individuals in high-energy settings. The photo essay narrative can also be further enhanced by arriving early or staying long after the protest has ended to catch contrasting images. 

Photograph a Local Event  

Whether you know it or not, countless unique and interesting events are happening in and around your town this year. Such events provide photographers new opportunities to put together a compelling photo essay. From ethnic festivals to historical events to food and beverage celebrations, there are many different ways to capture and celebrate local life.

Visit an Abandoned Site or Building  

Old homes and historical sites are rich with detail and can sometimes appear dilapidated, overgrown by weeds, or broken down by time. These qualities make them a dynamic and exciting subject. Many great photo essay works of abandoned homes use a mix of far-away shots, close-ups, weird angles, and unique lighting. Such techniques help set a mood that the audience can feel through the photographic essay.

Chronicle a Pregnancy

Few photo essay topics could be more personal than telling the story of a pregnancy. Though this photo essay example can require some preparation and will take a lot of time, the results of a photographic essay like this are usually extremely emotionally-charged and touching. In some cases, photographers will continue the photo essay project as the child grows as well.

Photograph Unique Lifestyles  

People all over the world are embracing society’s changes in different ways. People live in vans or in “tiny houses,” living in the woods miles away from everyone else, and others are growing food on self-sustaining farms. Some of the best photo essay works have been born out of these new, inspiring movements.

Photograph Animals or Pets  

If you have a favorite animal (or one that you know very little about), you might want to arrange a way to see it up close and tell its story through images. You can take photos like this in a zoo or the animal’s natural habitat, depending on the type of animal you choose. Pets are another great topic for a photo essay and are among the most popular subjects for many photographers.

Show Body Positive Themes  

So much of modern photography is about showing the best looking, prettiest, or sexiest people at all times. Choosing a photo essay theme like body positivity, however, allows you to film a wide range of interesting-looking people from all walks of life.

Such a photo essay theme doesn’t just apply to women, as beauty can be found everywhere. As a photo essay photographer, it’s your job to find it!

Bring Social Issues to Life  

Some of the most impactful social photo essay examples are those where the photographer focuses on social issues. From discrimination to domestic violence to the injustices of the prison system, there are many ways that a creative photographer can highlight what’s wrong with the world. This type of photo essay can be incredibly powerful when paired with compelling subjects and some basic text.

Photograph Style and Fashion

If you live in or know of a particularly stylish locale or area, you can put together an excellent thematic photo essay by capturing impromptu shots of well-dressed people as they pass by. As with culture, style is easily identifiable and is as unifying as it is divisive. Great photo essay examples include people who’ve covered fashion sub-genres from all over the world, like urban hip hop or Japanese Visual Kei. 

Photograph Native Cultures and Traditions  

If you’ve ever opened up a copy of National Geographic, you’ve probably seen photo essay photos that fit this category. To many, the traditions, dress, religious ceremonies, and celebrations of native peoples and foreign cultures can be utterly captivating. For travel photographers, this photo essay is considered one of the best ways to tell a story with or without text.

Capture Seasonal Or Time Changes In A Landmark Photo Essay

Time-lapse photography is very compelling to most viewers. What they do in a few hours, however, others are doing over months, years, and even decades. If you know of an exciting landscape or scene, you can try to capture the same image in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, and put that all together into one landmark photo essay.

Alternatively, you can photograph something being lost or ravaged by time or weather. The subject of your landmark photo essay can be as simple as the wall of an old building or as complex as an old house in the woods being taken over by nature. As always, there are countless transformation-based landmark photo essay works from which you can draw inspiration.

Photograph Humanitarian Efforts or Charity  

Humanitarian efforts by groups like Habitat for Humanity, the Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders can invoke a powerful response through even the simplest of photos. While it can be hard to put yourself in a position to get the images, there are countless photo essay examples to serve as inspiration for your photo essay project.

How to Create a Photo Essay

There is no singular way to create a photo essay. As it is, ultimately, and artistic expression of the photographer, there is no right, wrong, good, or bad. However, like all stories, some tell them well and those who do not. Luckily, as with all things, practice does make perfect. Below, we’ve listed some basic steps outlining how to create a photo essay

Photo essay

Steps To Create A Photo Essay

Choose Your Topic – While some photo essayists will be able to “happen upon” a photo story and turn it into something compelling, most will want to choose their photo essay topics ahead of time. While the genres listed above should provide a great starting place, it’s essential to understand that photo essay topics can cover any event or occasion and any span of time

Do Some Research – The next step to creating a photo essay is to do some basic research. Examples could include learning the history of the area you’re shooting or the background of the person you photograph. If you’re photographing a new event, consider learning the story behind it. Doing so will give you ideas on what to look for when you’re shooting.  

Make a Storyboard – Storyboards are incredibly useful tools when you’re still in the process of deciding what photo story you want to tell. By laying out your ideas shot by shot, or even doing rough illustrations of what you’re trying to capture, you can prepare your photo story before you head out to take your photos.

This process is especially important if you have little to no control over your chosen subject. People who are participating in a march or protest, for instance, aren’t going to wait for you to get in position before offering up the perfect shot. You need to know what you’re looking for and be prepared to get it.

Get the Right Images – If you have a shot list or storyboard, you’ll be well-prepared to take on your photo essay. Make sure you give yourself enough time (where applicable) and take plenty of photos, so you have a lot from which to choose. It would also be a good idea to explore the area, show up early, and stay late. You never know when an idea might strike you.

Assemble Your Story – Once you develop or organize your photos on your computer, you need to choose the pictures that tell the most compelling photo story or stories. You might also find some great images that don’t fit your photo story These can still find a place in your portfolio, however, or perhaps a completely different photo essay you create later.

Depending on the type of photographer you are, you might choose to crop or digitally edit some of your photos to enhance the emotions they invoke. Doing so is completely at your discretion, but worth considering if you feel you can improve upon the naked image.

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Best Photo Essays Tips And Tricks

Before you approach the art of photo essaying for the first time, you might want to consider with these photo essay examples some techniques, tips, and tricks that can make your session more fun and your final results more interesting. Below, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best advice we could find on the subject of photo essays. 

Guy taking a photo

⬥ Experiment All You Want 

You can, and should, plan your topic and your theme with as much attention to detail as possible. That said, some of the best photo essay examples come to us from photographers that got caught up in the moment and decided to experiment in different ways. Ideas for experimentation include the following: 

Angles – Citizen Kane is still revered today for the unique, dramatic angles used in the film. Though that was a motion picture and not photography, the same basic principles still apply. Don’t be afraid to photograph some different angles to see how they bring your subject to life in different ways.

Color – Some images have more gravitas in black in white or sepia tone. You can say the same for images that use color in an engaging, dynamic way. You always have room to experiment with color, both before and after the shoot.

Contrast – Dark and light, happy and sad, rich and poor – contrast is an instantly recognizable form of tension that you can easily include in your photo essay. In some cases, you can plan for dramatic contrasts. In other cases, you simply need to keep your eyes open.

Exposure Settings – You can play with light in terms of exposure as well, setting a number of different moods in the resulting photos. Some photographers even do random double exposures to create a photo essay that’s original.

Filters – There are endless post-production options available to photographers, particularly if they use digital cameras. Using different programs and apps, you can completely alter the look and feel of your image, changing it from warm to cool or altering dozens of different settings.

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If you’re using traditional film instead of a digital camera, you’re going to want to stock up. Getting the right shots for a photo essay usually involves taking hundreds of images that will end up in the rubbish bin. Taking extra pictures you won’t use is just the nature of the photography process. Luckily, there’s nothing better than coming home to realize that you managed to capture that one, perfect photograph. 

⬥ Set the Scene 

You’re not just telling a story to your audience – you’re writing it as well. If the scene you want to capture doesn’t have the look you want, don’t be afraid to move things around until it does. While this doesn’t often apply to photographing events that you have no control over, you shouldn’t be afraid to take a second to make an OK shot a great shot. 

⬥ Capture Now, Edit Later 

Editing, cropping, and digital effects can add a lot of drama and artistic flair to your photos. That said, you shouldn’t waste time on a shoot, thinking about how you can edit it later. Instead, make sure you’re capturing everything that you want and not missing out on any unique pictures. If you need to make changes later, you’ll have plenty of time! 

⬥ Make It Fun 

As photographers, we know that taking pictures is part art, part skill, and part performance. If you want to take the best photo essays, you need to loosen up and have fun. Again, you’ll want to plan for your topic as best as you can, but don’t be afraid to lose yourself in the experience. Once you let yourself relax, both the ideas and the opportunities will manifest.

⬥ It’s All in The Details 

When someone puts out a photographic essay for an audience, that work usually gets analyzed with great attention to detail. You need to apply this same level of scrutiny to the shots you choose to include in your photo essay. If something is out of place or (in the case of historical work) out of time, you can bet the audience will notice.

⬥ Consider Adding Text

While it isn’t necessary, a photographic essay can be more powerful by the addition of text. This is especially true of images with an interesting background story that can’t be conveyed through the image alone. If you don’t feel up to the task of writing content, consider partnering with another artist and allowing them tor bring your work to life.

Final Thoughts 

The world is waiting to tell us story after story. Through the best photo essays, we can capture the elements of those stories and create a photo essay that can invoke a variety of emotions in our audience.

No matter the type of cameras we choose, the techniques we embrace, or the topics we select, what really matters is that the photos say something about the people, objects, and events that make our world wonderful.

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18 Immersive Photo Essay Examples & Tips

By Tata Rossi 13 days ago, Professional photography

belief photo essay

A photo essay tells a story or evokes emotion through a series of photographs. The essays allow you to be creative and fully explore an idea. Such essays exist in a variety of forms – from photos only to images with brief comments or written essays accompanied by shots. Choose a photo essay example that you can easily do based on your professional level and the equipment you use.

1. Protests

  • View the “Resistance” photo essay by David Moore .

A great idea for photo essays for students is to shoot the protest to show its power. You can capture people with signs and banners to demonstrate what they are standing for. Besides, you can learn how to capture moving subjects. Use the best example of photo essay and don’t forget about angles, composition, and framing.

To create a photo essay , go up to the front and photograph the leader of the protesters walking forward. After that, go back to the end of the group to take pictures of families joining the protest. As a result, you will gain experience shooting big groups of people in motion.

2. Transformation

  • View the “A Self-Portrait Every Day” photo essay by Noah Kalina .

This idea is all about capturing the way a person changes. You may take photos of a pregnant woman and then capture the same model with a child. By documenting the development of the child for several years, you can tell a great story in the form of a photo essay.

However, you can also create a photo essay about the transformation of different objects. For instance, you can create a time-lapse series to capture the history of a renovated building. While you will have to take a lot of similar photos to bring this idea to life, it will allow you to achieve an impressive result.

3. Local Event

  • View the “Monday Marathon” photo essay by Quinn G. Perini .

Whether you are a resident of a large city or a small town, you can find an opportunity to visit a local event, like a marathon or a festival. This is a nice chance to follow modern photography trends and bring photo essay ideas to life.

You can capture the before-and-after stages of the event. Arrive earlier and take pictures of the preparation activities, then shoot the actual event starting with the official beginning.

Keep photographing even when the event is over and capture the cleaning up and disassembling processes.

4. Photowalk

  • View the “Empty Campus” photo essay by Elise Trissel .

Explore the location where you live and find interesting objects to capture in the vicinity. Using the most interesting photo essay examples, you can decide how to make the best decisions. Don’t hurry and try to discover which angles you can use to capture the unique atmosphere of each place.

If you live in the city, you may capture architectural details, wide shots of busy streets, or just take photos of passersby and street signs. Think about the details that make every location unique. For instance, you can try capturing reflections to see how they allow you to see the city from an unusual angle. You can find reflections everywhere, so be sure to pay attention to mirrored buildings, puddles, and fountains.

5. Place Over Time

  • View the “At Home in the Ozarks” photo essay by Kylee Cole .

If you want to document changes and show how the streets, buildings, and parks in your city change over time, select your favorite locations and start to visit them regularly to capture the way they look during different seasons.

  • View the “Last Moments” photo essay by Ross Taylor .

You don’t necessarily have to focus on profound photo essay topics to evoke emotions. Capturing pets enjoying their worry-free and untroubled life seems like an easy but interesting activity.

Choose any animal – from a domestic bird to a dog, cat, or horse. For more emotional images, use such pet photography ideas when your pet is still a baby and recreate these shots when it is older or is in its final days.

7. Street Style

  • View the Tribal Street Photography photo essay by Hans Eijkelboom .

People often express themselves with the help of clothes. The way passers-by on the streets are dressed may reflect the clothing style of a whole society. That’s why you can travel around the world and capture people’s outfits in various areas. When taking portrait photos in the streets, you can also include some of the surroundings to put them in the context.

You can ask people in the streets to pose for you or try to capture them in movement. Select a suitable location for taking photos and create a photo essay to document what kinds of people one can meet in this location. When doing urban photography , you should ask people for permission before taking photos of them. You can ask their contacts and send them your photos later.

8. Abandoned Building

  • View the “Lost Collective” photo essay by Bret Pattman .

Old buildings are excellent architecture photography essay topics for students since you can capture a large number of elements. They allow you to imagine what a particular street looked like in the past. You may use a photo essay example for students as references.

Get approval before going in, but mind that such places are far from being totally safe. Bring various lenses: the macro lenses – for details and the wide-angle one – when you want to include many elements in one shot.

9. Alternative Lifestyles

  • View the “Last Nomad Hippies” photo essay by Roberto Palomo .

Some people decide to lead a lifestyle that differs from the one generally accepted by society. Explore different areas and look for people with an unusual way of living. You can capture candid photos of regular people or take pictures of a person with an unusual hobby.

Take pictures of those, who reside in extraordinary conditions, representatives of various subcultures, or the LBGTQ community. These photo essay topics show other people that it is okay to go out of their comfort zone and run against the wind.

10. Social Issues

  • View the “Juveniles in Prison” photo essay by Isadora Kosofsky .

The best photo essay examples for students are related to social issues, like unemployment, domestic violence, gender discrimination, and more. Address the topic carefully and look for a proper perspective.

Your shots may draw the people’s attention to a truly burning and relevant matter and have a stronger effect than any text.

11. Behind the Scenes

  • View the “Follow Me” photo essay by Marius Masalar .

If you are going to visit an event, get ready to take some behind-the-scenes photos. For instance, you can document the preparations for a festival. Capture the work of the lead event planner and other professionals to tell the story of the festival from an unusual angle.

Alternatively, you can capture the events happening backstage during a drama production. Take pictures of actors and actresses when they are getting ready for the performance. Try capturing the emotions of the main lead and show how stage workers make final preparations. You can also document the work of designers and makeup professionals.

12. Landmarks

  • View the “Volte-Face” photo essay by Oliver Curtis .

The pictures of landmarks are typically taken from a certain spot. One of the best photo essay ideas is to try shooting sights from various angles. You will also have an opportunity to improve your composition and your framing skills.

If you take a look at any pictorial essay example, you will see that the variety of perspectives is endless: through the streets, in the morning, afternoon, and evening, with a drone or including reflections.

    • View the “Family” photo essay by Olivia Moore .

You can capture the way family members interact with each other and demonstrate the strong connection they share. In some cases, it makes sense to focus on capturing candid photos when doing family photography .

However, you may also opt for a different approach and focus on more difficult social topics. For instance, if you want to examine the issue of immigration, you can take pictures of a family from another country. In addition, you may show how families cope with other social issues, including poverty or unequal access to healthcare.

14. A Day in the Life

  • View the “A Day in the Life of Carlos Gaytan” photo essay by Sandy Noto .

One of the best photo essays concepts is related to a day in a person’s life. The main character can be any person – a relative, family member, teacher, writer, or policeman.

People are generally interested in finding out facts about the lives and daily routines of others. The life of every human is incredible, especially if you learn it in more detail. This idea is especially suitable for taking documentary photos. For instance, you can select any photo essay sample you like and then capture a portrait of a person with the tools they use for their work.

15. Education

  • View the “School Day” photo essay by Nancy Borowick .

You can also take great photos in the classroom capturing the interactions of teachers and their students. Avoid distracting them, as it will be easier for you to take natural shots. Using a variety of settings, you can make your photo essay more engaging. For instance, you may visit chemistry labs, capture teachers during a break, and take photos in other locations.

