The flash fiction
In middle school, my teacher once told me a very short story. Six words to be exact:
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn”.
The story is popularly attributed to Ernest Hemingway, although the link to him is unlikely (Wikipedia), suggests the tragedy of a child’s early death revealed in sale of clothes. Until now, it is still engraved in my memory, since in only 6 words the author could deliver a story, a shockwave of emotions and lots of questions in my head. Now as a father of a sweet little girl, I cannot think of the story without a skipped heartbeat.
In my journey of photography, more than once I have tried to tell stories, from random pictures with endless captions about cliches stuffs like love, hard-working people; to photo series of events like wedding or festivals; or mini projects describing my own family’s life. Yet I feel the connections between photos are weak, and the stories are dragged longer than they should be. As a result, now I’m trying to take baby steps. Every shot I take, I try to have a story in it. My photos are my flash fictions.
For any of you who are not familiar with the term flash fiction, according to Wikipedia, Flash fiction, also called minimalist fiction, is a fictional work of extreme brevity that still offers character and plot development. Identified varieties, many of them defined by word count, include the six-word story; the 280-character story (also known as "twitterature"); the "dribble" (also known as the "minisaga," 50 words); the "drabble" (also known as "microfiction," 100 words); "sudden fiction" (750 words); "flash fiction" (1,000 words); and "microstory". The six-word story above is definitely a flash fiction.
Anyway, long story short, I try to use one image to tell the whole story. Once I perfect this craft, I will go back to the next project of photo series. Just remember I am no Ernest Hemingway though.
This picture consists of 3 separate pictures, together they describe the daily work of people in Dong Xuan Market. It’s like a mini photo series.
I love the mood this photo brings. The combination of yellow and blue, the darkness of the night, the two men with their heads down. This looks like a sigh after a long day. You don’t always have to show their faces for emotions. Gestures and body languages speak a lot too.
What are they discussing? Is she really talking to the mask? The facial expressions and the similarities are what caught my eyes. The key here is letting the main subject interact with his/ her surroundings.
The girl and her mother were standing still in a moving crowd. Was she sick, or upset, or just tired?
The scars, the lock, yet the smile. This door is a story on its own. If I was a 14-year-old girl I would definitely cry.
I call this a story of passion. You can rotate it anyway you want; it’ll have a different meaning.
In my own opinion, a photo that speaks is a photo that makes people stop and look at it, ask questions and discuss about it. At the end of the day, the main point of telling stories is to provide information, plant an idea and invoke feelings.
