P#27 Q1: What Is Expressive Photography?

Expressive Photography Defined

Brenda Tharp: Expressive photography involves photographs that express a feeling or a mood -- photographs that draw the viewer in and make them feel what you felt when you were making the picture. That's probably the easiest definition of it.

When you're talking about expressive photography you're referring to photographs that make a person go, "Ooh," or, "Aah," and feel what it was like to have been in that scene in that particular moment.

Audri Lanford: How can expressive photography improve one's nature photographs?

Brenda Tharp: Pictures tell stories. They convey or express moods and viewpoints, and hopefully evoke those emotions from the viewer. We can improve our nature photographs by making a viewer feel the light or the mood that we experienced when taking the photo. The picture has more impact with that.

Audri Lanford: What are the most important elements of expressive photography that people should know about?

Brenda Tharp: We use photography as a means of self-expression. In the process of making our pictures more expressive, we're really sharing a bit of ourselves. Freeman Patterson, a really terrific Canadian photographer, used to talks about the camera pointing both ways -- that in the process of making the picture, we are also capturing a bit of ourselves inside of that picture.

I think that's an important thing for people to remember -- that when they're trying to make their pictures more expressive, they have to be willing to really show their feelings and their view of what it is they're photographing in order for that to come through in the end picture.

In Summary

There are those who say you can only get out of photography what you're willing to put into it. Expressive photography takes that saying to a whole new level. If you want to use expressive photography to improve your nature shots, you have to be willing to put a bit of yourself into the pictures you take.