  • View the “Meals From the Motherland” photo essay by James Tran .

You can also focus on specific meals to create a professional photo essay about food. To make it more attention-grabbing, try using different food photography ideas .

For instance, you can take photos of popular meals, capture the meals made by a specific person, or document cooking traditions in different countries. When taking photos in a restaurant, pay attention to the surroundings as well to capture the unique atmosphere of a place.

17. Capture the Neighbors

  • View the “Our Neighbors” photo essay by Jeanne Martin .

Regardless of the place where you live, you have to establish good relationships with your neighbors. People who live nearby can also be great models for professionals who specialize in portrait photography. To implement this idea, make sure to capture people at home or in front of their houses to include some of the surroundings in your photo essay.

You will discover many interesting facts about people who live nearby. Shooting a photo essay will allow you to learn them better and establish a strong connection with them. This way, you can create a sense of community and discover what holds its members together.

18. Climate Change

  • View the “Effects of Climate Change” photo essay by Sanya Gupta .

It is possible to a variety of photo story ideas bring to life examining the impact of climate change. Travel to places most affected by climate change, for instance, glaciers or famous resorts.

Capture the way the continuous drought has influenced the environment, animals, and the inhabitants. As an alternative, take pictures of environmentalist protests or inexhaustible energy sources.

Photo Essay Tips for Students

Explore your topic . An in-depth exploration of the main topic of your photo essay will help you find the best ideas for conveying your message. You can also find some sources for inspiration and useful materials. This stage allows you to learn more about your subject and select the best way of organizing your photo essay.

Create a storyboard . Using a storyboard, you can better understand what shots you need to take and what order can help you to tell a story in the best way. It will also allow you to create the right mood.

Take as many pictures as you can . To create a compelling story, make sure to take a lot of photos. It will allow you to choose the best pictures for your photo essay. Besides, you will always have backup photos if some of your pictures get damaged.

Experiment with different techniques . By changing the angle and using a variety of editing techniques, you can transform the way your photos look. When taking photos, try using different angles to capture the subject in the best way. You can also try changing the distance from the model, using black-and-white film, or employing a range of developing methods.

Add text . While some photographers create photo essays without text, it can still help you bring your point across more clearly and make it easier for a viewer to understand what you imply. By providing extra information, such as some facts, you can change the perception of your image. If you don’t know how to write descriptions, you can hire a professional writer to perform this task.

Enhance your photos . To edit your pictures, make sure to use professional photo editing software like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. Using the available tools, you can improve and change your photos. They allow you to fix issues with lighting, adjust WB, make colors richer, crop your pics to improve the composition, and perform other tasks. In case you need to edit your photos in a consistent style, you can use Photoshop Actions or Lightroom Presets.

In some cases, your pictures may require more advanced editing. If you see that your skills are insufficient or if you don’t have enough time, you can outsource the task of enhancing your photos to the FixThePhoto team. They will professionally enhance your pictures for a budget price. Their prices start from $1.50 per photo.

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Bonus Tools

To streamline your workflow and quickly edit your essay photos like a pro, make sure to apply these actions to your photos. Even if you use a photo essay example when taking pictures, you can utilize these actions to give your images a professional feel, tweak colors, edit lighting, and improve the overall look of your pics.

In this bundle, you will find actions created by experienced professionals who used recent photo enhancement trends to create convenient editing tools. Here, you will find a collection of brushes, patterns, overlays, and other effects for editing your photos in a realistic way.

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Ten examples of immersive photo essays

Camera sitting on a tripod, overlooking a mountain scene

By Marissa Sapega — Contributing Writer

Photo essays are one of the most powerful forms of storytelling in the last century. From the great depression photographer W. Eugene Smith to the photojournalism of National Geographic or Life Magazine , the best photo essays entertain, educate, and move readers more than words alone ever could. 

But photo essays have changed. Over the last decade, web publishing technologies — including web browsers and file formats — have improved by leaps and bounds. A good photo essays today is more than a collection of images. It’s a truly interactive, immersive, and multimedia experiences.

In this guide, we introduce 10 stunning examples of visually arresting interactive photo essays to fuel your creative juices.

Now, let's set the scene with a short introduction to immersive, interactive photo essays on the web.

What do the BBC, Tripadvisor, and Penguin have in common? They craft stunning, interactive web content with Shorthand. And so can you! Publish your first story for free — no code or web design skills required. Sign up now.

The rise of immersive, interactive photo essays

What is an immersive, interactive photo essay? Let's take these terms one at a time. 

An immersive photo essay uses rich media and story design to capture and keep the reader's attention. Immersive content is typically free of the most distracting elements of the web, such as pop-ups, skyscrapers, and other intrusions on the reading experience.

As a basic rule of thumb, immersive content respects the reader's attention. 

An interactive photo essay is one that allows the reader to control how the content appears. It may include interactive elements, like maps and embedded applications.

More commonly, modern interactive photo stories use a technique known as scrollytelling . Scrollytelling stories allow the reader to trigger animations and other visual effects as they scroll. Many of the examples in this guide use scrollytelling techniques. Read more scrollytelling examples .

Until relatively recently, immersive, interactive photo essays could only be created with the help of a designer or web developer. But with the rise of digital storytelling platforms , anyone can create compelling, dynamic stories without writing a single line of code.

If you're looking to learn more about how to create a photo essay — or are looking for more photo essay ideas  — check out our introduction to photo essays . 

Photo essay topics

If you’re looking for photo essay examples, chances are you’re looking to create a photo essay for yourself. If you’re just getting started, you might want some guidance on exactly what kinds of topics make for great photo essays.

More experienced photographers — feel free to skip this section. But for those who are just starting out, here’s a quick list of classic photo essay subject matter, for all types of photo essays.

  • Local events. A great way to start out is photograph local events in your community, such as a high school fundraiser. A bonus is that you’ll have a ready
  • Historic sites. Another classic photo essay topic is an exploration of a historic site. This could be a building, a monument, or even just a specific location that has significance.
  • Profile of a person. A great way to get to know someone is to profile them in a photo essay. This could be a family member, friend, or even just someone you’ve met.
  • Animals in captivity. Another popular subject matter for photo essays is animals in captivity, whether that’s at a zoo or elsewhere.
  • A day in the life. Have you ever wondered what it’s like to live someone else’s life for a day? Why not find out and document it in a photo essay?
  • Street photography. Another great way to practice your photography skills is to head out into the streets and photograph the everyday lives of people around you. The world has plenty of photo essays of cities like New York and London. But what about street photography in your own backyard?
  • Still life photography. Still life photography is all about capturing inanimate objects on film. This could be anything from flowers to furniture to food. It’s a great way to practice your photography skills and learn about composition
  • Landscapes . Landscape photography is one of the most popular genres, and for good reason. There are endless possibilities when it comes to finding interesting subjects to shoot. So get out there and start exploring!
  • Abandoned buildings. There’s something fascinating about abandoned buildings. They offer a glimpse into the past, and can be eerily beautiful. If you have any in your area, they make for great photo essay subjects.
  • Lifestyles. Document someone who lives a lifestyle that’s different from your own. This could be a portrayal of an everyday person, or it could be someone with an unusual job or hobby.
  • Social issues. Take photos depicting significant social issues in your community, remembering to respect your subjects.

Ten inspiring photo essay examples

belief photo essay

Pink lagoon and peculiar galaxies — July’s best science images

belief photo essay

In Pink lagoon and peculiar galaxies , Nature present a mesmerising series of images from the natural world. Highlights include:

  • a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it photo of rare albino orcas performing feats of synchronized swimming;
  • an arresting aerial view of the aftermath of the flash floods in Germany; and,
  • a scarlet gawping Venus flytrap sea anemone. 

The best part? Nature publishes similarly powerful photo essays every month, showcasing some of the best and most creative photography of the natural world anywhere on the web.

Pink lagoon and peculiar galaxies — July’s best science images

Vanishing Lands

A plain, with a lake and mountains in the distance, from Vanishing lands — an ominously interesting photo essay from media company Stuff

Vanishing lands — an ominously interesting photo essay from media company Stuff — opens with a bucolic visual featuring meandering sheep flanked by breathtaking mountains that blur into obscurity.

Soon, more awe-inspiring photos of breathtaking New Zealand farmland appear, accompanied by expressive prose whose tone matches the visuals’ stark beauty.

In this unflinchingly honest photographic essay, Stuff takes the viewer behind the scenes with a day in the life of a high country sheep farmer facing an uncertain future. One stunning photo fades into the next as you scroll through, broken only by the occasional noteworthy quote and accompanying narrative.

Screenshots from Vanishing lands — an ominously interesting photo essay from media company Stuff

Olympic photos: Emotion runs high

An athlete is a karate uniform lying flat on the ground

This emotionally wrought sports story from NBC begins with a close-up of an anxious Simone Biles, her expression exemplifying the tension and frustration echoed on so many of her fellow athletes’ faces.

The subtitle puts it perfectly: “The agony—and thrill—of competition at the Olympics is written all over their faces.”

Devastation, disappointment, and defeat take centre stage in this piece — but not all the subjects of the photos in this compelling photography essay depict misery. Some of the images, like that taken of the gold medal-winning Russian artistic gymnasts, manage to project the athletes’ joy almost beyond the edges of the screen.

The NBC editors who created this visual story chose to display the series of photos using the entire screen width and limit the copy to simple captions, letting the visuals speak for themselves. The result is a riveting montage of photographs that manage to capture the overarching sentiment of the 2020 Olympic Games.

Screenshots from an NBC story on the agony—and thrill—of competition at the Olympics

James Epp: A Twist of the Hand

Photo of a various sculptures in a museum

In A Twist of the Hand , the Museum of Classical Archaeology at the University of Cambridge have produced a gorgeous photo essay. This online art show showcases artist James Epp’s installation, combining photographs of the exhibit with images of museum prints and authentic artefacts.

As you scroll down, close-up shots of the installation make you feel like you’re physically wandering among the ancient sculptures, able to examine hairline spider cracks and tiny divots marking the surface of every antiquated figure. In between the photos—and often flanked by museum prints—are James Epp's musings about what inspired him to create the pieces. It’s an absorbing virtual gallery that will no doubt inspire real life visits to the exhibition.

Screenshots from the University of Cambridge photo essay that showcases artist James Epson’s installation in the Museum of Classical Archaeology

The Café Racer Revolution

A helmeted man standing beside a motorbike

Though it’s a cleverly built piece of interactive content marketing , Honda’s “ Café Racer Revolution ” is also a great photo essay. Alongside information about the latest and greatest motorcycles Honda has to offer, it details the history of the bikers who sought to employ motorcycles (specifically “café racers”) as a way to forge an identity for themselves and project a “statement of individuality.”

Scroll down, and nostalgic black-and-white photos give way to contemporary action shots featuring fully decked-out motorcyclists on various Honda models.

Dynamic photos of bikes rotate them 360 degrees when you mouse over them, and text superimposed over flashy shots rolls smoothly down the screen as you scroll. This photo essay will stir a longing to hit the open road for anyone who has ever dreamed of owning one of Honda’s zippy bikes.

Screenshots from Honda's photo essay, a Café Racer Revolution

Built to keep Black from white

Four children standing against a white wall

In Built to keep Black from white , NBC News and BridgeDetroit have built a stunning narrative photo essay that encapsulates the history of Detroit’s Birwood Wall — a literal dividing line intended to separate neighborhoods inhabited by people of different races. 

The piece begins with a brief history of the concrete barrier. Between paragraphs of text, it weaves in quotes from residents who grew up as the wall was erected and a short video. Animated maps highlighting the affected neighborhoods unspool across the screen as you scroll down, accompanied by brief explanations of what the maps represent.

In the series of photographs that follow, contemporary images transition into decades-old shots of the wall when it was newly constructed. This is followed by images of original real estate documents, resident portraits, and additional animated maps — each considering the issue from different angles.

The piece ends with an interactive display of how Detroit’s racial makeup has changed over the past several decades, from majority white to black, and how the wall has impacted the lives of its residents who lived (and died) within its borders.

Screenshots from NBC's 'Built to keep Black from white,' a stunning narrative photo essay that encapsulates the history of Detroit’s Birwood Wall

The story of Black Lives Matter in sport

A footballer with 'Black Lives Matter' on his shirt.

The BBC pairs illustrations and bold imagery in this photo essay on how athletes participated in the Black Lives Matter movement . At the start, a narrow column of text leads into an iconic image of American football players kneeling during the pre-game national anthem in a solemn protest against police brutality. 

The first excerpt, a summary of Trayvon Martin’s death in 2012, draws you in with piercing prose capped off with photographs that bleed into one another. Every account in the photo essay follows this layout.

Screenshots from a BBC story on the Black Lives Matter movement in sport.

WaterAid Climate Stories

Dozens of boats sitting in a shallow harbour

Climate change affects everyone on the planet, but some people are feeling the effects more than others. WaterAid’s scrollytelling photo essay illuminates the plight of individuals living in areas where extreme weather conditions — caused by climate change — have drastically impacted the water supply and environment, endangering their livelihoods and ability to survive.

This climate change story starts with an engrossing video that provides an up-close and personal look at the devastation that climate change-induced droughts have wreaked on people and the environment. As you scroll down, images of massively depleted bodies of water with superimposed text and quotes unfold before your eyes. It’s an efficient way to drive home the critical message WaterAid wants to convey: climate change is real, and it’s harming real people.

Each extreme weather story focuses on an individual to help viewers empathise and understand that climate change has real, drastic consequences for millions of people worldwide. The piece ends with a call to action to learn more about and financially support WaterAid’s fight to assist people living in the desperate situations depicted in the essay.

Screenshots from WaterAid’s scrollytelling photo essay

28 Days in Afghanistan

A bike, a bus, and car in the thick smoke of Kabul

In this piece, Australian photo-journalist Andrew Quilty tells the story of the four weeks he spent in Afghanistan . He captures daily events ranging from the mundane—like a casual visit to his barber—to jarring. More than one photo documents blood-spattered victims of violence.

Viewers must scroll through the piece to follow Andrew’s daily musings and the striking photos that accompany them. His photo essay is a powerful example of how scrollytelling is transforming the art of long-form journalism .

Australian photo-journalist Andrew Quilty tells the story of the four weeks he spent in Afghanistan

La carrera lunática de Musk y Bezos (Musk and Bezos' lunatic careers)

An illustration of a SpaceX rocket careening away from Earth

Billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are angling to conquer the final frontier: space.

El Periódico captures their story via a whimsically illustrated photo essay, filled with neon line drawings and bold photos of the massive spaceships, the hangars that house them, and footprints on the moon. La carrera lunática de Musk y Bezos describes the battle between the two titans’ space companies (Blue Origin and SpaceX) for the honor of partially funding NASA’s next mission to the moon.

As you scroll down, white and fluorescent yellow words on a black background roll smoothly over images. The team at El Periódico slips in stylistic animations to break up the text—such as rocket ships with shimmering “vapour trails”—then ups the ante with a series of moon images that transition into portraits of the 12 U.S. astronauts who visited the celestial body.

The photo essay ends with the question: “Who will be the next to leave their footprints on the dusty lunar soil?” At the time of publishing, NASA had not yet decided between the two companies. (Spoiler alert: SpaceX won .)

Screenshots from El Periódico's story on the lunatic attempts by tech billionaires to go to space.

Marissa Sapega is a seasoned writer, editor, and digital marketer with a background in web and graphic design.

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23 Photo Essay Ideas and Examples (to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing!)

A Post By: Kevin Landwer-Johan

Ideas for compelling photo essays

Looking for inspiration? Our 23 photo essay ideas will take your photography skills to new heights!

A single, strong photograph can convey a lot of information about its subject – but sometimes we have topics that require more than one image to do the job. That’s when it’s time to make a photo essay: a collection of pictures that together tell the bigger story around a chosen theme.

In the following sections, we’ll explore various photo essay ideas and examples that cover a wide range of subjects and purposes. From capturing the growth of your children to documenting local festivals, each idea offers an exciting opportunity to tell a story through your lens, whether you’re a hobbyist or a veteran professional.

So grab your camera, unleash your creativity, and let’s delve into the wonderful world of photo essay examples!

What is a photo essay?

Simply put, a photo essay is a series of carefully selected images woven together to tell a story or convey a message. Think of it as a visual narrative that designed to capture attention and spark emotions.

