I turned to YouTube this morning for some inspiration on my photography. I’ve been asking the “why?” question a lot, lately - why do this?

This video from Rick Bebbington, which explores the existential question AI presents for photography at large, reminded me of the answer I always come back to when The Why Question creeps into my mind about my photography – it’s about the story. Rick did something that I thought was neat – he flipped the script and explored the issue from the perspective of AI imagery proponents, wondering about the biggest challenge they face to wider adoption.

His answer is simple: “There is no human story to any of it” and there never will be. AI can’t provide that, so there’s the value gap.

That reminded me of my long-standing answer to The Why Question: The Story. That’s why. It’s about the story.

Rick’s insight on the AI question, though, helped me realize that the story answer to my question has another dimension to it. It’s not just about the story told by the subject matter in the photograph. It’s also about the story of the photograph. He talks about the story of a landscape photographer suffering through “cold, rain, wind” to get the shot.

“That’s a story, and that’s something you can relate to and connect with.”

He’s right, and those stories are part of what I love about photography. I love the of stories just as much as I do the in stories.

Here’s the thing, though. I have to tell the stories of my photographs for people to connect with them. Can’t happen without that.

So there’s my challenge. I need to start telling the stories of my photographs. Let’s go.