THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A NEUTRAL PHOTOGRAPH

How the photographs you choose shape the way people see your brand.

Whenever someone tells you their photography is neutral, that they photograph the world exactly as it is, they’re lying.

A camera doesn’t simply record the world. The photographer decides where to stand, what to include and what to leave outside the frame. They choose the light, the angle and the moment they press the button. Then they make choices about colour, contrast and editing.

Every photograph has passed through the soul of a photographer. Their eyes, their experiences and their way of seeing are all in there. There’s no way around it.

They might not be lying on purpose. They may even believe it themselves. But it still isn’t true, it's simply not possible.

A BORING PHOTOGRAPH ISN’T MORE HONEST - BRAND PHOTOGRAPHY IS NEVER JUST A SUBJECT

I’ve worked for news magazines that told me they couldn’t use some of my photographs because they looked too good. They said it would make the other photographs look bad.

That says a lot about how we view photography. We’ve somehow decided that an artistic photograph is less truthful. Remove the shadows, atmosphere and personality, and the image becomes more honest.

It doesn’t.

A boring photograph isn’t more honest because it’s boring. A photograph can show what something looked like, but it can also show what it felt like to be there. I’m not interested in simply recording what’s in front of me. I want my photographs to say something about what it felt like to be there.

Two photographs of the same mountain can convey completely different feelings. One can feel wild and exciting. Another can feel peaceful, lonely or like a cheap ski resort. A person laughing can look warm and honest in one photograph and painfully staged in another. The subject may be the same, but the photographs are saying completely different things.

I once came across a high-end hotel using one of those boring photographs as its main image. It was a flat, grey drone photograph. Sure, it showed the building. But it also made the hotel look like a completely different kind of place. If your brand photography makes an expensive hotel look cheap, the photograph isn’t neutral. It’s working against you.

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YOU’RE NOT JUST BUYING WHAT’S IN THE PHOTOGRAPH

A mountain can look completely different depending on who’s behind the camera. When you choose a photograph, you’re also choosing the photographer’s way of seeing it.

Their way of seeing is already part of the photograph. When you use that image, it becomes part of your brand too.

This is why photographs from the same archive often work well together. They don’t have to show the same subject, place or day. They’ve already passed through the same person. The same soul.

The photographs in the Urstig Studio archive were taken in different places, in different years and for different reasons. I’m drawn to mystery, movement and imperfection, something I bet you can see in my photographs. I like photographs that leave something to the imagination. I don’t want them to tell you exactly what to think.

Urstig won’t be right for every brand. It shouldn’t be.

When you choose a photograph, look beyond the subject. Ask what it says about your brand.

Explore the Urstig Studio collection, or get in touch if you’d like help finding a group of photographs from the wider archive.