Karen woman portrait

Now, these images can revolve around a broad theme or focus on a specific storyline. For instance, you might create a photo essay celebrating the joy of companionship by capturing 10 heartwarming pictures of people sharing genuine laughter. On the other hand, you could have a photo essay delving into the everyday lives of fishermen in Wales by following a single fisherman’s journey for a day or even a week.

It’s important to note that photo essays don’t necessarily have to stick to absolute truth. While some documentary photographers prefer to keep it authentic, others may employ techniques like manipulation or staging to create a more artistic impact. So there is room for creativity and interpretation.

Why you should create a photo essay

Photo essays have a way of expressing ideas and stories that words sometimes struggle to capture. They offer a visual narrative that can be incredibly powerful and impactful.

Firstly, photo essays are perfect when you have an idea or a point you want to convey, but you find yourself at a loss for words. Sometimes, emotions and concepts are better conveyed through images rather than paragraphs. So if you’re struggling to articulate a message, you can let your photos do the talking for you.

Second, if you’re interested in subjects that are highly visual, like the mesmerizing forms of architecture within a single city, photo essays are the way to go. Trying to describe the intricate details of a building or the play of light and shadows with words alone can be challenging. But through a series of captivating images, you can immerse your audience in the architecture.

And finally, if you’re aiming to evoke emotions or make a powerful statement, photo essays are outstanding. Images have an incredible ability to shock, inspire, and move people in ways that words often struggle to achieve. So if you want to raise awareness about an environmental issue or ignite a sense of empathy, a compelling series of photographs can have a profound impact.

Photo essay examples and ideas

Looking to create a photo essay but don’t know where to start? Here are some handy essay ideas and examples for inspiration!

1. A day in the life

Your first photo essay idea is simple: Track a life over the course of one day. You might make an essay about someone else’s life. Or the life of a location, such as the sidewalk outside your house. 

The subject matter you choose is up to you. But start in the morning and create a series of images showing your subject over the course of a typical day.

(Alternatively, you can document your subject on a special day, like a birthday, a wedding, or some other celebration.)

woman with a backpack getting on a train photo essay ideas

2. Capture hands

Portraits focus on a subject’s face – but why not mix it up and make a photo essay that focuses on your subject’s hands?

(You can also focus on a collection of different people’s hands.)

Hands can tell you a lot about a person. And showing them in context is a great way to narrate a story.

people on a train

3. Follow a sports team for a full season

Sports are all about emotions – both from the passionate players and the dedicated fans. While capturing the intensity of a single game can be exhilarating, imagine the power of telling the complete story of a team throughout an entire season.

For the best results, you’ll need to invest substantial time in sports photography. Choose a team that resonates with you and ensure their games are within a drivable distance. By photographing their highs and lows, celebrations and challenges, you’ll create a compelling photo essay that traces their journey from the first game to the last.

4. A child and their parent

Photographs that catch the interaction between parents and children are special. A parent-child connection is strong and unique, so making powerful images isn’t challenging. You just need to be ready to capture the special moments as they happen. 

You might concentrate on a parent teaching their child. Or the pair playing sports. Or working on a special project.

Use your imagination, and you’ll have a great time with this theme.

5. Tell a local artist’s story 

I’ve always enjoyed photographing artists as they work; studios have a creative vibe, so the energy is already there. Bring your camera into this environment and try to tell the artist’s story!

An artist’s studio offers plenty of opportunities for wonderful photo essays. Think about the most fascinating aspects of the artist’s process. What do they do that makes their art special? Aim to show this in your photos.

Many people appreciate fine art, but they’re often not aware of what happens behind the scenes. So documenting an artist can produce fascinating visual stories.

artist at work with copper

6. Show a tradesperson’s process

Do you have a plumber coming over to fix your kitchen sink? Is a builder making you a new deck?

Take photos while they work! Tell them what you want to do before you start, and don’t forget to share your photos with them.

They’ll probably appreciate seeing what they do from another perspective. They may even want to use your photos on their company website.

hot iron in crucible

7. Photograph your kids as they grow

There’s something incredibly special about documenting the growth of our little ones. Kids grow up so quickly – before you know it, they’re moving out. Why not capture the beautiful moments along the way by creating a heartwarming photo essay that showcases their growth?

There are various approaches you can take, but one idea is to capture regular photos of your kids standing in front of a distinct point of reference, such as the refrigerator. Over a year or several years, you can gather these images and place them side by side to witness your childrens’ incredible transformations.

8. Cover a local community event

A school fundraiser, a tree-planting day at a park, or a parade; these are are all community events that make for good photo essay ideas.

Think like a photojournalist . What type of images would your editor want? Make sure to capture some wide-angle compositions , some medium shots, and some close-ups.

(Getting in close to show the details can often tell as much of a story as the wider pictures.)

9. Show fresh market life

Markets are great for photography because there’s always plenty of activity and lots of characters. Think of how you can best illustrate the flow of life at the market. What are the vendors doing that’s most interesting? What are the habits of the shoppers?

Look to capture the essence of the place. Try to portray the people who work and shop there.

woman at the fresh market

10. Shoot the same location over time

What location do you visit regularly? Is there a way you can make an interesting photo essay about it?

Consider what you find most attractive and ugly about the place. Look for aspects that change over time. 

Any outdoor location will look different throughout the day. Also think about the changes that occur from season to season. Create an essay that tells the story of the place.

11. Document a local festival

Festivals infuse cities and towns with vibrant energy and unique cultural experiences. Even if your own town doesn’t have notable festivals, chances are a neighboring town does. Explore the magic of these celebrations by documenting a local festival through your lens.

Immerse yourself in the festivities, arriving early and staying late. Capture the colorful displays and the people who make the festival come alive. If the festival spans multiple days, consider focusing on different areas each time you visit to create a diverse and comprehensive photo essay that truly reflects the essence of the event.

12. Photograph a garden through the seasons

It might be your own garden . It could be the neighbor’s. It could even be the garden at your local park.

Think about how the plants change during the course of a year. Capture photos of the most significant visual differences, then present them as a photo essay.

lotus flower

13. Show your local town or city

After spending several years in a particular area, you likely possess an intimate knowledge of your local town or city. Why not utilize that familiarity to create a captivating photo essay that showcases the essence of your community?

Delve into what makes your town special, whether it’s the charming streets, unique landmarks, or the people who shape its character. Dedicate time to capturing the diverse aspects that define your locale. If you’re up for a more extensive project, consider photographing the town over the course of an entire year, capturing the changing seasons and the dynamic spirit of your community.

14. Pick a local cause to highlight

Photo essays can go beyond passive documentation; they can become a part of your activism, too!

So find a cause that matters to you. Tell the story of some aspect of community life that needs improvement. Is there an ongoing issue with litter in your area? How about traffic; is there a problematic intersection?

Document these issues, then make sure to show the photos to people responsible for taking action.

15. Making a meal

Photo essay ideas can be about simple, everyday things – like making a meal or a coffee.

How can you creatively illustrate something that seems so mundane? My guess is that, when you put your mind to it, you can come up with many unique perspectives, all of which will make great stories.

plate of Thai curry photo essay ideas

16. Capture the life of a flower

In our fast-paced lives, it’s easy to overlook the beauty that surrounds us. Flowers, with their mesmerizing colors and rapid life cycles, offer a captivating subject for a photo essay. Try to slow down and appreciate the intricate details of a flower’s existence.

With a macro lens in hand, document a single flower or a patch of flowers from their initial shoots to their inevitable wilting and decomposition. Experiment with different angles and perspectives to bring viewers into the enchanting world of the flower. By freezing these fleeting moments, you’ll create a visual narrative that celebrates the cycle of life and the exquisite beauty found in nature’s delicate creations.

17. Religious traditions

Religion is often rich with visual expression in one form or another. So capture it!

Of course, you may need to narrow down your ideas and choose a specific aspect of worship to photograph. Aim to show what people do when they visit a holy place, or how they pray on their own. Illustrate what makes their faith real and what’s special about it.

photo essay idea monks walking

18. Historic sites

Historic sites are often iconic, and plenty of photographers take a snapshot or two.

But with a photo essay, you can illustrate the site’s history in greater depth.

Look for details of the location that many visitors miss. And use these to build an interesting story.

19. Show the construction of a building

Ever been away from a familiar place for a while only to return and find that things have changed? It happens all the time, especially in areas undergoing constant development. So why not grab your camera and document this transformation?

Here’s the idea: Find a building that’s currently under construction in your area. It could be a towering skyscraper, a modern office complex, or even a small-scale residential project. Whatever catches your eye! Then let the magic of photography unfold.

Make it a habit to take a photo every day or two. Watch as the building gradually takes shape and evolves. Capture the construction workers in action, the cranes reaching for the sky, and the scaffolding supporting the structure.

Once the building is complete, you’ll have a treasure trove of images that chronicle its construction from start to finish!

20. Document the changing skyline of the city

This photo essay example is like the previous one, except it works on a much larger scale. Instead of photographing a single building as it’s built, find a nice vantage point outside your nearest city, then photograph the changing skyline.

To create a remarkable photo essay showcasing the changing skyline, you’ll need to scout out the perfect vantage point. Seek high ground that offers a commanding view of the city, allowing you to frame the skyline against the horizon. Look for spots that give you an unobstructed perspective, whether a rooftop terrace, a hillside park, or even a nearby bridge.

As you set out on your photography expedition, be patient and observant. Cities don’t transform overnight; they change gradually over time. Embrace the passage of days, weeks, and months as you witness the slow evolution unfold.

Pro tip: To capture the essence of this transformation, experiment with various photographic techniques. Play with different angles, framing, and compositions to convey the grandeur and dynamism of the changing skyline. Plus, try shooting during the golden hours of sunrise and sunset , when the soft light bathes the city in a warm glow and accentuates the architectural details.

21. Photograph your pet

If you’re a pet owner, you already have the perfect subject for a photo essay!

All pets , with the possible exception of pet rocks, will provide you with a collection of interesting moments to photograph.

So collect these moments with your camera – then display them as a photo essay showing the nature and character of your pet.

Woman and elephant

22. Tell the story of a local nature preserve

Ah, the wonders of a local nature preserve! While it may not boast the grandeur of Yosemite National Park, these hidden gems hold their own beauty, just waiting to be discovered and captured through the lens of your camera.

To embark on this type of photo essay adventure, start by exploring all the nooks and crannies of your chosen nature preserve. Wander along its winding trails, keeping an eye out for unique and captivating subjects that convey the essence of the preserve.

As you go along, try to photograph the intricate details of delicate wildflowers, the interplay of light filtering through a dense forest canopy, and the lively activities of birds and other wildlife.

23. Show the same subject from multiple perspectives

It’s possible to create an entire photo essay in a single afternoon – or even in a handful of minutes. If you don’t love the idea of dedicating yourself to days of photographing for a single essay, this is a great option.

Simply find a subject you like, then endeavor to capture 10 unique images that include it. I’d recommend photographing from different angles: up above, down low, from the right and left. You can also try getting experimental with creative techniques, such as intentional camera movement and freelensing. If all goes well, you’ll have a very cool set of images featuring one of your favorite subjects!

By showcasing the same subject from multiple perspectives, you invite viewers on a visual journey. They get to see different facets, textures, and details that they might have overlooked in a single photograph. It adds depth and richness to your photo essay, making it both immersive and dynamic.

Photo essay ideas: final words

Remember: Photo essays are all about communicating a concept or a story through images rather than words. So embrace the process and use images to express yourself!

Whether you choose to follow a sports team through a thrilling season, document the growth of your little ones, or explore the hidden treasures of your local town, each photo essay has its own magic waiting to be unlocked. It’s a chance to explore your creativity and create images in your own style.

So look at the world around you. Grab your gear and venture out into the wild. Embrace the beauty of nature, the energy of a bustling city, or the quiet moments that make life special. Consider what you see every day. What aspects interest you the most? Photograph those things.

You’re bound to end up with some amazing photo essays!

Now over to you:

Do you have any photo essay examples you’re proud of? Do you have any more photo essay ideas? Share your thoughts and images in the comments below!

23 Photo Essay Ideas and Examples (to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing!)

Read more from our Tips & Tutorials category

Kevin Landwer-Johan

Kevin Landwer-Johan is a photographer, photography teacher, and author with over 30 years of experience that he loves to share with others.

Check out his website and his Buy Me a Coffee page .

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How to create an outstanding Photo Essay

how to create a photo essay

If you are working on your photo essay and would wish to know how to create a successful one, we have some tips, tricks, and techniques outlined in this article. With the sophistication of digital publishing, you need to be on your A-game when creating digital photos that tell a story.

As a custom essay writing service , our ultimate goal in this article is to guide you on creating a photo essay without straining. We like it when writing, and creativity is fun altogether. Therefore, we have outlined examples, classifications, and a framework that you can use when creating your photo essay.

This article also bears the definition of what a photo essay is. And although you could use this as a professional or a student, you can pay someone to do your essay on our website. When you do so, a polished essay writer will work with you in creating a good photo essay,

We have creatives with expertise, a knack for experimentation, critical thinking and creativity, and an insatiable urge to produce top content. If it sounds like you could use our help, let us know the best way we can assist you in creating a perfect photography essay.

If, however, all you need is insights to point you in the right direction, here is how to create a good photo essay without straining. Let’s explore!

What is a Photo Essay?

Visual storytelling appeals to everyone who has a sense of sight.

Unlike your typical essay in college, a photo essay is a project where you present a series of photographs or images to tell a story, share a narrative, or push a theme/agenda. Thus, a photo essay facilitates picture-led storytelling , which is a creative innovation in photojournalism.

It is also known as a photographic or picture essay. A great photo essay powerfully evokes emotions and appeals to the understanding of its intended audience without using words or with minimal words alongside the series of images.

A perfectly-created photo essay narrates a story using many photographs that take the viewer along your narrative journey. Indeed, it proves that a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, since there are many pictures/images, you could say a photo essay is rich in words, flavor, and content, yet it does not have words.

Talking of photo essays, Ansel Adams is one of the revered and famous photo essayists. Other photo essayists include James Nachtwey, Eugene Smith, and Nancy Borowick .

How to Create a Photo Essay in a step-by-step format

Here is a step-by-step approach to follow to successfully create a compelling and engaging photo essay:

Step 1 – Do your Research

If you are to create an attractive and relevant photo essay, begin by researching the best framework to adopt. Look at what people are doing out there and find out how creatively you can do it better. There are inexhaustible ideas and concepts that you can explore when writing a photo essay. If you’ve not chosen a topic, thorough research can help you decide on a topic and handle it well.

Step 2 - Choose a theme for your photo essay

With the research, you can already identify a specific theme or narrative for your picture essay. Therefore, highlight the theme or narrative, write some notes about the direction you will tackle and how you will reach and satisfy your audience.

Step 2 – Choose a topic that aligns with the theme

Following the findings from your research, choose a great topic. You are not that lucky photo essayist who opportunistically happens upon a story and turns it into a brilliant photo essay. Therefore, you should choose an attractive, reasonable, short, and memorable topic. You are free to select any topic that interests you and one that you find fun to work on. Your chosen theme or narrative can help define the topic for your photo essay.

Step 3 – Pick your subjects

With the theme/narrative and the topic, you can then choose your subjects. These are the people, things, sceneries, or places of central focus in your photography essay.  

The subjects are the ones that give your photo essay a voice, strengthen your narrative, and engage the audience.

Step 4 – Select your top images

Define the appropriate number of images that you intend to use when telling the story. For example, if you intend to leave the audience under suspense, choose which images to use and their order of appearance.  Your photo essay project does not have to use all your images but the best.

The best way to integrate your theme, narrative, and subjects is to create a storyboard that helps you decide how to tell the story. Then, when you lay your ideas out, a storyboard helps you focus on what is essential, especially when you have little control over a given subject.

Step 5 – ask for insights and input from others

After creating the storyboard, choosing the photos, and writing a narrative or theme statement, you can share it with someone knowledgeable for critique. You should also invite views and comments from another person. Ensure that you give the entire photo cache to the person so that they can choose, then compare with your best photos and tweak your choice accordingly.

