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How to Create an Engaging Photo Essay (with Examples)

Photo essays tell a story in pictures. They're a great way to improve at photography and story-telling skills at once. Learn how to do create a great one.

Learn | Photography Guides | By Ana Mireles

Photography is a medium used to tell stories – sometimes they are told in one picture, sometimes you need a whole series. Those series can be photo essays.

If you’ve never done a photo essay before, or you’re simply struggling to find your next project, this article will be of help. I’ll be showing you what a photo essay is and how to go about doing one.

You’ll also find plenty of photo essay ideas and some famous photo essay examples from recent times that will serve you as inspiration.

If you’re ready to get started, let’s jump right in!

Table of Contents

What is a Photo Essay?

A photo essay is a series of images that share an overarching theme as well as a visual and technical coherence to tell a story. Some people refer to a photo essay as a photo series or a photo story – this often happens in photography competitions.

Photographic history is full of famous photo essays. Think about The Great Depression by Dorothea Lange, Like Brother Like Sister by Wolfgang Tillmans, Gandhi’s funeral by Henri Cartier Bresson, amongst others.

What are the types of photo essay?

Despite popular belief, the type of photo essay doesn’t depend on the type of photography that you do – in other words, journalism, documentary, fine art, or any other photographic genre is not a type of photo essay.

Instead, there are two main types of photo essays: narrative and thematic .

As you have probably already guessed, the thematic one presents images pulled together by a topic – for example, global warming. The images can be about animals and nature as well as natural disasters devastating cities. They can happen all over the world or in the same location, and they can be captured in different moments in time – there’s a lot of flexibility.

A narrative photo essa y, on the other hand, tells the story of a character (human or not), portraying a place or an event. For example, a narrative photo essay on coffee would document the process from the planting and harvesting – to the roasting and grinding until it reaches your morning cup.

What are some of the key elements of a photo essay?

• Tell a unique story – A unique story doesn’t mean that you have to photograph something that nobody has done before – that would be almost impossible! It means that you should consider what you’re bringing to the table on a particular topic.
• Put yourself into the work – One of the best ways to make a compelling photo essay is by adding your point of view, which can only be done with your life experiences and the way you see the world.
• Add depth to the concept – The best photo essays are the ones that go past the obvious and dig deeper in the story, going behind the scenes, or examining a day in the life of the subject matter – that’s what pulls in the spectator.
• Nail the technique – Even if the concept and the story are the most important part of a photo essay, it won’t have the same success if it’s poorly executed.
• Build a structure – A photo essay is about telling a thought-provoking story – so, think about it in a narrative way. Which images are going to introduce the topic? Which ones represent a climax? How is it going to end – how do you want the viewer to feel after seeing your photo series?
• Make strong choices – If you really want to convey an emotion and a unique point of view, you’re going to need to make some hard decisions. Which light are you using? Which lens? How many images will there be in the series? etc., and most importantly for a great photo essay is the why behind those choices.

9 Tips for Creating a Photo Essay

Credit: Laura James

1. Choose something you know

To make a good photo essay, you don’t need to travel to an exotic location or document a civil war – I mean, it’s great if you can, but you can start close to home.

Depending on the type of photography you do and the topic you’re looking for in your photographic essay, you can photograph a local event or visit an abandoned building outside your town.

It will be much easier for you to find a unique perspective and tell a better story if you’re already familiar with the subject. Also, consider that you might have to return a few times to the same location to get all the photos you need.

2. Follow your passion

Most photo essays take dedication and passion. If you choose a subject that might be easy, but you’re not really into it – the results won’t be as exciting. Taking photos will always be easier and more fun if you’re covering something you’re passionate about.

3. Take your time

A great photo essay is not done in a few hours. You need to put in the time to research it, conceptualizing it, editing, etc. That’s why I previously recommended following your passion because it takes a lot of dedication, and if you’re not passionate about it – it’s difficult to push through.

4. Write a summary or statement

Photo essays are always accompanied by some text. You can do this in the form of an introduction, write captions for each photo or write it as a conclusion. That’s up to you and how you want to present the work.

5. Learn from the masters

Making a photographic essay takes a lot of practice and knowledge. A great way to become a better photographer and improve your storytelling skills is by studying the work of others. You can go to art shows, review books and magazines and look at the winners in photo contests – most of the time, there’s a category for photo series.

6. Get a wide variety of photos

Think about a story – a literary one. It usually tells you where the story is happening, who is the main character, and it gives you a few details to make you engage with it, right?

