The narrative of an image

A recent review of my image archive and a question I repeatedly asked myself :

What is the narrative of the image?

Many of my early images were trying to conform with paradigms of composition rules for landscape photography : lead in lines, zigzags, rule of thirds and with the benefit of hindsight way, way too contrived. Some may think this a virtue, it really isn't, in too many instances it just disguised my ignorance of the landscape. An image narrative of ticking composition boxes is no substitute for interest and it is dispiriting to make images that hold very little interest.

2008 ~ Composition is no substitute for narrative

The images that held appeal were those that conveyed interest in the landscape and generally where I actually knew something about the subject matter. Which exposed an inconvenient truth: There were many aspects of the landscape that I was blissfully ignorant of. I needed to understand the landscape and know something about the landscape I was attempting to photograph.

2008 ~ A narrative of geology, ice phenomena and geomorphology.