Step 6 – Write the captions and text

With everything set, write the accompanying content for your photo essay. As well, make sure you caption each photo to enhance your visual narrative. Nothing is cast in stone here because you can also drop using image captions. You can experiment with lighting, tone, color, composition, angles, and location so that the narrative flows. Also, don’t forget to create introductory messages and closing messages. You need to have your signature introductory and closing images well-decided.

Step 7 – Edit your work

Now that you have created a photo essay, it is now time to edit everything. You can ask for help or rest and do it when you are energetic and objective. If you want a skilled essay writer to write you an excellent narrative to post alongside your photo essay, you can always trust our essay website.  We can also edit the narrative to maintain a good flow.

Step 8 – Publish/submit your work

If everything else is okay, convert the photo essay to the correct format and submit or publish it. Remember, photo essays can be a portion of a webpage, a webpage, a document, fashion publication, photo editorial, collage of images, or mixed media.

Helpful Tips when compiling your Photographic Essay

If you are on track to become a photo essayist, you need to grasp the most critical photo essaying tips, techniques, and tricks. Here is some best advice you could use to find a subject for your photo essay.

1. Try to tell a diverse and confident story

When you get out there to tell a story, make sure you do it most awesomely. Understand your target audience, do anything that will resonate with their needs, appeal to their emotions, logic, and thoughts, and leave them musing over your narrative. It is, therefore, vital that you consider what your key message will be and be confident when handling it in your photo essay.

2.Storyboard before building

Architects, surgeons, artists, engineers, you name the profession, all begin with either a sketch, blueprint or a plan to visualize the entire concept or creation before its actualization. In the real of photo essays, you have to be invested right from the beginning. Therefore, you need to create a storyboard that helps you to convert your vision, abstract thoughts, and ideas to a concrete plan that you can execute to succeed in your project. A storyboard also doubles as a shortlist for your photography project.

When storyboarding, you will notice that you take an outsider view, which helps you evaluate how every element fits into the larger picture – your narrative/theme. When doing it, you can discard otherwise burdensome but irrelevant content, which saves you time and leaves you to focus more.

Storyboarding is a critical, creative step when building a perfect photo essay as it ensures the flow to your viewers.

3. Have a visual structure

A contemporary photo essay follows a simple or basic framework that gives your theme direction and scope. Therefore, having a visual structure, marker, or framework helps you transform the photo series into a narrative. For instance, this Growing up young photo essay published in the BBC chooses to have quotes from the subjects running alongside the photos. Likewise, the picture essay done by photojournalist Stefanie Glinski titled  One Month in Kabul Under Taliban rule – a photo essay has narrative and captions to further illustrate the themes, content, and narratives.

4. Have a variety of images

To write an exceptional photo essay, ensure that you have as many photos or images as possible. Assemble as much as you think you will need for the project, then use your ruthless photo editing skills to pick the best photos.

Although shedding content hurts, it’s the only best way to achieve the best piece. It is also better to be in a dilemma of which photos to use than wish that you included a specific shot. Having multiple shots ensures that everything is captured. Then compiling your photo series becomes easier.

5. Edit your photos well

When editing, do it ruthlessly. While you cannot be Annie Leibovitz, Stefanie Glinski, or Ansel Adams, you certainly have to up your game to be at par with them. You can either use a professional editor. Alternatively, you can edit your photos using Photoshop, Illustrator, or other image-editing software. Whatever you choose your struggle to be, ensure that you end up with high-quality photos that make sense to your theme or narrative. If you have to refine an image to remove blemish or flaws, use it as long as it ends up fine. Make sure that the focus of each photo is visible and that unwanted areas are cropped out. If you are editing on your own, edit the photos a few days after the shoot to have an objective mind when doing it.

6. Choose the top 10 images

You are not just going to lazily throw images and words all over a structure and have it for the best photo essay out there. Instead, you need to select quality photos that will tell your narrative. Be keen enough to ensure that any photo that makes it to the top 10 list is compelling and poignant. If you notice that you don’t have good equipment to produce or capture quality photos, don’t be afraid to pull in a professional photographer.

7. Use outside input to perfect your choice

When working on a photo essay project, you are not necessarily an island. The photo essayists we’ve mentioned work with teams. You equally need to get a trusted, visually active, and sophisticated individual, professional, or friend to help you.

Have them look at the photos you took and ask them to choose the best. As well, provide them with a written description of your narrative and ask them to select their 10 best photos.

Compare their choice with yours and if they differ, make a point of asking the reason. Listen keenly and tweak your narrative and choice as they most likely reflect what an audience would perceive from the photo essay.

8. Select the best photos from the best

Based on the reasons from your external source (friend, editor, or photographer), select the 10 best photographs to use in telling your story. As well, change the narration if there is a need to tweak it.

9. Write reasonable captions

For your final choice of 10 images, write a befitting caption that will help to enhance your visual narrative. You need to be concise, brief, and clear. If the photos have a strong or exciting background story you wish to run, have the narrative written as content alongside the photos.

However, if you feel like the images can stand alone without captions, don’t beat yourself over it; leave them out. After all, using captions is not a must.

Look at this example of Black Lives Matter Photo Essay (Link to external site).

Apart from the caption, you can add text that contains data, complex metrics, or maps to support your narrative. Using maps can help drive the point home.

10. Focus on the details

Yes, the devil is always in the details. When you eventually display your photo essay to an audience, everybody analyzes it their way. However, when you capture the details, you will take care of each perspective, judgment, and reasoning from your audience. Ensure that you place everything in context and that everything is up to date.

11. Make it fun

Unlike college essays that come with challenges, creating a photo essay should be fun. Therefore, enjoy every bit of the project. Doing so helps you to step up your game, inspire creativity, and relaxes your mind. There is nothing creative and innovative you cannot do in a photo essay with a let loose sort of spirit.

12. Set the scene

When telling a story through photography, you are equally writing your story. Therefore, ensure that you set a scene to capture the moment that appeals to your audience.

For the events that you have no control over, try as much as possible to take photos that match your narrative or theme.

13. Experiment more when taking photos

There is no single bullet to creating an outstanding photo essay. To achieve perfection, let your photo essay express your story in the best way it can. Therefore, you need to test filter effects, use fonts, adjust the visuals, check the contrast, adjust color, hue, and feel, and crop your photos well. With experimentation comes creativity and innovativeness, which birth perfection.

Classification of Photo Essays

In terms of classification, there are two general classes of photo essays where all the genres of photo essays fall. These classes are narrative and thematic.

1. Narrative Photo Essays

A narrative photo essay, as the name suggests, tells a specific story. But, mainly, these types of photo essays tend to tell a peculiar and more direct story.

Unlike thematic photo essays, narrative photo essays give less freedom to the photo essayist. The use of text is to have some sense of completion to the story.

For instance, the 28 Days in Afghanistan by Andrew Quilty published in the SBS is a narrative photo essay that documents the photographer’s experience in the war-torn nation using both text and unadulterated photos.

The picture essay by photojournalist Stefanie Glinski titled  One Month in Kabul Under Taliban rule – a photo essay also falls under this category as it highlights her one-month encounter in Kabul.

2. Thematic photo Essays

Thematic photo essays are topic-specific. For example, they can be on politics, pollution, police brutality, global pandemic, poverty, crime, etc.

You have the freedom of choosing the subjects, location, and you do not necessarily have to incorporate text.

An example of a thematic photo essay is the “ They call us bewitched ” picture essay published in the Guardian. We also bumped into the Olympics Photos: Emotion runs high by the NBC News, which we find as an excellent thematic photo essay. Next, look at this Hurricane Katrina photo essay. It is thematic in the sense that it focuses on a natural disaster. Finally, if you want more examples, this photo essay titled “ From Trayvon Martin to Colin Kaepernick ” details the theme of Black Lives Matter/ police brutality.

Typical Photo Essay Examples/Genres to inspire your creativity

  • The daily life photo essay – A Day-in-the-life photo essay tells a story about the day-to-day life of a given subject. It could be a lawyer, president, celebrity, farmer, industrialist, pope, student, etc. most of these photographic essays evoke emotions and help the audience enter into the subject's world.
  • Transitioning through life photo essay – These are essays that detail photos of how people transform through life. It can be a photo of a celebrity, president, farmer, or famous person since they were young to date.
  • Special events photo essays – As the name suggests, these are photo essays on special events, festivities, and occurrences. The events can be weddings, burials, art exhibitions, car shows, auction events, or celebrations. They have very elaborate and relatable background objects that connect to the main idea.
  • Family photo essays – These can be photo essays on family members. You can include photos that show how the family has grown or detailing the family tree. They can also be family business photos that detail the leaders assigned roles to family businesses.
  • Protest photo essays – These are thematic photo essays that detail how protests occurred and paint a clear picture of the theme of such protests as the Black Lives Matter protests. When creating a protest photo essay, you should have information about the particular protest. Focus on incidents and protests that occurred in history.
  • Sports photo essays – Sports essays can be on sports events such as Olympics, Wimbledon, football leagues, or about sportsmen and women. For instance, the Skysports’ picture essay on Diego Maradona titled Diego Maradona: Images of a football Icon .
  • Medical Photo Essays – Organizations such as WHO , Universities , or CDC have various examples of medical photo essays. These visual illustrations focus on medical research, medical practice, diseases, and medical breakthroughs.
  • Scientific Photo Essays – Like medical essays, these photo essays detail scientific encounters, breakthroughs, inventions, etc.
  • Celebrity photo essays – You can create a photo essay on a celebrity.
  • Political photo essays are photo essays that capture and narrate political events, history, and news in a series of photographs and narratives. It could be about leftist and rightist politics or geopolitics as well as policy-making.
  • War photo essays – Captures the critical and significant elements of conflict, war, and peace. There are many samples online.
  • Timelapse photo essays – These are transformational photo essays that capture the changes of a subject through time. They might take longer to develop and can be on buildings, estates, cities, trees, or landscapes.
  • Relationship photo essays – This photo essay genre captures the interaction between people, families, and loved ones. It is the most common assignment in journalism class. It offers an excellent chance to capture emotions like love, family, and friendship.
  • Poverty photo essays – This genre of photo essays captures poverty from the standpoint of the subject. They can contain infrastructure, housing, amenities, food, water, etc. They are very emotional and can use narratives. They are the same as drought photo essays that capture how the drought has ravaged a geographic region of interest.
  • City photo essays – These are photographic essays that capture a city's feel, life, and pleasures. They are thematic in nature and allow you to focus on specific areas, moods, and feeling that such places evoke.
  • Education photo essays – Details issues in education. For instance, it can be a photo essay showing the disparity in access, challenges in education, or infrastructure in education. An example is The Many Faces of Learning, published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Another one is Embracing Education , published by the Lutheran World Federation.

As long as you can think of any topic, there is always a picture or photo essay genre where it can fall under. Remember, you can be asked to create a photo essay on a Word Document or PDF for class, which is where you get the chance to display your prowess and creativity.

Common Photo Essay Examples

Here are the famous photo essays that you can draw inspiration from:

  • Various American Natural Sites by Ansel Adams
  • “Everyday” by Noah Kalina
  • “Signed, X” by Kate Ryan 
  • “The Vietnam War” by Philip Jones Griffiths
  • “The Great Depression” by Dorothea Lange

Structure/Anatomy of a Photo Essay

Here is a blueprint or skeleton of how a basic photo essay can look like

Introductory text/content

This is where you type the text that explains or introduces the photo essay to your audience.

Signature Image

This is the strongest image that has a visual impact on the story you are running. It should be an image that invites the viewers to your story to be interested in looking further. In simple terms, this is your window, attention grabber, or icon; make it count.

This is the picture of a key player or the main subject of your story. You must ensure that the foreground and background elements reinforce the theme or narrative.

Where the subject is caught in real moments, such as in environmental portraits, is reportedly more compelling. You can use a series of posed portraits as well.

Overall wider view

This is the photograph that gives the viewers a sense of the place or part of the place where the story happens. You use such images to create a scene. It can also be a series of detailed images bundled together to set the scene.

Here, you need to follow up with a photograph that explains the finer details. The photo can be abstract but eye-catching in the sense that it draws the attention of the audience. It should be an image that reveals to the audience some aspect that is otherwise missed in a wider shot. You are allowed to use series of small detail photos as a mosaic in one image .

When defining an action, look for a photograph that shows the main theme in your story. For instance, if it is a Black Lives Matter protest, focus on a photo that captures banners, police, and protesters.  Specifically, focus on the most poignant or dramatic images that capture people interacting with one another. You can as well capture gestures or moments that amplify the visual narrative you want to communicate.

Closing Photo and text

This is the powerful closing photograph that lets your audience ponder more about your visual narrative. You can follow it with a text highlighting the thoughts you want the audience to reason with as they come to the end of your photo essay.

belief photo essay

Gradecrest is a professional writing service that provides original model papers. We offer personalized services along with research materials for assistance purposes only. All the materials from our website should be used with proper references. See our Terms of Use Page for proper details.

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How to Make a Photo Essay

Last Updated: September 27, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Heather Gallagher . Heather Gallagher is a Photojournalist & Photographer based in Austin, Texas. She runs her own photography studio named "Heather Gallagher Photography" which was voted Austin's Best Family Photographer and top 3 Birth Photographers in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Heather specializes in family Photojournalism and has over 15 years of experience documenting individuals, families, and businesses all over the world. Her clients include Delta Airlines, Oracle, Texas Monthly, and her work has been featured in The Washington Post and The Austin American Statesman. She is a member of the International Association of Professional Birth Photographers (IAPBP). There are 11 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 285,807 times.

Photo essays are an increasingly popular medium for journalists, bloggers, and advertisers alike. Whether you’re trying to show the emotional impact of a current news story or share your hobby with friends and family, images can capture your topic in a personal, emotional, and interesting way. Creating a photo essay can be as easy as choosing a topic, getting your images, and organizing the essay.

Things You Should Know

  • Reflect long and hard on your topic, considering your audience, current events, and whether to go for a thematic or narrative approach.
  • Create an outline, including your focus image, establishing shot, clincher, and other image details.
  • When you finally take your photos, remember to take more photos than you think you need and don't be afraid to let the project change as you create it.

Finding Your Topic

Step 1 Review current events.

  • Offer a photo essay of your place of business as a training tool.
  • Use a photo essay about your business as a sales or social tool by publishing it on your website or social media page.
  • Create a how to photo essay to help others learn about your hobby, so they can take it up as well. [4] X Research source

Step 4 Select an interesting subject.

  • Thematic subjects are big ideas including things like local gun laws, at-risk youth, or welcoming home soldiers.
  • Narrative essays can include a day in the life, how to tutorials, or progression series that show changes over time such as tracking a building project.
  • If you have been given a commission or specific publication to work with, you may need to choose a topic that will fit a thematic or narrative approach as outlined by the publication. Make sure you are aware of any publication guidelines in advance.

Organizing Your Shoot

Step 1 Get permission.

  • Consider how difficult it will be to get permission to photograph your subjects. If you already have relationships established, it will be easier. If not, allow for extra time to get permission and/or waivers.
  • Schools, daycares, and other places with kids typically have more regulations on who can be photographed and for what purposes. You’ll usually need to get parental approval, in addition to permission from those in charge. [7] X Research source

Step 2 Research your subject.

  • Consider doing interviews with people involved prior to the shoot. Ask things like, “What’s the most interesting thing you do during this event?” or “How long have you been involved with this organization?”
  • These interviews are also a great opportunity to ask for permission and get waivers.
  • If you’re going to visit a job site, charitable event, or other large group activity, ask the person or persons in charge to explain what you’re doing to everyone before you arrive. [8] X Research source

Step 3 Create an outline.

Capturing Your Images

Step 1 Check the light.

  • Many new photographers stay away from high ISO shots because they allow more light through producing a “busy” image. However, these images are often easier to edit later as there’s more information to work with. [11] X Research source
  • If it’s very bright in your location or you’ve set up artificial lighting, a low ISO is likely adequate, For darker areas, you’ll likely need to use a higher ISO.
  • If you need one second to capture an image with a base ISO of 100, you’ll need one eighth of a second to capture with an ISO of 800. [13] X Research source

Step 2 Consider composition.

  • Even snapping candid shots, which you may need to capture quickly, take a few moments to think about how objects are placed to make the most impact.
  • Always think about how the main subject’s surroundings play into the overall image, and try to create different levels and points of interest.
  • You can change composition as part of the editing process in some cases, so if you can’t line up the shot just right, don’t let it deter you from capturing the image you want. [14] X Research source

Step 3 Take more photos than you need.