The same thing happens with a visual story in a photo essay – you can do some wide-angle shots to establish the scenes and some close-ups to show the details. Make a shot list to ensure you cover all the different angles.

Some of your pictures should guide the viewer in, while others are more climatic and regard the experience they are taking out of your photos.

7. Follow a consistent look

Both in style and aesthetics, all the images in your series need to be coherent. You can achieve this in different ways, from the choice of lighting, the mood, the post-processing, etc.

8. Be self-critical

Once you have all the photos, make sure you edit them with a good dose of self-criticism. Not all the pictures that you took belong in the photo essay. Choose only the best ones and make sure they tell the full story.

9. Ask for constructive feedback

Often, when we’re working on a photo essay project for a long time, everything makes perfect sense in our heads. However, someone outside the project might not be getting the idea. It’s important that you get honest and constructive criticism to improve your photography.

How to Create a Photo Essay in 5 Steps

Credit: Quang Nguyen Vinh

1. Choose your topic

This is the first step that you need to take to decide if your photo essay is going to be narrative or thematic. Then, choose what is it going to be about?

Ideally, it should be something that you’re interested in, that you have something to say about it, and it can connect with other people.

2. Research your topic

To tell a good story about something, you need to be familiar with that something. This is especially true when you want to go deeper and make a compelling photo essay. Day in the life photo essays are a popular choice, since often, these can be performed with friends and family, whom you already should know well.

3. Plan your photoshoot

Depending on what you’re photographing, this step can be very different from one project to the next. For a fine art project, you might need to find a location, props, models, a shot list, etc., while a documentary photo essay is about planning the best time to do the photos, what gear to bring with you, finding a local guide, etc.

Every photo essay will need different planning, so before taking pictures, put in the required time to get things right.

4. Experiment

It’s one thing to plan your photo shoot and having a shot list that you have to get, or else the photo essay won’t be complete. It’s another thing to miss out on some amazing photo opportunities that you couldn’t foresee.

So, be prepared but also stay open-minded and experiment with different settings, different perspectives, etc.

5. Make a final selection

Editing your work can be one of the hardest parts of doing a photo essay. Sometimes we can be overly critical, and others, we get attached to bad photos because we put a lot of effort into them or we had a great time doing them.

Try to be as objective as possible, don’t be afraid to ask for opinions and make various revisions before settling down on a final cut.

7 Photo Essay Topics, Ideas & Examples

Credit: Michelle Leman

• Architectural photo essay

Using architecture as your main subject, there are tons of photo essay ideas that you can do. For some inspiration, you can check out the work of Francisco Marin – who was trained as an architect and then turned to photography to “explore a different way to perceive things”.

You can also lookup Luisa Lambri. Amongst her series, you’ll find many photo essay examples in which architecture is the subject she uses to explore the relationship between photography and space.

• Process and transformation photo essay

This is one of the best photo essay topics for beginners because the story tells itself. Pick something that has a beginning and an end, for example, pregnancy, the metamorphosis of a butterfly, the life-cycle of a plant, etc.

Keep in mind that these topics are linear and give you an easy way into the narrative flow – however, it might be difficult to find an interesting perspective and a unique point of view.

• A day in the life of ‘X’ photo essay

There are tons of interesting photo essay ideas in this category – you can follow around a celebrity, a worker, your child, etc. You don’t even have to do it about a human subject – think about doing a photo essay about a day in the life of a racing horse, for example – find something that’s interesting for you.

• Time passing by photo essay

It can be a natural site or a landmark photo essay – whatever is close to you will work best as you’ll need to come back multiple times to capture time passing by. For example, how this place changes throughout the seasons or maybe even over the years.

A fun option if you live with family is to document a birthday party each year, seeing how the subject changes over time. This can be combined with a transformation essay or sorts, documenting the changes in interpersonal relationships over time.

• Travel photo essay

Do you want to make the jump from tourist snapshots into a travel photo essay? Research the place you’re going to be travelling to. Then, choose a topic.

If you’re having trouble with how to do this, check out any travel magazine – National Geographic, for example. They won’t do a generic article about Texas – they do an article about the beach life on the Texas Gulf Coast and another one about the diverse flavors of Texas.

The more specific you get, the deeper you can go with the story.

• Socio-political issues photo essay

This is one of the most popular photo essay examples – it falls under the category of photojournalism or documental photography. They are usually thematic, although it’s also possible to do a narrative one.

Depending on your topic of interest, you can choose topics that involve nature – for example, document the effects of global warming. Another idea is to photograph protests or make an education photo essay.

