Building a series

Learning goal

You will be able to find a recurring theme among the street frames you have shot scattered over weeks, and turn them into a series that carries a story. By scanning your archive backward and giving the frames tags, you will see what recurs, and tell the theme apart from the subject. Once the theme is found, you will go back to the street this time with an eye that knowingly looks for that theme, and complete the missing moments. You will take care that different people, hours and places appear in the series in a balanced way, and that people of different skin tones, ages and jobs are present with the same dignity. You will give the series a title that sums it up but doesn't explain it, and as the track's project build a neighborhood's story in ten photos.

The question

When the frame on the news site comes down, your friend lays out on the floor the small prints they printed; weeks of accumulation cover the rug. Each one is strong on its own, but looked at together they are like a scattered pile. Then something catches their attention: most of the frames have the early hour of morning, and in many of them hands carry a loaf of bread, a net bag, a sack. The scattered frames begin to read like a neighborhood's morning. Is finding a story in your street photos possible, and how is that story found?

Context

In the metadata lesson you learned to make your archive searchable by adding keywords such as subject, place and person to your photos (Lesson 15.5). You worked on placing two photos side by side through similarity or contrast to give birth to a third meaning in the pairing lesson (Lesson 23.3), and on narrowing an archive with a single question each time in the making a selection lesson (Lesson 26.9).

The street photographer often goes out not with a project but with curiosity; frames accumulate over days, over weeks. A series is often not planned in advance, but discovered inside the archive. This discovery lets the photographer see what they look at again and again, what they search for without realizing it. Then the series goes back to the street and turns into a deliberate project. This lesson, which closes the street track, looks at how accumulated frames turn into a story.

Simple explanation

How is a theme found?

Theme hunting is looking backward through a scattered street archive for a recurring situation, object, hour or relationship. The archive is scanned not by looking at individual frames but by looking at repetitions: at what hours did I shoot, which movements recur, which objects are in most of the frames? Keywords given to frames make this search easier; tags such as "morning," "hands," "bread," "carrying" make a repetition visible.

A theme is different from a subject. A subject is what appears in a frame: a simit seller, a baker, a market. A theme, on the other hand, is the idea that recurs between frames and connects them: the hands that open a neighborhood's morning, waiting, carrying. Frames of different subjects can carry the same theme; a good street series is often made not of a single subject, but of different faces of a theme.

How is a series completed?

A deliberate return is, once a theme is found, going back to the street this time with an eye that knowingly looks for that theme. A series that comes out of the archive is often incomplete: some hours, some places or some people aren't there at all. The photographer writes these gaps on a list and goes out into the street to look for them: the earliest hour of morning, the other end of the neighborhood, a hand leaving bread on a doorstep. This return turns a project that began by chance into a deliberate series.

Diversity balance is different people, ages, skin tones, jobs, hours and places appearing in a series in a balanced way. A neighborhood's morning isn't made of only one kind of person, only one street or only one light. A series that comes out of the archive can show that the photographer, without realizing it, always turned toward the same people or the same places; the deliberate return is also used to correct this imbalance. A series in which every skin keeps its own color, even as the light changes from hour to hour, is closer to the neighborhood's real face.

How is a series named?

A series title is a name that names a street series in a few words and opens the door of the theme a little for the viewer. A good series title hints at the theme but doesn't explain everything: "Hands of the morning," or just "Carrying." The title can also guide the series' sequence: a series telling a morning can be sequenced from darkness toward light, a series built on hands by passing from one hand to the next. Writing a few title candidates and rereading the frames under each one shows which one speaks with the series.

A series title also affects the people in the frames. Naming a neighborhood "the morning of poverty" puts everyone there under a single label; the same frames, under the title "Hands of the morning," show the labor and daily life of those who live there. That is why, when choosing a title, you also ask whether the people in the series would recognize themselves on seeing this title. If possible, the title is shown to a few people in the series; their reaction can reveal an association the photographer can't see.

Visual evidence

Your friend groups the frames on the table first by subject, then by hour. When grouped by hour, the frames line up on their own into a morning: the night shift's break, the simit seller's stall, the basket coming down from the balcony, the market opening, the young person returning home from under the arch. The tags "hands" and "carrying" they gave the frames recur in fifteen frames.

They write a list of gaps: the other end of the neighborhood isn't there at all, there is no frame shot before six in the morning, there is only one of the loads women carry, there is no old person's hand at all. For two weeks they go back to the street looking for these gaps; they photograph the hand of an old man leaving bread on a doorstep and a dark-skinned woman carrying tea at six in the morning.

In the end they choose ten frames and name the series "Hands of the morning." The series begins with a dark bakery, moves forward passing from one hand to the next, and ends in the light with the young person's bread bag under the arch. Hands of different ages and skin tones, in their own tone even in different lights.

Common mistakes

Summary

A story comes out of street photos through theme hunting that searches backward through a scattered archive for a recurring theme; a theme is different from a subject and connects frames of different subjects. Once the theme is found, missing hours, places and people are completed with a deliberate return, people of different skin tones, ages and jobs appear in a balanced way and with the same dignity, and the series is built with a title that hints at the theme without explaining it and a sequence that fits that title.

Mini assignment

The street track's project is in this assignment: you will build a neighborhood's story in ten photos.

1. Give keywords to all the street frames you have shot in a neighborhood and find a recurring theme by grouping them by hour, subject and movement.
2. In the frames you chose by the theme, write the missing hours, places and people on a list, and complete these gaps with a deliberate return.
3. Choose ten frames, write a few title candidates for the series, choose one and line up the frames in a sequence that fits the title; check that people of different skin tones, ages and jobs appear in a balanced way.

Check yourself

• Do the frames in your series carry a theme rather than a single subject?
• Were you able to fill the gaps on your list?
• Does the series show the neighborhood's different faces in a balanced way?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What is the difference between theme and subject?

• A) They are the same thing
• B) The subject is what appears in a frame, the theme is the idea that recurs between frames and connects them
• C) The theme is only about colors
• D) The subject is only people

2. What is the benefit of keywords in theme hunting?

• A) They make files smaller
• B) They make frames sharper
• C) They make repetitions visible and make the search easier
• D) They sort photos automatically

3. Why is a deliberate return made?

• A) To complete the missing hours, places and people of the series that came out of the archive
• B) To shoot the same frames again
• C) To change the theme
• D) To make the series longer

4. What does a good series title do?

• A) It explains everything in detail
• B) It lists the names of everyone in the series
• C) It only gives the date
• D) It hints at the theme but doesn't explain everything

Answers

1. B — Frames of different subjects can carry the same theme; a series is often built from a theme.
2. C — Tags bring out repetitions that can't be seen when looking at individual frames.
3. A — A series that comes out of the archive is often incomplete; the return turns it into a deliberate series.
4. D — The title opens the door for the viewer; it leaves the reading to them.

Summary card

• A series is often not planned; it is discovered in the archive.
• Theme hunting: hour, movement, object; see repetitions through keywords.
• A theme is different from a subject; it connects different subjects.
• Write a list of gaps; complete it with a deliberate return.
• Diversity balance: different people, skin tones, ages, hours, places.
• A series title hints, doesn't explain; it guides the sequence.

Bridge to the next lesson

"Hands of the morning" was shown at the club, and the street and documentary track ends here: from ordinary moments to fear, from zone focusing to waiting, from light to ethics, from documentary to news and to the series. A few weeks later your friend joins a walk the club organizes outside the city. The valley they see from the hilltop is breathtaking, but when they get home and look at the frames, they are all flat, like ordinary postcards. The next lesson opens the Landscape track and asks how the foreground, layers and light give a landscape depth.