Organizing the Essay

Step 1 Exclude photos you don’t need.

  • If you’re doing a day in the life photo essay about a frustrated person working in an office, an image of that person struggling to open the front door against the wind might be an apt focus shot.
  • If your essay is about the process of building a home, your focus image may be something like a contractor and architect looking at blue prints with the framed up home in the background.
  • If your essay is about a family reunion, the focus image may be a funny shot of the whole family making faces, pretending to be fighting, or a serious photo of the family posed together. Capture whatever seems natural for the family. [18] X Research source

Step 3 Categorize your remaining photos.

  • Regardless of essay type, you’ll need a focus image to grab attention.
  • Use an overall shot to give context to your essay. Where is it, when is it happening, who’s involved, what’s going on, and why should someone be interested? The five “W’s” of journalism are a great way to determine what your overall shot should capture.
  • Find your final image. This should be something provocative that asks your viewer to think about the topic.
  • Between the focus and overall shot and ending image, include a series of images that move the viewer from the lead-in shots to its result. Use images that build in intensity or draw the viewers further into the essay.

Step 5 Ask for feedback.

  • If the images aren’t telling the story, ask your friends to look at your other photos and ask, “I wanted this image to make this point. You got a different idea. Would any of these images make this point to you more clearly?”
  • If the others like the images you’ve chosen, you may still want to ask them to look at your other photos and tell you if they think any of the images you didn’t include should be added in. They may see something you missed. [20] X Research source

Step 6 Add text.

  • If you're commissioned to add photos to an essay, you should make sure images reflect the written word, but also add emotion and context the writing could not capture. For example, an essay on poverty may include an image of a child and parent living on the street could capture more emotional context.
  • Captions should only include information the viewer could not derive from the photo itself. For instance, you can include a date, the subject’s name, or a statistic relevant to your subject in the caption.
  • If you choose not to have any text or just a title and some introductory and/or closing words, make sure you convey all necessary information succinctly. [21] X Research source

Expert Q&A

Heather Gallagher

  • Be creative with your topics. However, something as simple as "things I like" will suffice so long as you stay creative. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
  • Make sure you're familiar with your camera. It will make the photo composition a lot easier. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
  • Don't get discouraged. It may take several tries to get the desired results in your photos. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

belief photo essay

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Write an Essay

  • ↑ http://digital-photography-school.com/5-photo-essay-tips/
  • ↑ Heather Gallagher. Professional Photojournalist & Photographer. Expert Interview. 8 April 2020.
  • ↑ http://improvephotography.com/30816/10-ideas-creative-photo-essays/
  • ↑ http://www.apogeephoto.com/how-to-create-a-photo-essay/
  • ↑ https://petapixel.com/how-to-create-a-photo-essay/
  • ↑ http://photo.journalism.cuny.edu/week-5/
  • ↑ http://clickitupanotch.com/2010/12/creating-a-photo-essay/
  • ↑ https://photographylife.com/what-is-iso-in-photography
  • ↑ https://wiredimpact.com/blog/how-to-make-a-photo-essay-nonprofit/
  • ↑ http://digital-photography-school.com/5-tips-for-creating-a-photo-essay-with-a-purpose/
  • ↑ https://www.format.com/magazine/resources/photography/how-to-make-photo-essay-examples

About This Article

Heather Gallagher

To make a photo essay, start by selecting a subject that is easy to capture and that inspires you, like a friend or a family pet. Then, decide if you want to present your photo essay as thematic, which shows specific examples of a big idea, or narrative, with a beginning, middle, and end. Next, create an outline of your essay to determine which photos you’ll need, like an establishing shot. Finally, take your photos, select which images you want to use in your essay, and organize them according to your theme before adding text to explain the essay. To learn how to capture the best images, keep scrolling! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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A Homegoing to Remember

Willie watkins honors the dead with funerals that celebrate black lives with dignity and flourish..

Julian Reeder’s family was hard to miss amid the sea of black-clad mourners at Riverdale’s Fountain of Faith Missionary Baptist Church one Friday in January. They were dressed in white, matching the luminous suit worn by their beloved in the casket.

The family chose white because it was a color the 52-year-old grandfather of nine enjoyed wearing and because it gave an uplifting feeling to an otherwise gloomy day, says Tova Reeder, Julian’s sister. “We wanted it to be more like a celebration.”

Despite sorrowful, solemn and sometimes tragic circumstances, Black funerals are often marked by a spirit of celebration. A homegoing, as the Black Christian tradition is called, commemorates the return of the deceased to the Lord.

“The Bible teaches us to rejoice in the victory, because you’ve made it over,” says funeral home owner Willie Watkins . This joy is conveyed through careful artistry, whether in a mourner’s choice of clothes, a gospel singer’s soulful voice or a funeral home’s service.

Family members of Julian Reeder attend his funeral at Fountain of Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Riverdale in January.

Credit: [email protected]

Watkins, 74, is one of Atlanta’s — and the nation’s — most esteemed undertakers. His funeral home has overseen services for everyone from civil rights icons Coretta Scott King and John Lewis to rapper Shawty Lo. But the bulk of his work is for everyday families like the Reeders, who come for the business’ reputation and the special experiences it offers families. Options include crowning ceremonies, dove releases, and transporting caskets in a horse-drawn carriage.

As a boy, Watkins was fascinated by the funerals he attended with his grandmother in Scottsdale. When he was 13, he got a job at Herschel Thornton Mortuary in Atlanta and by 16 he was directing services. In 1978, he bought a spacious, old home in Atlanta’s West End, which became the flagship Willie A. Watkins Funeral Home. Throughout the metro area there are now five locations, which he runs with the help of his family.

“Performance” is the word that best describes the distinctiveness of a homegoing, says Karla Holloway, professor emeritus of English, law and African American studies at Duke University. Black Americans historically were not afforded respect and dignity in American life, but they could counteract that through elaborate funeral rituals.

“Zora Neale Hurston said that Black folk have an urge to adorn,” Holloway says. “The more adornment we can give to the ceremony, the more memorable it is.”

Willie Watkins Funeral Home’s services are certainly memorable. From high-stepping funeral attendants to trotting white horses, the business is known for its for ornate and sometimes extravagant pageantry. It all makes for a sight to behold — a representation as much of vivid life as of death.

Carroll Brown (left) wipes a tear from her eye after viewing the casket of her son-in-law, Marcus Johnson, 50. Over the past two decades, several of Brown’s family members have had homegoings performed by Willie Watkins Funeral Home.

How we got the story

Staff photographer Arvin Temkar joined The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2022. Temkar spent three months behind the scenes at Willie Watkins’ Funeral Home, attending services, following employees on their daily duties and talking to bereaved families, to capture some of the artistry and soul that goes into a homegoing.

223 Belief Essay Ideas, Topics, & Examples

Looking for belief essay ideas? Being a subject of numerous philosophical debates, the concept of belief is worth exploring.

🏆 Best Belief Essay Examples

⭐ personal belief essay topics, 💡 most interesting belief topics to write about, 📑 simple & easy belief essay titles, 📌 top belief topics to write about, 👍 exciting belief essay ideas, ❓ belief system research questions.

In your belief essay, you might want to focus of various philosophical approaches to the concept. Another idea is to compare religious and secular belief systems. One more option is to talk about your strongest personal beliefs and practices. Whether you have to write a high-school or a college assignment, our article will be helpful. Here you’ll find everything you might need to write a belief essay. Best personal belief essay topics and examples written by A+ students are collected below.

