Home - Storytelling In Photography

Preface to the website

Don Althaus, M.A. /

You might wonder why, on a website that’s supposed to be dedicated to storytelling and photography as a language, so much attention is paid to the smartphone camera system. There are a lot of possible reasons but they all boil down to this... the smartphone system moved photography from a planned, cataloged event to an ambient, communicative gesture. That gesture is the foundation of photography as language and modern storytelling.

Telling the Subject’s Story As Completely as Possible

Don Althaus, M.A. /

This is an extensive, deep-dive look into the art of storytelling in photography. It has nothing to do with the hardware or the software or the workflow. It is about engaging the reader in the story. This is where photography and text work together best. The photographs give us the nouns in a way nothing else can and the words give us the verbs in a way nothing else can. This combination tells the story in a way nothing else can.
(And yes, they are READERS!)

The Key Is Writing Stories People Want To Read

Don Althaus, M.A. /

One of the truly unsung keys to successful storytelling is writing stories people want to read. These are the stories that come from your passions and your interests... the stories that come from your experience and your involvement. It is writing about these subjects in a way that piques someone’s curiosity.

Understanding Photographic Language Pt. 1 – Meaning-Making, Grammar and Dialect

Don Althaus, M.A. /

As photography continues to evolve, it is increasingly understood as a meaning-making language grounded in a universal, stable grammar and expressed through diverse dialectical structures across shifting contexts. While the grammar remains constant, its applications are fluid and culturally responsive. Recognizing this linguistic framework is essential as photography expands within contemporary culture and must be integrated into educational practice across all levels of learning.

Understanding Photographic Language Pt. 2 – A Full Curriculum

Don Althaus, M.A. /

The 30-credit hour curriculum presented here fully integrates the concept of photography as a comprehensive, meaning-making language and strives for depth in learning rather than breadth. This curriculum addresses the gravity shift to a meaning-making language realistically and comprehensively. (Primarily intended for educators and curriculum designers)

The Shift, pt. 1 - Photography’s center of gravity shift forever ruptures traditional infrastructure

Don Althaus, M.A. /

In approximately 2021 photography’s center of gravity shifted, leaving the traditional node and friction-based infrastructure permanently. This rupture, caused by the smartphone camera’s integrated ecosystem collapsing capture, processing, distribution and archiving into a single gesture, is only growing. But somehow, the issue is never discussed in the mainstream photo media. Here is a discussion...

The Shift, pt. 2 - Computational Photography Reboots the Medium’s Basics

Don Althaus, M.A. /

The computational photography rupture is well established and is continuing to have core-shifting impacts on the practice of photography. Here is a deep dive into the specifics of how the rupture impacts the medium and how it changes our approach.

Impact: A Real-Time Guide To Using Your Smartphone Camera To Its Full Advantage

Don Althaus, M.A. /

Today's smartphone camera system is the most advanced and reliable mass-market photographic system ever designed but it requires some changes in the approach to “making pictures”.

Impact: You Really Don’t Need All That Stuff For Post Processing

Don Althaus, M.A. /

The modern photo press would have you believe you need a workstation that can process a Hollywood feature film to do photography... you don't and here's the proof.

If Past Is Prologue - Disrupting Our Way To The Future

Don Althaus, M.A. /

The wet plate process, Kodak’s Brownie camera and Apple’s iPhone were the most disruptive advances in the history of photography fundamentally changing both the medium and our understanding of it. In many ways it is that disruption that is still creating the future of photography.

View All Articles

Route 66 - Still the American Mother Road

Don Althaus, M.A. /

Even 30 years after it officially ceased to exist, it’s still the ideal of the open road.

Rhyolite – Boom and Bust Together

Don Althaus, M.A. /

Few mining areas in the early 20th century went through the overnight rise and even more rapid fall as Rhyolite NV.

Swansea – The Anonymous Ghost Town

Don Althaus, M.A. /

It was a boom town set in the middle of the Arizona desert turning nowhere into somewhere for a while.

Arizona’s Ghost Town Trail

Don Althaus, M.A. /

Gleeson and Courtland were two boom-to-bust mining towns. Pearce almost followed suit along the Arizona ghost town trail...

A Year At The Mall

Don Althaus, M.A. /

It started as just a sign, after a while it became something of a curiosity and then. after years, they started building...

Collected Disruptive Cameras (and others)

Don Althaus, M.A. /

A collection of the most disruptive and historically significant cameras with a supporting cast showing how we got here.

View All Photobooks