Photojournalism | It’s All About Storytelling

© 2010 Wazari Wazir | A Group Photograph of Malaysia and India Prime Minister with Wife

© 2010 Wazari Wazir | A Group Photograph | Behind The Scene

Those two photographs above were taken outside Prime Minister Office in Putrajaya during Official Visit of His Excellency Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India and Mrs. Gursharan Kaur to Malaysia on 27th October 2010. This is a typical group photograph whenever there is an official welcoming ceremony to welcome head of state or head of government to Malaysia. Sometimes they bring their wife come along and sometimes they didn’t.

Photojournalism is all about storytelling, if you asked me personally which photograph that I like the most between those two shots above, definitely my answer is the “messy” one, behind the scene photograph where everybody especially the Prime Minister Office official are busy to rearrange for  a group photograph. It was drizzle that day in Putrajaya, it’s not hot but it rains, that’s why you can see the umbrella there. I like the cluttered picture, getting ready shot more than a clean shot simply because it has a story to tell, we can see the whole story how people are working to get things right. You can see the officer on the right are busy telling the bodyguard or the secret service to raise the umbrella a bit higher, sometimes it is funny to look at since the umbrella is high already.

You will never see this behind the scene picture in our local newspaper, it’s not official picture to be release, they will use a clean shot where nobody is visible except the leaders. I’ve cover this welcoming ceremony event many times and I like to shoot behind the scene picture, I mean I did not wait until everything look “clean” to press the shutter but I keep on pressing the shutter and record everything that happens in between.

Sometimes a messy, cluttered picture tells a story more than a clean shot depending on what we want to tell, for those of you who shoot weddings, events or any official function where there is a group photograph, don’t forget to get a behind the scene photographs as well, don’t wait until everything was perfect to press the shutter. If you wanted to tell a story with your photograph, it would not be completed without “behind the scene picture”.

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