  • Kant’s Categorical Imperative vs. Kierkegaard’s Notion of Faith The reason of why Kant’s ideas are preferable to me is that the categorical imperative allows to define what actions are obligatory and which ones should be forbidden and to choose the way that is […]
  • Corporate Ethics in the “Business Through the Eyes of Faith” He concludes that prosperity and profitability in business should not be equated to God’s approval and favor, rather it should be perceived as due reward for diligence and discipline in the course of running the […]
  • The Faith Concept and Types The concept of faith, types of faith and the criticism of faith are the key areas explored in this paper. The most common type of faith in the world is the religious faith.
  • The Belief in God The existence of God is justified in the sense that existence in the mind as a concept limits the idea of God already in the minds of people.
  • What is Theology – Faith and Reason in Theology Paul Ricoeur specialized in philosophy and of relevance to this paper are his thoughts on the effect of the past on the present.
  • Religion: Reason and Faith Judaism According to Anon, this is one of the religions that have their origin in the covenant of Abraham with God.
  • Belief in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” This is the beginning of his disbelief and loss of faith in good. This is the main factor which points to the weakening of the society in general.
  • Faith and Materialism in Matthew 6:24-30 Due to simplicity, readers do not have to refer or infer to the original text in Greek or to the bible dictionary to get the meaning of the complex words in the text.
  • Criticism of “Our Faith in Science” The authors imply that scientific methods can help to prove the positive effect of Tenzin Gyatso’s practices in order to tell about this phenomenon to the international community.
  • Buddhism: Analysis of the Religion’s Faith and Practices This includes the name of the religion followers, the history and origins of the religion including the founders, the name of the Supreme Being or God, as well as the name of the place of […]
  • Historical Background of Islamic Faith The fundamental goal of this pillar is to ensure sharing among the Muslims. Muslims believe that the purpose of sexual relations is to beget children.
  • Families of Faith East and West, Their Cosmologies, Core Beliefs and Practice Christians believe in the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church and that God is the creator and the savior of mankind.
  • The Ethics of Belief: Based on Evidence or Inquiry In his essay The Ethics of Belief, William Clifford argued that every form of belief had to be based on some evidence or inquiry.
  • Blind Faith vs. the Rational Approach However, the novelty of the approach wears off quickly, since the only original idea of the presuppositional apologetics is that Christian religion is the only rational explanation for everything that happens in the world.
  • Faith and Family: Video Review The significance of a family as a building block of the community is enormous because it is important for each individuals to have a feeling of connection.
  • An Individual’s Belief is a Private Matter In Clifford’s article “The Ethics of Belief”, the author argues that individuals’ beliefs are not private matters. In the story of the ship, had the ship not capsized, the owner would have achieved his aims.
  • “The Ethics of Belief” by William Clifford While advancing his idea that there can be no justification for people to be blinded with irrational beliefs to such an extent that they grow deaf to the voice of reason, Clifford resorted to the […]
  • Belief Without Prior Evidence This is one of the main points that one can make in response to William Clifford’s essay The Ethics of Belief.
  • Philosophy of Religion: Argument According to Pascal’s Wager on the Belief in God In the philosophical argument presented by the book, Pascal’s Wager, by Jeff Jordan with regard to the existence and work of God, it emerges that people’s belief in God is often enhanced by self-interests rather […]
  • Faith and the Future: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam Jews can gloat and say that they are the chosen people but this is not a wise decision to make because they will be threatened on all side and in fact since two thousand years […]
  • Belief, Doubt and Modern Mind With the efforts to try and find solutions to one of the greatest mysteries, the ancient societies tried to come up with different suggestions that became a foundation for the creation of religion and religious […]
  • Cross-Cultural Psychology: Similarities and Differences in Belief Systems and Behavioral Patterns These similarities and differences in cultural backgrounds have led to emergence of cross-cultural psychology, a study on the interaction between diverse human culture, belief systems and behavioral patterns.
  • Relationship Between Christian Faith and Science For this reason, science and faith are integral fields of knowledge that enhance understanding of the universe and human existence in the society; thus, theology should allow faith to correlate with science and seek understanding […]
  • W. K. Clifford, ‘The Ethics of Belief’ Clifford provided an opinion in opposition to theism where his statements can be put in three points; there is inadequate evidence to believe that there is existence of God, it is incorrect forever, all over, […]
  • Analyzing the Inculturation Process of Specific Historical Moments in the Development of the Christian Faith Inculturation refers to the process of going against the culture or societal values in the process of developing faith. This paper seeks to analyze the inculturation process of specific historical moments in the development of […]
  • Faith and Grace as the Peculiarities of Religion Analyzing the opinions of different researchers, it is possible to consider faith as a set of the moral principles caused by the personal experience of God, while grace is a gift given by God in […]
  • Empowerment Through Art: A Biographical Study on Faith Ringgold But the key lies in knowing that the sickness is real, and her art strives to inform the masses of just that.
  • The Individual, Faith, and Society Hobbes managed to overcome all the political and social havocs that affected his life and which were the major things that shaped the way he was thinking.
  • Cultural Belief System: Experiences and Traditions In most communities, the belief systems form the basis for validity of governance systems in the community as well as the acceptable laws governing behavior in the society.
  • Rational Approach to the Issue of Belief In spite of the fact, objecting the position of Clifford, the person can support James’s views, and objecting the position of James, the person can discuss Clifford’s ideas as relevant, it is possible to provide […]
  • Ethics and Faith in the Movie “Crimes and Misdemeanors” In this motion picture, he seems to support the defeat of the religious as seen through the death of the most religious person in the story – Ben.
  • ‘Belief in Action: The Salvation Army, a Global Not-for-Profit Organization’ Strategic planning goes through a process from setting the mission, objectives, situation analysis, strategy creation, execution and finally control so as to achieve positive results and an effective plan of action.”Strategic planning is inextricably interwoven […]
  • Integrating Faith and Learning Kotter and Keller provide that marketing management is the process of formulating and organizing marketing strategies to control the organizational activities as well as allocate the marketing resources.
  • Without Faith, There Can Be no True Virtue? It relates to the author of integrity and the dishonest virtue that occurs where there is no faith in God even if the qualities of an individual are the best.
  • “Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief” by John M. Frame The book goes further to analyze God’s will and power. Christians should use this book in order to establish the best relationships with their God.
  • The Main Problems of “Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief” by John Frame One of the best ways to solve this problem is to approach it from the point of view of God’s love for mankind.
  • “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?” by Gettier In addition, the article reveals that the concepts of ‘the right to be sure that’ and ‘has adequate evidence for’ only work if the element of ‘justified true belief’ is not introduced in an analysis.
  • Ushpizin: An Unshakable Jewish Faith This is a Jewish film owing to the title, language, setting, themes and even the actors involved in the film. The level of concern that they have for the Sukkot festival is indicative of their […]
  • Faith, Justice, War – and Human Rights in the Realm of the Present-Day World Quran: The Most Ancient and Sacred Islamic Book as the Basis for the Laws on Human Rights Considering the Issue from a Different Perspective: The Fifteen Postulates Security of life and property: bi-al haqq and […]
  • Religious Studies: Shinto’ Belief System This differs significantly from a vast majority of current belief systems such as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and the Hindu religion wherein some form of the profession of faith is necessary to be considered a member […]
  • Religious Studies: The Rahman Discussion and His Faith in Islam Yes, Rahman believes in the teachings of the Quran because they are the basis of all his writing. He cites from the Quran that this day will be the Day of Decision.
  • Islamic Faith: Teachings and Practices Ahmed elaborates that Muslims in Middle East, India and Pakistan are keen and aware of the distinctions between the two factions.
  • “Confessions of Faith” Written by Cecil Rhodes In particular, the author argues that the citizens of the British Empire have a right to rule different regions of the world.
  • Christian Faith: Ancient Religion For example, ity teaches that Jesus is the son of God, he is the way to salvation, and he was sent by God to save the world from sin.
  • Faith and Ethics Role in Religion We will discuss two of the characteristics of the ethics of Jesus, that is, His new concept of love and the value of the individual person and how they can be incorporated in our own […]
  • The Faith and Ethics Course: Attaining Ethical Maturity In Christian context, the Bible is the principle guide to ethical conduct and all actions should be in conformity to it.
  • Critique of Health-Belief Model by R. Davidhizar The primary objective of concept analysis is to examine the main idea critically to identify the themes of the design. The concept of health-related behavior is used in the field of breast cancer to enlighten […]
  • Testing a Person for His Faith and Devotion to God Suffering is usually perceived as a negative experience since it is commonly believed that it is a punishment for the sinner.
  • Mindfulness in a Faith-Based Education Setting The College’s overall strategy for the following years is to continue promoting education in faith to form the staff around the Lasallian values, improve their appreciation of these values, use the Lasallian principles as a […]
  • Morality, Faith, and Dignity in Modern Youth The blistering evolution of society combined with the appearance of new opportunities resulted in the significant deterioration of moral and values which determine the nature of human actions.
  • Philosophical Views: Faith vs. Science It is important to look at some of the philosophical views and philosophers that supported the concept of faith, science or both.
  • Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith is one of his writings that discusses religion that is close to the author.
  • Faith and Excellent Systematic Knowledge In the context of a specific parish, one will need to encourage the promotion of parishioners’ education to ensure that they are aware of the key market principles.
  • Religious Belief and Academic Content It should adapt to the overall situation and change the nature of the speeches to reflect that the people’s righteousness was the cause of the good times and that their perseverance would help them overcome […]
  • Faith Development in Adolescents I believe my input was valuable for the patient and her faith development as she carved some of the spiritual pillars that would be helpful in her adulthood.
  • “The Ethics of Belief” by William K. Clifford On religious beliefs, Clifford advises that belief matters are private and that people have the right to choose whichever religion to believe.
  • Reformation Theology as the Source of Religious Faith The three major teachings from Martin Luther regarding reforming the church include the fact that faith in God’s gift of forgiveness is very essential and is the only way through which individuals could win salvation […]
  • Change in Belief System Their life experiences, friends, and exposure to reality are some of the factors that contribute to such shifts in belief and attitude towards diverse occurrences in life.
  • Belief Systems in Generation X and Millennials As the purpose of the project consists in analyzing various belief systems pursued by Generation X and Millennials, it is purposeful to represent photos, statistics, and graphs uncovering the percentage characteristics in terms of the […]
  • Core Values in Personal Belief System These are my core values and include happiness, family, friends, pleasure and financial security and stability. In conclusion, I agree that values are important to my life.
  • Cardiac Surgery vs. Faith Healing However, I believe that it is our duty as true Christians to forego any other interventions, including operations, since it has already been proven that it is wrong to go against God’s will.
  • Mahāyāna Awakening of Faith and Chinese Culture To support this argument, it is possible to read through the Awakening and note the parts that might have been influenced by the situation in China at the time.
  • Faith and Critical Reason Issues My understanding of faith is close to the definition suggested by Tilley, who argues that faith is the relationship between the person who has faith and that “which one has faith in”.
  • The Conditions in Formulating a Reasonable Belief 2 Both ideas make sense, and the goal of this review is to compare the opinions of James and Clifford to strengthen an understanding of the connection between beliefs, evidence, and sentiments.
  • Islam: Connection of Belief With a Traditional Life Knowledge of the bases of Muslim doctrine is rather variously at various layers of the population and in the different countries of traditional distribution of Islam.
  • The Christian Faith in Geisler’s and Feinberg’s “Introduction to Philosophy: A Christian Perspective” In spite of all this reason vs.revelation debate, there is an underlying determination that is made apparent in the book: this is the determination to overcome any kind of rationalist thought or idea and discount […]
  • Cherokee Indian Belief: Gateway to Modern Civilization The Cherokee learned the art of combat war from the Europeans and they used the same tactics later on to attack their neighbors in the frontiers.
  • Islam: a Restatement of Israeli Faith He did not have formal training or wisdom to have made any editorializing or modification to the word of God hence Muslims believe that the Koran is the pure and unadulterated word of God as […]
  • Human Experience and Development Of Religious Belief In an analysis of the role of the human experience in the development of religious beliefs, it is necessary also to note that the relation between human experience and religion is the exact background to […]
  • Christian Ministry and Personal Faith Moreover, should we want to focus on the Christian Ministry, and any other ministry for that matter, I think we have to get back to the basic teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this […]
  • Ethics and Combination of Religious Faith, Ethical and Aesthetic Beliefs It is essentially described by the existence of pleasure and in living an aesthetic life to the maximum one has to aim at maximizing the given pleasures.
  • Vedic Hinduism, Classical Hinduism, and Buddhism: A Uniting Belief Systems The difference between Vedic and Classical Hinduism is fundamentally approach towards life rather than beliefs or reformation and the progression from the former to latter is not clear in terms of time.
  • Islamic Faith and Ritual Practice In the Islamic faith, rituals, known in their religion as ibadat, meaning acts of obedience, service, and worship to God, form the foundation on which the whole faith is anchored.
  • Martin Luther: Justification by Faith Alone The basis of the doctrine of justification by faith is the doctrine of grace as undeserved favor of God to fallen humanity.
  • ”The Believers”: An Analysis of Belief & Faith Thus faith involves a process and belief is only a part of the process by way in which you acquire faith faith being the ultimate expression of belief.
  • Ethics of Belief: Term Discussion For instance, in the above example of taking your friends to a restaurant, you have to follow epistemic norm and the moral norm almost becomes obligatory.
  • Voluntaristic Faith: Readings by Clifford and James Faith, according to the readings of Clifford and James is a strong belief inscribed in the mind of an individual that that what they think is right.
  • Martin Buber: Two Types of Faith The first type of faith is expressed in the continuity of the nation which one is born in and he is a member.
  • Aquinas and Faith: Theological Theories Aquinas asserts that true faith should believe in what has been revealed by God The agreement that characterizes faith is being wholehearted and not timid. Through revelation one accepts the propositions in faith that God […]
  • The Circle of Life: Belief of Native Americans He shows the weakest and frailest infants being at the base of the hill while the oldest were on the top.
  • Creationism as a Religious Belief The evolutionary scientists believe that the positions taken by creation scientists on the origin of the earth and life forms are irreconcilable to theirs.
  • Discovering Faith: The Search for Truth and Certainty The author starts his article with “truthseekers” using reason and faith as tools to find the truth. As opposed to both extremes- Fundamentalist Protestantism and Christian apologetic- Taylor argues that it is wrong to ridicule […]
  • The Chinese Belief on Death and Dying These distinctions are visible due to several cultures act of subjecting to an influencing experience of death in the African perspective, the keeping with the nature of the Bible or its times, the people from […]
  • Reason and Religious Belief. An introduction to The Philosophy of Religion’ by M. Peterson The chapter reveals that God is imperceptible to the senses of a man, and unconditionally pervades all the reality known to man. Therefore, it is challenging to reconcile the concept of God with evil and […]
  • Spiritual Belief Is the Integral Parts of Human Beings In other words, the fact of the existence of the universe proves the idea of God responsible for the creation of such ideal objects and things.
  • Four Apostles’ by Albrecht Dürer: Protestant Faith Protestantism emerged in Europe at the beginning of the 16th century as the opposition to the Roman Catholic Church and based on the belief in personal faith and the connection to God.
  • Adam’s Apples: Testing of Faith Adam, on the other hand, is skeptical and eager to confront the vicar, seeking to prove that Ivan’s miserable life is a sign of God’s hatred.
  • “Ferguson and Faith” by Leah Francis In this way, the religious activists may raise public awareness about the topical social issues in relation to the spiritual dimensions of human life, and engage people “in conversation about the theological imperative” in the […]
  • “Faith-Sharing” by Fox and Morris The three concepts that I have learned from the text include the meaning of faith, the motivation for faith sharing, and the appreciation of the meaning of faith sharing.
  • Belief and Evidence Between Religion and Science Therefore, they base their hopes on the belief that all will be well with them, and they will wake up to continue with their daily activities.
  • Faith-Based Organization Services as the Best Means to Prevent HIV and AIDS in Southern Cameroons The HIV/AIDS issue was complicated by the fact that at the moment of this research, there was no cure and the only way of addressing the infection spread was through prevention and ensuring that people […]
  • Christian Faith and Work With Service Members In their article, Kick and McNitt discuss the importance of faith in providing help to the military members, veterans, and their families.
  • “Strength in the Unfeigned Faith” To the extent of questioning the incarnation of Jesus Christ, I become skeptical in basing my belief on the knowledge of this world.
  • Acting in Good Faith: Contract and Agency Law To start with the validity of the contract should be analyzed; and in this case, the two contracting parties had agreed mutually to reduce the amount to a nominal amount of $150.
  • Modality of Family Faith and Meanings and Relationships in Family Life The theme of this study is to investigate two broad categories of modalities of faith in family life: first, what they value or seek, and how they relate to God or to others and the […]
  • Religion: Christians’ Belief in God So, in essence, he might take such turbulent times as a test of faith since the belief in the existence of God lies within the affirmation that God is in all things that we encounter.
  • Religion: The Canons as a Standards to Measure One’s Faith The authority of God in the New Testament cannot be exclusively attributed in the writing of the twenty-seven books that make up the New Testament as is the case with the Old Testament or Hebrew […]
  • An Ethical Dilemma – Religious Belief Versus Medical Practice In the first step, the ethical dilemma is between the principle of beneficence in the treatment of meningitis and the principle of autonomy with respect to the decision of the parents.
  • Reason, Motivations, and Belief for Conducting Cyber Attack The end is beneficial to the threat source and detrimental to other users. In fact, activities of cyber attackers make the Internet both a blessing and a curse.
  • Faith Diversity: Healing Prospects Muslims believe in the effect of the evil eye, jinns or magic, and it is this effect that results in illnesses with a supernatural cause.
  • Health Care Provider and Faith Diversity in Health Care The universal Christian community believes in the power of prayer in healing and the clergy offer prayers and spiritual nourishment to the sick.
  • Health Belief and Precautionary Adoption Process Models The agreement to change depends on the susceptibility of the risk. The study established that the construct of risk perception among the parents played a crucial role in determining the completion of the vaccination process.
  • Analytical Processing, Religion Belief & Science In order to test validity of the difference, it may be necessary to conduct an investigation on analytical processing skills of individuals in science and in religion.
  • Relationship Between Psychology and Christian Faith Truly, I have realized that sincerity is found in Jesus discipleship and the study of persona, but the varying aspects guiding the honesty are the belief in Christ and analytical thinking.
  • Faith Integration: Opportunities and Threats Adult & Teen Challenge Ohio presently operates in Columbus, OH, yet the organization may expand in the future to embrace larger markets and address the needs of a more diverse range of clients. It is […]
  • Faith Integration and Strategic Management At the Adult and Teen Challenge Ohio organization, which seeks to offer support and encouragement to women struggling with substance addiction, the focus on the search of a spiritual core as the key source of […]
  • Role of Faith in Social Work The first lesson of this book is that social work should be multifaceted to meet the specific needs of people, and it should consider the opportunities that every person has.
  • Faith and Gods in Ancient Civilizations Thus, it was important for the people of Ancient Greece, Rome, and China to have faith and praise the gods they chose.
  • Religious Belief and Buying Behavior The main categories to be assessed are religious affiliation and religious dedication in respect to Hinduism and Islam. According to the research, religious affiliation and religiosity play a vital part in shopping conduct.
  • Spiritual Growth: The Sense of Spirituality and Faith In the read story, the author mentioned two basic methods of development, which consist in the sense of spirituality and faith.
  • Islamic Belief Is Comprehensive The central theme of Islam as carried in all beliefs is peaceful co-existence and respect for other people’s religion.
  • Identity Formation: Faith Overview As a result, I made a commitment and took the responsibility for my decisions, which was a long process. Undoubtedly, my faith was helpful in the process of my identity formation in other areas as […]
  • Discussion of Miracle and Faith in Medicine Thus, one of the most interesting concepts tackled in the topic readings is the evaluation of scientism as a means of explaining the phenomena of death, illness, and morality.
  • Public Health Theories. Health Belief Model For example, it is difficult to understand the relationship between perceived severity of HIV and perceived benefits of engaging in positive sexual health behaviors.
  • How Faith Leaders Are Divided Over Equality Act The Vatican refuses to bless same-sex marriages saying that this is not in accordance with the canons of the Roman Catholic Church since marriage is a union of a man and a woman.
  • Religion in Moliere’s Tartuffe: True Faith Versus Hypocrisy Notably, he uses religion as the major instrument of his influence as it is easy to become a mentor and guide through the hazards of the world.
  • Faith and Justice in the City. Seek for Justice It is crucial to have the same law and the same treatment to a foreign person and for a native-born, as equal treatment is one of the main aspects of justice, promoted in the Bible.
  • “The Ethics of Belief” by Clifford and “The Will to Believe” by James Belief in God is a momentous decision, and the benefits of yielding to religious faith outweigh the potential risks of error.
  • The Experience of Faith The major concern in religion is that the relationship between faith and spirituality is a frequently debated subject among all Christians.
  • Integrating Faith While Caring for Pediatric Patients: The Concept of Health The key points that the paper discusses are the need to care for patients, the desire to offer emotional support to them, the responsibility of personal sacrifice, and the call to be committed to the […]
  • Philosophy of Religion: Approaches to Faith and Church The epistemology in this work is not based on avid socialism but a specific definition of concepts and their application to religion.
  • Spiritual Formation Reflection: Integrating Faith and Learning This strengthened understanding of the mutual necessity of faith and learning in becoming closer to God is a crucial result of this course for me.
  • Evolutionary Ethics vs. Belief in God In addition, the disadvantage of the evolutionary theory is that moral and ethical norms cannot be determined only to a biological degree.
  • Faith and Other Areas of Human Development From my point of view, there is undoubtedly a certain kind of connection between the development of faith and other areas of human development.
  • Health Belief Model: Description and Concepts The concept is based on a person’s sufficient motivation to affect an issue, the existence of a threat, and the realization that the benefits are worth the cost.
  • “Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism” Book by Tim Keller In his book, Timothy Keller underlines the centrality of the gospel as one of the major means to connect an individual and the Church and establish fair and effective relationships.
  • Preaching: Communicating Faith in Age of Skepticism Keller provides six approaches to preach Jesus from all of Scripture that are appropriate to both the message and the context of a given chapter to assist avoid these pitfalls.
  • The Importance of Perseverance and Self-Belief Of course, I was fluent in Spanish, which was my native language, but I faced a problem in the USA – I needed to learn English to feel comfortable and free.
  • “Faith and Learning” by David Dockery The main feature of this perception of the literary text is that the reader should not look for the secret meaning of the writer.
  • Christian Faith: Influence on Learning He discusses science and how humans are the products of the world they are endowed with feeling and thought, which are beyond natural.
  • Aspects of Belief of Jainism When learning about religions and philosophies, I find that origins or backgrounds are essential in interpreting the context and content of a religion.
  • Augustine on Instructing Beginners in Faith The main thesis of this book is how to provide relevant instructions to the new converts. Therefore, improvements should be made to help in addressing the situation in most of the Christian conventions.
  • Personal Reflection on Integrating Faith and Work The relevance of a Christian’s positive view of the sociocultural practices of other people is biblically supported by the story of creation.
  • Ecologies of Faith in the Digital Age and Surviving and Thriving in Seminary Therefore, based on this powerful technique, I believe that embracing the concept of spiritual growth through the use of the online platform will enable me to learn from the online community as well as to […]
  • Omnism: Belief in All Religions The practice of omnism has been in here for a while, but the definition of the term is quite young. In Japan, an omnism religion is called Kokyo was formed in the 1800s, and the […]
  • Shintoism as a Faith Indigenous to the Japanese Currently, no central authority exists in Shinto, and practitioners employ a diverse number of ways to practice their faith Though the exact date of the creation of Shinto is not known, the variation of the […]
  • The Jewish Belief of Heaven and Hell in Comparison to New Testament The Old Testament Sheol is both the plan of dead souls in the direct and the state of the fallen soul in the figurative sense.
  • The “Your Grown-Up Faith” Book by Kenneth Parker The author shows the importance of the spiritual path in avoiding the traps of pseudo-spirituality and mysticism. The Youth’s Way is a challenging stage of doubts and searches for a place in the world and […]
  • Christian Faith and Scientific Disciplines It is believed that the introduction of philosophical naturalism to scientific thinking led to the development of the natural sciences. In contrast to the natural sciences, the social sciences focus on particular people and communities […]
  • Perception of Faith: Perspective and Science I became kinder, more righteous, and wiser as I began to deepen my understanding of the Nature of things. I first noticed the influence of the gospel when I had to make a difficult decision.
  • Faith and Transformational Teaching The authors say that being deeply and comprehensively trained in the field being taught is the path to success as a teacher.
  • “Midsommar” and Sublime Nature of the Belief The work’s title hints at the central theme that follows the plot’s narrative the power of belief in the higher force in the world.
  • How Christianity Faith Influenced Mathematics Christianity displays God to have qualities of order due to the fashion and timeline of creation. Divisive interpretations between Christianity and science challenge the interconnectivity of both fields.
  • Evangelism in Daily Life: Sharing the Christian Faith The main Bible statement for Evangelism is “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes”.
  • Pascal’s Wager: Belief in God as a Rational Choice It is one of the favorite tools of religious preachers who try to appeal to famous names and a kind of logic to convince people to enter their faith. The second argument against Pascal’s wager […]
  • Faith Integration: 1 Peter 5:1-4 The Bible verse can be applied to corporations that may take advantage of vulnerable consumers. Such an approach is detrimental to the consumers and the organizations.
  • Mary Rowlandson’s Strong Faith, Captivity and Restoration Her strong faith helped her to endure her captivity and ultimately be restored to her family. Rowlandson’s faith in God gave her the strength to endure this difficult situation.
  • Reason and Faith in Christianity It should be stressed that the two entities of theological justification are seen to be reason and faith. People must have both the right justification and faith in order to believe, as those are the […]
  • The Role of Faith in the US-Middle East Foreign Policy Moreover, the belief that the US was the nation assigned the role of fulfilling God’s promise to his people and the whole of humanity encouraged them to contribute to the well-being of settlers and natives […]
  • The Relationship Between Faith and Charity The word church in the Apostles’ Creed, similarly to the Bible, refers to the people of God, the holy society made up of individuals who profess faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy […]
  • God’s Healing Is Not Influenced by Level of Faith For example, in response to the courage that the woman with the flow of blood demonstrated, Jesus said that the faith she had made her whole.
  • The “Dynamics of Faith” Book by Paul Tillich Relying on the study of Dynamics of Faith, Paul Tillich would analyze the “dynamics of faith” present in The Plague’s Fr.
  • Human Belief in Myths and Legends However, suppose one understands the meaning and the reasons for their creation, which in most cases are similar regardless of the area of origin of the legend.
  • Faith Integration in the Hebrew 11 Passage The examples of people leading by their example and convincing others to accept the Christian faith as the [path to salvation are incredibly inspiring, which is why the specified part of the Scripture has a […]
  • Utopia Is The Belief Of The Perfect Place On Earth
  • What is Socrates Belief about the Pursuit of truths by the Critical Methods of Inquiry
  • The Enlightenment of the Personality Disorder and the Belief of the Flat Earth Concept
  • The Use of Belief, Faith and Struggle in The Road, a Novel by Cormac McCarthy
  • What Does the Evidence Reveal About Belief in the Afterlife in New Kingdom Egypt?
  • The Evolution of Awareness and Belief Ambiguity During the Process of High School Track Choice
  • Understanding Fundamentalist Belief Through Bayesian Updating
  • The Verification Principle Offers no Real Challenge to Religious Belief
  • What Is Superstitions As A Belief Or A Way Of Behaving
  • The Elements of Belief in the Horror Film Rosemary’s Baby
  • Use Self Belief To Shape Your Own Destiny
  • Why the Distinction Between Knowledge and Belief Might Matter
  • Which Is Better, True Belief and Knowledge
  • Weakly Belief-Free Equilibria in Repeated Games with Private Monitoring
  • The Diversity of the Christian Belief under a Single God
  • Universally Rational Belief Hierarchies
  • Using the Health Belief Model to Understand Pesticide Use Decisions
  • Why Alfred Hitchcock is Not Dead Contrary to Popular Belief
  • The Importance of Compassion in My Life and Belief as a Ocean Lifeguard
  • Toward an Economic Theory of Religious Belief and the Emergence of Law
  • The Use and Belief in Superstitions in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  • William Clifford, Blaise Pascal And William James ‘ Arguments Of Belief
  • The Hindu Belief In Respect For All Living Creatures
  • The Influence of Human Conduct on Belief in God Essay
  • The Influences of the Mexican Cultural Belief of Death in Pedro Paramo
  • The Relationship between Belief in God and Grammatical Habit
  • The Problem Of Education Is Teaching Individuals The Belief
  • Witches and Devil Belief from Europe to America
  • Time, History, and Belief in Aztec and Colonial Mexico
  • The True Puppeteer : Is It A False Belief Or An Idea Of Human
  • The Relationship Between Belief Systems and Political or Social Hierarchy in South and East Asia
  • Why The Government Is Allowed Their Own Personal Belief
  • Witches This Was Necessary To Combat The Devil Witch Authorities Belief
  • The Positive and Negative Effects of Mongol Practice and Belief
  • The Sociological Challenges To Religious Belief
  • Using System Dynamics to Investigate How Belief Systems Influence the Process of Organizational Change
  • The Similar Belief in Gods of the Ancient Greek and Roman Religions
  • The Three Generations of My Family and the Belief on the Idea of Having Children Out of Wedlock
  • The Role of Communication in Attitudes, Belief Systems and Self-Motivation
  • The Spiritual Belief Of Demon Possession And Epilepsy
  • The Unethical and Unscientific Climate Change Denial in The Ethics of Belief by William Clifford
  • The True Reason and Aspects Behind One’s Belief
  • Understanding the Puritan Belief of Mary Rowlandson
  • Toy Manufactures Has Enforced The Belief Of Children
  • How Is a Belief System Different From an Ideology?
  • What Is the Difference Between Belief and Belief System?
  • How Many Belief Systems Are There in the World?
  • What Is Belief System in Psychology?
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Become a Writer Today

