Two decades ago in a television documentary, legendary US photographer Richard Avedon said:
Images are fast replacing words as our primary language. They define our ideas of beauty, truth and history. In our age, the photographer, not the philosopher, is king.
Today the Internet is the dominant means of communication and images are the most effective, most powerful, most universal language. People don’t read, they look.
What does this mean for you and your business?
If you’re not using photography to market your business then you’re not worth looking at, you’re not part of the conversation, you’re pretty much invisible.
The simple solution might be to hire a corporate photographer to do some business headshots. But that’s only a first step. Business portraits say who you are but not what you are.
The best way to show your values and deliver your business message is with storytelling. That may be a trendy catchphrase but it’s also scientific fact.
It’s been shown that our brains are wired to seek out stories rather than a collection of data. We prefer to follow a plot path rather than a column of bullet points. This is because a story engages all of our brain and causes us to pay more attention and to somehow get emotionally involved with the story. In other words, storytelling influences people’s thinking.
Corporate storytelling should be much more than just talking about how the company got started or what the employees do in their spare time. Those stories are about the company not the customer.
Corporate spin and advertising tell customers what the company wants to tell them. Storytelling tells customers what the customers want to know.
Storytelling should start at the end and work backwards. What do your customers need or want to know about your company? Now how do you convey that in a story?
Avedon later told a group of photo students:
“Images have replaced language and have replaced reading. … You [photographers] are the new writers.”
Successful stories create emotion, specifically, empathy. This makes a story, an idea or a subject to be more memorable. More memorable means more influential. The most compelling way to build emotion is with photography.
Who will you hire to help “write” your next story?
