Can you see the story?

[netja]

I like taking real life photos (non-studio) with a story embedded. Does this one make sense?

[superduperwesman]

IMO it's hard to tell the story with no real context? The only stories that I think would come out of this picture our made up stories not the true "embedded" story.

[kstiltne]

Agreed, it's really difficult to tell a 'story' without some context. To me, this is a photo of an old man glaring at me...not particularly intriguing or story telling. What does he do? Is he a woodworker?...put him in his shop. Was he a police officer?...put him near a squad car. No context = no story.

[SusanH1970]

Agreed with the previous posters. Also, the absolute lack of light in his eyes is a tad disturbing - the "black hole" eyes just seem creepy, IMHO.

[mmjk84]

The moment you took this shot I'm assuming he was just walking somewhere with thoughts running through his mind. Within that sense, he seemed as if he was just angry or miserable about life in general. I love the detail in the face, I like that dark black eyes, gives it an eerie feel.

IMO the composition would be tad bit better if he was place towards the left than the right. But then again him on the left gives it a motion of leaving the frame...:shrugs: If you didn't crop it I'd experiment with the composition.

[netja]

Thanks for the comments!

I suppose there's two things to note: one is that I have a context in my head (the place, the event) and obviously that can't be reflected in a photo like this. Second thing is - I don't really want the story to be obvious (for example: he's a worker, just finished a night shift), but I wanted to encourage imagination of the viewer.

I suppose I should have posed a slightly different question: does it inspire imagination to go about thinking "I wonder ..."