In our last lesson, we analyzed the diverse strategies contemporary artists use in their photo books, from the stark minimalism of Wilfred Wessel's Exodus to the collaborative intimacy of Olaf Corbanek and Louise Lance's project. We saw that the book is not just a container for images, but an integrated art object where every choice—sequence, design, material—serves a conceptual purpose.
This lesson will provide a vocabulary for these different approaches by defining four key genres of the artistic photo book: documentary, conceptual, narrative, and lyrical. Understanding these genres will give you a powerful framework for analyzing other artists' work and, more importantly, for articulating the intent behind your own. Think of these not as rigid boxes, but as creative traditions you can draw from, combine, and even subvert as you begin to develop your project.
Four Modes of Photographic Storytelling
A story told in photographs can take many forms. It can be a linear account of events, an abstract exploration of an idea, a factual report, or a poetic evocation of a feeling. Let's begin by exploring four fundamental approaches to storytelling in photography.
The Power of Storytelling in Photography: How to Make Your Images Speak
The video "The Power of Storytelling in Photography" offers a clear introduction to the different ways images can be woven together to create meaning.
Please watch the following four short segments, each defining a specific type of photo story: Narrative Stories Conceptual Photography Documentary Storytelling Abstract Storytelling (This maps closely to what we will call "Lyrical")
As the video explains, these modes are distinguished by their intent and methods:
| Genre | Primary Goal | Key Characteristics |
|---|---|---|
| Narrative | To tell a story with a clear sequence of events. | Follows a progression (beginning, middle, end); often depicts a transformation or journey; can be fictional or non-fictional. |
| Documentary | To capture and present real-life events, people, or places with authenticity. | Focuses on truth and humanity; often relies on candid, unposed moments; can serve as a historical or social record. |
| Conceptual | To convey an idea, emotion, or abstract theme. | Uses symbolism, metaphor, and abstraction; invites viewer interpretation; the idea is paramount. |
| Lyrical / Abstract | To evoke a feeling, mood, or sensation. | Relies on formal qualities like color, texture, and light; non-linear and associative; prioritizes atmosphere over a clear story. |
A More Formal Taxonomy
Building on this foundation, let's turn to a more rigorous framework proposed by critic and photobook expert Jörg Colberg. He organizes books based on how they operate—how the images and text work together to tell their story.
This essay offers a sophisticated classification system for understanding photobooks. We will focus on three of Colberg's main categories, which align with the genres we are exploring.
Please read the definitions for the following categories: Journalistic: Start at the main definition, and then read the sub-category Documentary. Notice the discussion of truth, objectivity, and the role of text. This is the tradition of Walker Evans. Lyrical: Read the main definition that begins here. Then, review the definitions for the Poetic, Elliptical, and Linear sub-types. Pay close attention to how they differ in their reliance on sequence. This is the tradition of Robert Frank. Narrative Driven: Read the main definition starting here. Then read the descriptions for Subjective Documentary and First-Person Narration. This approach relates to Nan Goldin's diaristic work.
Colberg's taxonomy provides a nuanced language for what we've been observing. A "Journalistic/Documentary" book, like Walker Evans's American Photographs, aims to present factual evidence about the world. A "Lyrical" book, like Robert Frank's The Americans, uses a sequence of images to create a subjective, poetic feeling rather than a factual report. A "Narrative-Driven" book, like Nan Goldin's The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, tells a highly personal story, often blurring the lines between fact and fiction, diary and performance.
Seeing Genres in the Wild
These genres are not just theoretical. They describe real, influential bodies of work. Let's look at some examples to make these categories more concrete.
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Documentary: Susan Meiselas’s Carnival Strippers (1976) is a classic of engaged documentary. She spent years photographing and interviewing women working in traveling carnivals, combining powerful images with their own words to create an empathetic and challenging portrait of their lives. The goal is to bear witness and humanize her subjects.
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Lyrical: Masahisa Fukase's The Solitude of Ravens (1986) is a landmark of lyrical photography. Created after his divorce, the book is a dark, obsessive, and poetic exploration of loss and loneliness, symbolized by the recurring motif of ravens. The sequence is associative and emotional, not linear, building a powerful, melancholic mood.
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Narrative: Larry Sultan's Pictures From Home (1992) is a brilliant example of a narrative-driven project. Sultan photographed his own parents in their Southern California home, blending his artfully staged images with snapshots from the family album, film stills, and fragments of conversation. The book tells the story of his family, the American dream, and the slippery nature of memory, deliberately mixing documentary impulse with directorial control.
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Conceptual: Ralph Gibson’s The Somnambulist (1970) is a cornerstone of conceptual photobook making. The images are mysterious, fragmented, and graphically bold. There is no clear story or location. Instead, Gibson creates a dream-like state, a "photographic language" where juxtapositions between pictures create new meanings that exist only within the world of the book. The concept—exploring a surreal, psychological space through associative edits—governs the entire project.
Hybridity: Working Between the Lines
The most compelling contemporary work often exists at the intersections of these genres. Artists frequently blend documentary subjects with conceptual strategies or lyrical aesthetics.
Mosse's work is a powerful fusion. The subject matter is clearly documentary, but the visual strategy is deeply conceptual. The use of infrared film, originally developed for military reconnaissance, makes the invisible visible and forces the viewer to confront the "beautiful and terrible" nature of the conflict. The project isn't just about the war; the aesthetic itself is an argument.
This blending of approaches is also evident in the practical work of editing and sequencing. An artist might build a largely documentary project but use lyrical, abstract images to pace the book, providing moments of rest or reflection between more "informational" photographs.
Let's watch a curator and bookmaker, Dan Milnor, grapple with this exact issue as he sequences a project about the Port of Los Angeles.
How to Sequence Photos to Tell a Story | The Edit
In this segment from "How to Sequence Photos," Milnor works through a documentary-style project, making key decisions about how to balance different types of images.
Watch the segment from his review of Deborah Davis's work. Pay close attention around this point, where he explicitly discusses the need for "informational" photographs in a project, even if they aren't the most "aesthetic" ones. This highlights the practical negotiation between documentary needs and lyrical qualities within a single body of work.
Conclusion
In this lesson, we have defined a working vocabulary for the primary genres of the artistic photo book.
- Documentary projects are grounded in the real world, aiming to inform, record, or bear witness.
- Lyrical projects prioritize mood and emotion, using a poetic and associative visual language.
- Narrative projects are driven by a specific story, whether autobiographical, fictional, or something in between.
- Conceptual projects are built around a central idea, where the photographic strategy itself is a key part of the work's meaning.
These genres are not mutually exclusive. They are creative starting points and analytical tools. Your strength as an artist with a background in sculpture and design lies in your ability to think three-dimensionally, to imagine how a conceptual or narrative thread can be woven not just through images on a page, but through the very fabric and structure of the book itself.
Now that you have this critical vocabulary, you are prepared to move from analysis to creation. In our next lesson, we will begin Module 2 by taking the first concrete step in developing your own project: articulating its central theme and concept.