Essay About Beliefs: Top 5 Examples and 8 Prompts

To write an essay about beliefs, you need to know the different beliefs people hold; continue reading this article for examples and prompts to help!

Beliefs are a person’s perception of what they believe to be true. However, not everybody’s belief system is accurate. Beliefs are not necessarily religious or spiritual. It can also be political, philosophical, or societal. Our beliefs are formed early based on our environment – what we are told, heard, observed, and experienced. Below are essay examples to help you understand other writers’ viewpoints about beliefs.

1. Christianity Beliefs in The Exorcism of Emily Rose by Penny Silva

2. a personal believe that god does not exist by lauren trauscht, 3. my beliefs by patrick of shrewsbury, massachusetts, 4. irrational beliefs by vincent bridges, 5. my ethical beliefs by blanche allen, 1. your thoughts about the definition of belief, 2. what influenced your belief on a certain subject, 3. an experience that shaped your beliefs, 4. thoughts about the role of religion, 5. your personal political beliefs, 6. your stand on gender identity, 7. opinions about the connection between social media and suicide, 8. the belief system of millenials.

“This means that she believes it is a fact that if there is a God, there is a devil, and if there is a devil, there is God.”

Silva’s essay discusses the movie “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” – a film based on the true story of Anneliese Michel. It’s about a court case concerning the death of a girl. She was either possessed by a demon or was suffering from a severe mental illness.

Viewers of the movie are free to believe what they think happened to Emily as it demonstrates the apparition of both the devil and the However, divine. Silva believes that it’s a must-watch if one wants to understand the accurate interpretation of the works of evil.

“…how could anybody keep up on the Bible for thousands and thousands of years? The stories in there had to have gotten mixed up… if there is a God, then who created God? ”

Trauscht’s many questions about a divine existence lead him to believe there is no God. The author shares these reasons in a simple essay about his beliefs.

“ I have no stronger link to anything else in this world than my family… This belief … was something that was one hundred percent infused in me through my parents.”

The author grew up a family-oriented person, and there’s nothing more important to him than his family. He believes he is today because his parents influenced his life. His belief made him a better person.

“I can always distract myself from negative, judgmental thoughts by simply telling myself, “STOP!” Then replace my blaming, complaining, or excusing with something positive. Wisely choosing the thoughts that occupy my mind and avoiding automatic, negative thoughts that undermine my self-esteem will also help.”

Bridges shares his experience with irrational beliefs that made him think negatively, which affected his behavior and self-esteem. He also talks about how he overcame his irrational beliefs when someone believed in him until he finally started to believe in himself, turning the negative thoughts into positive ones.

Looking for more? Check out these essays about religion .

“In a way, ethics are like a set of rules that govern human behaviors and serve as a basis for right conduct principles.”

Allen argues that we have a different understanding of ethics and how we use it in our everyday lives. He says fairness is one of the ethics he applied in his life. Before concluding, he considers the good and bad effects. He believes ethics should be used to reach a fair decision.

8 Writing Prompts on Essay About Beliefs

After reading the examples above, you now better understand what beliefs are. Below are prompts that can help you in writing your essay.

If you want to properly convey your reasons why you believe in a topic, here is a guide on how to write an argumentative essay .

Since all of us may have varying ideas about the definition of beliefs, you can write an essay about your understanding of what belief is all about. You can also provide answers to the following questions: Is belief something you unconsciously developed or something you consciously made? Do you agree that some of your beliefs may not be authentic? 

Many factors can influence why we think what we think. This includes our environment, what we hear and see, and our observations and experiences. 

Pick a particular belief you have and relay to your readers how you came to consider it as fact. You can also talk about something you didn’t believe before, then tell your audience how you came to support it.

If a particular experience forced you to develop a belief about something consciously, you could explore it via your essay. For example, you grew up not believing in God, but due to a near-death experience where you were forced to pray and were saved, you finally accepted that there is an existing God. 

Or, if you previously believed in God but suffered a painful death of a loved one, you start to question His existence. There are so many experiences out there that may have contributed to what we believe in today. Feel free to write them all down.

Essay About Beliefs: Thoughts about the role of religion

You might have heard adults complaining about the morality of the youth today. Does the decreasing interest of young people in religion have to do with moral degeneration? Explain your thoughts about the relationship between religion and morality. 

Your political beliefs have to do with what you consider a prosperous country. “Success” can be defined as a booming or not-so-great economy, but one where the citizens are happy, safe, and accessible. Discuss why you favor a particular political system, including aspects that you want to change.

Gender identity is an ever-controversial subject that still divides many groups today.

However, it also has many subtopics you can focus on. For example, some parents would let their minor children undergo procedures and treatments to change their sex, believing they are supporting their child’s decision. Do you agree with the parents’ beliefs, or would you instead want the parents to wait for the child to be of legal age before undergoing such a procedure?

If you want to expand your knowledge on diversity, here are 21 essays about diversity for students and writers .

With social media’s popularity, cyberbullying also increased. Research found that children and people below 25 years old cyberbullying victims are twice more likely to present suicidal behaviors and self-harm. The same study also found that bullies or perpetrators risk experiencing suicidal ideation and self-harm. What is your opinion on this matter, and do you believe that social media has to do with it? Do parents also have liability on this matter?

During challenging times, more people seek God. However, during the pandemic, millennials in the US-led the shift away from religious organizations. If you belong to the Gen Z or millennials, what’s your stand on this matter? 

belief photo essay

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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Guest Essay

At the Border, a Blending of Politics and Religion

belief photo essay

Photographs and Text by Mark Peterson

Mr. Peterson is a photographer based in New York and a member of Redux Pictures.

Last Saturday, a crowd of several hundred people gathered in a grassy field near the bank of the Rio Grande in Quemado, Texas, for a rally in support of the state’s defiant stance on immigration.

The event, which was held by the protest group Take Our Border Back, marked the final stop of a dayslong convoy of conservative Americans who, in a procession of cars, trucks and mobile homes, made their way to Quemado to demonstrate their frustration over what they see as the federal government’s failure to enforce immigration laws at the border.

A response to the intensifying confrontation over border security and immigration between the Biden administration and the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, the event featured an unexpected blend of political anger and religious ardor.

It began around 11 a.m., with evangelical sermons, music and speeches. There were mentions of Jan. 6, 2021, of Donald Trump, and of multiple right-wing conspiracy theories, but the central message being repeated again and again was about the need to stave off an “invasion” of illegal immigration and prevent a civil war. The crowd included young children, teenagers and even some older folks, though a majority appeared to be around 50 or 60. Some were dressed in paramilitary fatigues, while others sported American flag T-shirts and pro-Trump merchandise. In all, the scene looked something like a MAGA version of Burning Man.

I was particularly struck by the overt and impassioned religious displays, which set this event apart from other MAGA rallies I have attended. Prayer sessions were boisterous and frequently ended with people getting riled into a feverish state, chanting and invoking the Holy Spirit. A few people were baptized in what appeared to be cattle troughs.

Still, others seemed to be there for more plainly political reasons — in support of stricter immigration policies and in support of Mr. Trump. One man I spoke with from Bemidji, Minn., mentioned that he had taken part in another trucker convoy back in 2020. He’d come to Quemado in search of a similar sense of political unity.

Finally, around 9 p.m., people began clearing out. After the last baptism, I walked to my car. The road that runs alongside the U.S.-Mexico border — which earlier in the day was crowded bumper to bumper — was dark and empty.

The following day, Mr. Abbott and 13 other governors held a news conference in the nearby Eagle Pass, where, standing beside a group of Texas National Guard troops and Humvees, Mr. Abbot reaffirmed, “We are all fighting for a safer, more secure border and country.”

Mark Peterson is a photographer based in New York and a member of Redux Pictures.

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belief photo essay

Embryos are vessels of hope, pain and love. But they are not children.

The alabama supreme court’s ruling has gone too far.

belief photo essay

Did you know that after an IVF couple undergoes an embryonic transfer, it’s common for their medical clinic to provide a magnified picture of the blastocyst? At three or five days post-fertilization, it doesn’t look like much: a circle, maybe less than a millimeter wide. But if you spend time scrolling fertility message boards, you’ll see a lot of them — would-be mothers sharing pictures of their blastocysts, and strangers enthusing that those blastocysts look cute, or hardy, or feisty, or some other adjective that doesn’t describe a minuscule sphere so much as it points to the hell of infertility treatments. After all this time, you still don’t have a baby, but you do have a blastocyst and a pile of hope.

In December 2020, a patient at Mobile Infirmary Medical Center somehow wandered into the hospital storage facility where embryos created through in vitro fertilization were being kept cryogenically frozen. The patient then somehow managed to remove containers of embryos from their storage receptacles. And then , shocked by the subzero temperatures at which the embryos had been stored, the patient dropped the embryos and destroyed them.

Several couples, would-be parents whose embryos had been destroyed, brought forth a wrongful-death lawsuit against the hospital, saying that the storage facility should have been properly secured. On Friday, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled on behalf of these couples, the upshot of which became the headline that you probably read earlier this week: The embryos could be considered wrongfully dead because they could have been considered alive.

The embryos were people, according to the court, with all the rights of human children.

If you have never been close to someone who has undergone fertility treatments, then perhaps you aren’t aware of the particulars of IVF: Months of testing. Weeks of home injections on a pinch-an-inch square of stomach fat. Daily clinic visits with intrusive probes, sonograms, measurements, dosage adjustments, more needles — by now you’ve run out of stomach squares, but, land ho! The egg retrieval date is in sight. An anesthesiologist puts you under, you wake up blearily to hear they got seven or 18 eggs. Five days later, the clinic calls to tell you that of those 18 eggs, two or three of them became blastocysts. You’re not pregnant at this stage, so maybe you celebrate with a glass of wine.

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I have known women who used IVF before beginning the cancer treatments that they knew would fry their reproductive systems. Women whose first pregnancies ruptured their uteruses and who needed IVF to try again. Women who were right as rain but whose husbands had sluggish sperm, or not enough of it. I have known women who referred to their frozen embryos as their children, who had names already picked out for them, whose embryos were “Eliot” or “Miranda.” I have known women who successfully got pregnant with their first embryonic transfer, then forgot the other embryos even existed. They were in the middle of getting a breakfast for their preschooler when a call from their clinics about a change in embryonic storage fees made them say, “Wait, you still have those?” One woman told me about getting such a call, then said she cried for the rest of the day, just from the memory of how stressful her fertility treatments had been.

It’s complicated, is what I’m saying. Women who have been through it will tell you that IVF can make you crazy. It’s a marathon that you begin only after you’ve already been walking for so long. The feelings created during fertility treatments exist in a space outside of logic. You know that the egg removed from your body was not yet your baby, because it is, in fact, an egg. You know that the blastocyst fertilized in a petri dish was not yet your baby, because it is not riding home with you in a car seat wearing a onesie. It is, in fact, in a petri dish.

You also know that you are doing this because you hope that one day, with the timing and medical intervention and luck, it will become your baby. You have to keep up that level of hope — that stubborn, illogical level of hope — because otherwise it would be too exhausting to forge ahead. The blastocyst is a baby in the eye of the beholder.

