The Source of Photoshoot Ideas and Plots

写真撮影のアイデアとストーリーの源

During my workshops, I often hear one and the same question: “Where does your inexhaustible flow of ideas and plots come from?”

The answer to this question is very simple: there’s an endless number of sources of ideas:

• episodes from various movies;
• visual art (paintings by modern and classic artists);
• interesting life situations;
• childhood memories;
• an interesting location (for instance, riverside or a window of an extraordinary shape, etc.);
• things and accessories that can lay the foundation for an interesting plot (an old car, a fan, a stylish mirror);
• clothes that provoke certain associations;
• extraordinary appearance of the model you see as a certain character.

There are a lot of other options. This list is limited only by your imagination and observation skills.

“If the painting is good, it tells a lot of stories”, Josef Koudelka.

For instance, let’s take a photo called “Curly-Haired Shepherdess”. Once in autumn, I was riding my bike along the country road and saw a shepherd grazing a big herd of sheep. I stopped to meet the shepherd and agreed with him upon the photoshoot with his sheep. Then I prepared very well for that photoshoot, and after a couple of days, I made that photo.

The “Little bliss” photo series. I often visit a flea market in search of some interesting stuff for my photoshoots. Once I saw this fan from the 1970s, which triggered my childhood memories. In those years, there were no air conditioners, and in strong heat, we would cool ourselves down with exactly the same fans. That’s how I came up with the photoshoot idea, which I implemented in an old office of a school secretary.

The idea of the “Temptation next door” photos also stems from my youth memories. I remember how my neighbor was flooded with water by someone next floor up while he was spying on his female neighbor through the window. That photoshoot was implemented in the neighboring house.

The idea of the “Sweet Dream” photo, which resembles a painting, struck me while visiting a picture gallery, when I saw a beautiful sleeping lady in one of the paintings. The photoshoot was implemented in a rented apartment, where I only needed a couch and a window. I took all the props (curtains, fabrics, a flower vase etc.) with me.

This list can be continued for a long while. Almost all my photos with plots and stories were created in this very manner…