Improving the Art of Photography

Photographer Alan Shapiro urges photographers to combine writing with photos in this photography speech. Shapiro shows his audience iconic photographs of public figures and celebrities. While these shots are well known, nobody knows the story behind them.

Shapiro creates stories through photographs. He thinks it’s important to provide context to these pictures through writing, and wants to know about the people being photographed, and why they posed the way they did. He wants to know why the photographers took these pictures and what they were trying to convey. All of this information is lost if photographers don’t write down the details behind their work.

Alan Shapiro talks about photographing a homeless man. He says the man approached him and asked him to take a picture for his granddaughter, who he hadn't seen in a long time. Shapiro then got to know this man. He used to be a wealthy business man, who was happily married, and yet he ended up being homeless. This is a touching story, and it adds so much more to the photograph.