While photography is understood as a pure visual art, literature plays a crucial role in the growth of a photographer’s skill and perspective.
Reading.... A serious act of sitting with written text and reading quietly for an extended time - whether it is fiction, essays, or art history - can deeply enrich a photographer's understanding of storytelling, aesthetic values and context. It provides ideas for successful image making.
One of the important ways that reading impacts photography education is by expanding a photographer’s imagination and storytelling ability. Just as a writer crafts narratives with words, photographers use images to tell stories. Through the reading of legendary writers like Leo Tolstoy, Emily Dickinson, Boris Pasternak, or even current bestsellers like Orhan Pamuk, Paulo Coelho and Haruki Murakami, or our very own Chetan Bhagat, photographers can create rich themes, character picturization, and settings that inspire unique visual interpretations. The ability to read and interpret narratives helps photographers create images that evoke emotions, convey deeper thoughts, or explore visual complexities.
Reading enhances a photographer's understanding of culture and history. Reading about different societies, movements, or historical events provides essential context, allowing photographers to approach their subjects with sensitivity and depth. This understanding encourages photographers to consider the broader social, political, and emotional impacts their work has, enabling them to create images that resonate on a more profound level.
Reading books also helps in developing critical thinking and visual analysis. Writers often use symbolism, metaphor, and imagery to convey meaning, and these techniques can be directly applied to photography. Photographers who engage with literary works are more likely to recognize patterns in human conditions, themes, and narrative structures in visual storytelling, which makes them create more thoughtful imagery.
So, photography students, books will take you to many surprisingly innovative visuals. It may even kickstart your successful career in photography.
Read a lot.
- Abhijit Bhatlekar
Sr. Faculty | Documentary/Commercial Photography
Bharati Vidyapeeth’s School of Photography & Cinematography