Should it be a baby in the eye of the law?

After the blastocyst has grown comes the hard part. Embryos must survive their cryogenic thaw. One must successfully implant in the walls of a uterus that has been carefully primed with a cocktail of hormones. (That’s when you are pregnant and stop drinking wine.) Then, it must grow, and keep growing. Past the embryonic stage, past the first trimester, then the second, through a battery of ultrasounds and doctors appointments, into the delivery room with a doctor and some whip-smart nurses.

The baby is born. It cries. It learns to nurse or drink from a bottle; it learns to sleep through the night. The baby discovers its feet and likes to hold on to its toes while its diaper is being changed, laughing. The baby is now named Owen or Cecilia, by the way. Eliot and Miranda had seemed like the right names for the blastocyst, but once Owen was a person in the world, it became clear that Owen was the right name. Before you were choosing a name for a fantasy future; now you are living in a real present. Eliot was an idea; Owen is a child.

The blastocyst existed in a petri dish and in your heart; the child lives in your heart and in your house.

IVF is a miracle. It’s modern science. It’s a factory, it’s a gantlet, it’s blood, it’s waiting, it’s precise, it’s a crapshoot, cross your fingers, take your multivitamin, it’s hope, it’s hope, it’s hope.

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What happened in the cryogenic freezing room of an Alabama hospital was a damn tragedy. I’ve read over the circumstances a dozen times, trying to make sense of it, based on the limited information we have about an unfathomable sequence of events. The patient who wandered into the storage room and destroyed the embryos — how could they have done such a thing? Did they know what they were doing? Did they even begin to realize the hope they were destroying?

That, at the end of the day, is what’s wrong with the Alabama Supreme Court ruling.

I have seen other writers scornfully note how this ruling represents the further rollback of reproductive rights, and I agree with them. I have seen other writers worry that the abundant biblical quotations used in the Alabama ruling represent a creeping theocracy — and I agree with them.

But at the end of the day, what is wrong with the Alabama Supreme Court ruling is that it is trying to provide legal protection and personhood to fantasies. It is injecting blastocysts with the vast emotional meaning that is natural and necessary for a prospective parent, and that is wholly inappropriate for the legal system.

I cannot imagine that the families in that suit, filled with grief and watching their hopes disintegrate before their eyes, are in a place to fully comprehend the scope of the wrong that was done to them, and what might make it right. I doubt I would be able to fully comprehend it either. But what happened in that hospital in Mobile was the devastation of a dream. It was not the death of a child.

A previous version of this article incorrectly said when the Alabama Supreme Court made its ruling. It was Friday, not Sunday. The article has been corrected.

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belief photo essay

The Unique Hell of Getting Cancer as a Young Adult

Women Dealing With Mental Health

W hen I got diagnosed with Stage 3b Hodgkin Lymphoma at age 32, it was almost impossible to process. Without a family history or lifestyle risk factors that put cancer on my radar, I stared at the emergency room doctor in utter disbelief when he said the CT scan of my swollen lymph node showed what appeared to be cancer—and lots of it. A few days away from a bucket list trip to Japan, I’d only gone to the emergency room because the antibiotics CityMD prescribed to me when I was sick weren’t working.I didn’t want to be sick in a foreign country. So when the doctor told me of my diagnosis, the  only question I could conjure was: “So Tokyo is a no-go?”

Around the world, cancer rates in people under 50 are surging, with a recent study in BMJ Oncology showing that new cases for young adults have risen 79% overall over the past three decades. In the U.S. alone, new cancer diagnoses in people under 50 hit 3.26 million, with the most common types being breast, windpipe, lung, bowel, and stomach. A new feature in the Wall Street Journal highlights the mad dash among doctors and researchers to determine what’s causing this troubling rise. Strangely, overall cancer rates in the U.S. have dropped over the past three decades, while young people—particularly with colorectal cancers—are increasingly diagnosed at late stages. “We need to make it easier for adolescents and young adults to participate in clinical trials to improve outcomes and study the factors contributing to earlier onset cancers so we can develop new cures,” says Julia Glade Bender, MD, co-lead of the Stuart Center for Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Cancers at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City (where I am currently a patient.)

Doctors suspect that lifestyle factors and environmental elements, from microplastics to ultra-processed foods, could be to blame. But many adults in their 20s and 30s, such as myself, were otherwise healthy before their diagnoses. It felt like all those years of forcing myself to run, eat high-fiber foods, and choke down kombucha were for nothing. 

Cancer is hell at any age, but the challenges facing young adults are especially steep, as the disease disrupts a formative period for building a career, family, and even healthy self-esteem, from body image to gender identity. It’s critical that our approach to treating and supporting these patients reflects the severity of this disruption. In recent years, a growing number of cancer hospitals have developed young adult-specific programming like support groups, information sessions on dating and sexual health, and even mobile apps to help counter social alienation. But there is still a long way to go.

Read more: Why I Stopped Being A “Good” Cancer Patient

Shockingly enough, canceling my trip to Japan was the least of my worries. Beyond the excruciating physical side effects of high-dose chemotherapy and a number of life-threatening complications, cancer pulverized my self-esteem into nothingness, as I watched peers get married and promoted from my bed. Thankfully, after switching to a new hospital, I found support groups that connected me with a community of peers who got it, as well as social workers who work exclusively with young adults and thus recognized many of my biggest challenges, like social isolation, financial strain, the dating nightmare, and hating my bald head.

Perhaps the biggest reason I resented cancer was for disrupting a milestone I’d worked for my whole life: a book launch. (My diagnosis came two months before my first book was published.) Young adulthood is meant to be littered with these kinds of professional and personal benchmarks, many of which are hard enough to accomplish without tumors; dating, for instance, is impossible for me even as a healthy person. Now I have to re-enter the pool older, weaker, and more traumatized? 

“Young adult patients may be trying to assert independence from parents, establish a career or intimate relationship, or even be parents themselves,” says Bender. “Most will be naïve to the medical system or a serious health condition.” And so they require flexible, creative clinicians who can help navigate them “to and through the best available therapy and back to their lives, inevitably ‘changed’ but intact.” Not only do these patients need specialized psychosocial support, but research initiatives should prioritize developing treatments that minimize long-term toxicities.

Given that many young patients haven’t yet built financial stability and are often in some form of debt, organizations like Young Adults Survivors United (YASU) have emerged to support young adult survivors and patients through the financial overwhelm. Stephanie Samolovitch, MSW and founder of YASU, says that there’s still an enormous need for resources supporting young adult cancer patients and survivors.

“Cancer causes a young adult to be dependent again, whether it’s moving back in with parents, getting rides to appointments, or asking for financial help,” says Samolovitch, who was diagnosed with leukemia in 2005, two weeks before her 20th birthday. “Young adults never expect to apply for Medicaid or Social Security Disability during our twenties or thirties, yet cancer doesn't give us a choice sometimes. That causes stress, shame, depression, and anxiety when trying to navigate the healthcare system.”

Read more: How to Create an Action Plan After a Cancer Diagnosis

When Ana Calderone, a 33-year-old magazine editor, was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer at 30, the most challenging part of getting diagnosed so young was “everything.”

“I felt like it set my whole life back, which sounds stupid because I was literally fighting for my life,” she says. “Who cares if I had to delay my wedding a year because I was still getting radiation treatment? But it was really hard at the time. Everything was delayed, and still is.”

During chemo, Calderone’s doctors gave her a shot that she still receives to try and preserve her ovaries, and she’s been able to try IVF twice. She says she had to proactively advocate for those things with her care team. While Calderone is currently cancer free, she still must take medication that has further delayed her plans to build a family. “I’m fairly confident I’d have a child by now if I didn’t get cancer. That’s been the most devastating part,” she says. “My oncologist would consider letting me get pregnant in two more years, which would be 4.5 years post-diagnosis, and even that is still a risk.”

For 32-year-old Megan Koehler, whose son was one and a half when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma, the hardest part “was knowing the world continued on while I spent days in bed,” she says. “My coworkers still worked on projects I was supposed to be part of, and the worst was knowing my son was growing up, learning to speak sentences, and just becoming a toddler without me – or so it felt that way.” 

She remembers crying for most of his second birthday because she was in bed post chemo, feeling devastated that she didn’t have the energy to spend the day with him. During a 50-plus day hospital stay caused by an adverse reaction to a chemotherapy drug, she would Facetime him and cry when he spoke in sentences, because he wasn’t doing that before she was admitted. While she’s grateful for the support she had from her husband and mother, she felt alienated. “I spoke to a few people my age via social media, but no one in person. My center mostly catered to the older generations, so it was somewhat isolating. I did have a great relationship with a few of the infusion nurses who were around my age.”

While oncologists may be rightly focused on saving patients’ lives, there must be more consideration for quality of life during and after treatment – both physical and mental. “More questions need to be asked about their relationships, fertility options, and any mental health concerns or symptoms,” says Samolovitch. From a research perspective, initiatives must expand to pinpoint not only the reason for the rise of cancer in young adults, but find ways to screen and diagnose earlier.

Towards the beginning of my treatment, before I switched hospitals, my oncologist seemed to treat my concerns about self-esteem and hair loss as trivial compared to the real work of saving my life. At my weakest, I had to advocate repeatedly to get accurate information on cold capping, a process of scalp cooling that can preserve most of your hair during chemotherapy, and I had to beg again and again for a social worker to reach out to me, which took weeks. 

It’s a beautiful thing that more young adults with cancer are surviving their illnesses. But that means they’ll have decades of life ahead of them. Providers must do a better job supporting young adult patients through all the collateral damage that comes with cancer and its treatment.  

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    "Everyday" by Noah Kalina - Is a series of photographs arranged into a video. This photo essay features daily photographs of the artist himself, who began taking capturing the images when he was 19 and continued to do so for six years.

  6. How to Create a Photo Essay

    The idea of a photo essay is to create a whole, not a bunch of random parts. Think gestalt. The images must interact with each other. Repetition helps achieve this end. Recurring themes, moods ...

  7. PDF Storytelling with Photographs: How to Create a Photo Essay

    Simply put, a photo essay is a way of telling a story through a series of photographs, by one photographer, and may be as little as three or four images or as many as 20-30 or even more. A picture story, on the other hand, is usually a series of photographs by two or more photographers. The images in a photo essay are ordered in a specific way ...

  8. Belief by Caleb Ferguson

    Students view a photo essay, "Belief," by Caleb Ferguson, which explores photos of New Yorkers celebrating various cultural festivities. In this lesson, students discuss multiculturalism and the ways in which they celebrate diversity.

  9. How to Create a Photo Essay: Step-by-Step Guide With Examples

    Written by MasterClass Last updated: Jun 7, 2021 • 5 min read Photo essays tell a story in pictures, and there are many different ways to style your own photo essay. With a wide range of topics to explore, a photo essay can be thought-provoking, emotional, funny, unsettling, or all of the above, but mostly, they should be unforgettable.

  10. How to create a photo essay

    A traditional photo essay aims to replace the written word with photographs. Done poorly, it is nothing more than series of images lumped together. Done well, though, the photojournalist or artist takes the reader on an engaging journey.

  11. 18 Immersive Photo Essay Examples & Tips

    5. Place Over Time. View the "At Home in the Ozarks" photo essay by Kylee Cole. If you want to document changes and show how the streets, buildings, and parks in your city change over time, select your favorite locations and start to visit them regularly to capture the way they look during different seasons. 6.

  12. Ten examples of immersive photo essays

    An immersive photo essay uses rich media and story design to capture and keep the reader's attention. Immersive content is typically free of the most distracting elements of the web, such as pop-ups, skyscrapers, and other intrusions on the reading experience. As a basic rule of thumb, immersive content respects the reader's attention.

  13. Photo essay

    A photo essay is a form of visual storytelling that develops a narrative across a series of photographs. It originated during the late 1920s in German illustrated journals, initially presenting stories in the objective, distanced tone of news reporting. The photo essay gained wide popularity with the growth of photographically illustrated magazines such as VU (launched in Paris in 1928), LIFE ...

  14. Photo Essay

    The Photo Essay as a Persuasive Narrative. The photo essay is a persuasive narrative, the visual details of which show a subject, theme, and sense of purpose. For example, one of the most famous ...

  15. Exploring the Picture Essay: Tips, Best Practices, and Examples

    Varying how reactive elements are to scrolling gives them a sense of distinction, rather than having them all lumped together in one long block. For example, a lower setting like 10% will make a photo move slower than one that's set at 90%. This technique creates a scroll animation that keeps readers engaged in the picture essay.

  16. 23 Photo Essay Ideas and Examples (to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing!)

    ... Looking for inspiration? Our 23 photo essay ideas will take your photography skills to new heights! A single, strong photograph can convey a lot of information about its subject - but sometimes we have topics that require more than one image to do the job.

  17. Photo Essay: Structure, Ideas, and Examples for Creating the Best

    Unlike thematic photo essays, narrative photo essays give less freedom to the photo essayist. The use of text is to have some sense of completion to the story. For instance, the 28 Days in Afghanistan by Andrew Quilty published in the SBS is a narrative photo essay that documents the photographer's experience in the war-torn nation using both ...

  18. 'Where We Are': A Photo Essay Contest for Exploring Community

    The photo essays in the Where We Are series, for instance, focus on the themes of community and coming-of-age, but each through a different lens, as the three images published here illustrate.

  19. How to Make a Photo Essay (with Pictures)

    7. Include a clincher. This image may not be apparent to you in the beginning, but most photographers say they know it when they see it. It's an image that wraps up the essay for the viewer. This image should say "the end," give a call to action, or show the end result of a day in the life or how to sequence.

  20. A Homegoing to Remember: The craft of Atlanta's best-known Black

    Undertaker Willie Watkins honors the dead with celebrations that can include horse-drawn carriages and dove releases. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution photo essay.

  21. 223 Belief Essay Ideas, Topics, & Examples

    In your belief essay, you might want to focus of various philosophical approaches to the concept. Another idea is to compare religious and secular belief systems. One more option is to talk about your strongest personal beliefs and practices. Whether you have to write a high-school or a college assignment, our article will be helpful.

  22. Photo Essay: Beliefs and Values by Mahlet C

    My values and views in my life surround a lot of things that I feel are important or at least important to me. There are a few things that are really important to me and have been for most of my life some of them I did not realize had such an impact on me till now but I have learned to embrace them. They are music, equality, , family, comedy ...

  23. Essay About Beliefs: Top 5 Examples And 8 Prompts

    1. Christianity Beliefs in The Exorcism of Emily Rose by Penny Silva "This means that she believes it is a fact that if there is a God, there is a devil, and if there is a devil, there is God." Silva's essay discusses the movie "The Exorcism of Emily Rose," - a film based on the true story of Anneliese Michel.

  24. C.S. Peirce on the Fixation of Belief

    In his essay "The Fixation of Belief," C.S. Peirce discusses four different methods we use to fix our beliefs. Photo by Michael Longmire on Unsplash Method of Tenacity : I hear water droplets.

  25. Opinion

    Guest Essay. I'm a Neuroscientist. We're Thinking About Biden's Memory and Age in the Wrong Way. Feb. 12, 2024. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times. Share full article. 1982.

  26. Opinion

    Guest Essay. At the Border, a Blending of Politics and Religion. Feb. 10, 2024. Share full article. Photographs and Text by Mark Peterson.

  27. Personal Belief Essay Examples and Topics to Write about

    Personal Belief Essay Examples and Topics to Write about - GradesFixer Home — Essay Samples — Life — Myself Essays About Personal Beliefs Essay examples Essay topics 54 essay samples found Challenging a Life Belief/idea 1 page / 553 words My life as a 4th born in a poor family was nothing anyone would ever wish for, especially at a young age.

  28. Embryos are vessels of hope, pain and love. But they are not children

    In this 2018 photo, containers holding frozen embryos and sperm are stored in liquid nitrogen at a fertility clinic in Florida. (Lynne Sladky/AP) Did you know that after an IVF couple undergoes an ...

  29. The Unique Hell of Getting Cancer as a Young Adult

    W hen I got diagnosed with Stage 3b Hodgkin Lymphoma at age 32, it was almost impossible to process. Without a family history or lifestyle risk factors that put cancer on my radar, I stared at the ...