It doesn’t have to be a big global issue; you can choose something specific to your community – are there too many stray dogs? Make a photo essay about a local animal shelter. The topics are endless.

• Behind the scenes photo essay

A behind-the-scenes always make for a good photo story – people are curious to know what happens and how everything comes together before a show.

Depending on your own interests, this can be a photo essay about a fashion show, a theatre play, a concert, and so on. You’ll probably need to get some permissions, though, not only to shoot but also to showcase or publish those images.

4 Best Photo Essays in Recent times

Now that you know all the techniques about it, it might be helpful to look at some photo essay examples to see how you can put the concept into practice. Here are some famous photo essays from recent times to give you some inspiration.

Habibi by Antonio Faccilongo

This photo essay wan the World Press Photo Story of the Year in 2021. Faccilongo explores a very big conflict from a very specific and intimate point of view – how the Israeli-Palestinian war affects the families.

He chose to use a square format because it allows him to give order to things and eliminate unnecessary elements in his pictures.

With this long-term photo essay, he wanted to highlight the sense of absence and melancholy women and families feel towards their husbands away at war.

The project then became a book edited by Sarah Leen and the graphics of Ramon Pez.

Picture This: New Orleans by Mary Ellen Mark

The last assignment before her passing, Mary Ellen Mark travelled to New Orleans to register the city after a decade after Hurricane Katrina.

The images of the project “bring to life the rebirth and resilience of the people at the heart of this tale”, – says CNNMoney, commissioner of the work.

Each survivor of the hurricane has a story, and Mary Ellen Mark was there to record it. Some of them have heartbreaking stories about everything they had to leave behind.

Others have a story of hope – like Sam and Ben, two eight-year-olds born from frozen embryos kept in a hospital that lost power supply during the hurricane, yet they managed to survive.

Selfie by Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer whose work is mainly done through self-portraits. With them, she explores the concept of identity, gender stereotypes, as well as visual and cultural codes.

One of her latest photo essays was a collaboration with W Magazine entitled Selfie. In it, the author explores the concept of planned candid photos (‘plandid’).

The work was made for Instagram, as the platform is well known for the conflict between the ‘real self’ and the one people present online. Sherman started using Facetune, Perfect365 and YouCam to alter her appearance on selfies – in Photoshop, you can modify everything, but these apps were designed specifically to “make things prettier”- she says, and that’s what she wants to explore in this photo essay.

Tokyo Compression by Michael Wolf

Michael Wolf has an interest in the broad-gauge topic Life in Cities. From there, many photo essays have been derived – amongst them – Tokyo Compression .

He was horrified by the way people in Tokyo are forced to move to the suburbs because of the high prices of the city. Therefore, they are required to make long commutes facing 1,5 hours of train to start their 8+ hour workday followed by another 1,5 hours to get back home.

To portray this way of life, he photographed the people inside the train pressed against the windows looking exhausted, angry or simply absent due to this way of life.

You can visit his website to see other photo essays that revolve around the topic of life in megacities.

Final Words

It’s not easy to make photo essays, so don’t expect to be great at it right from your first project.

Start off small by choosing a specific subject that’s interesting to you –  that will come from an honest place, and it will be a great practice for some bigger projects along the line.

Whether you like to shoot still life or you’re a travel photographer, I hope these photo essay tips and photo essay examples can help you get started and grow in your photography.

Let us know which topics you are working on right now – we’ll love to hear from you!

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Ana Mireles is a Mexican researcher that specializes in photography and communications for the arts and culture sector.

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Photo Essay Examples

Have you run out of interesting photo essay ideas? I have prepared a number of examples for you to draw the inspiration from. Find the photo essay example you like and you are sure to create a lasting emotional impact with your work.

30 Photo Essay Examples to Inspire

What is a photo essay? It is a series or a collection of shots created for the purpose of provoking feelings and emotions. They exist in a variety of forms – from photos only to images with brief comments or captions and written essays accompanied by shots.

Check out the following 30 photo essay examples I have found.

1. Protests

• View the “Resistance” photo essay by David Moore .

A great idea for photo essays is to shoot the protest to show its power. Don’t forget about angles, composition and framing. Go up to the front and photograph the leader of the protesters walking forward.

After that, go back to the end of the group to take pictures of families joining the protest. As a result, you will gain experience shooting big groups of people in motion.

2. Abandoned Building

• View the “Lost Collective” photo essay by Bret Pattman .

Old buildings are excellent photo essay topics since you can capture a large number of elements. Get approval before going in but mind that such places are far from being totally safe. Bring various lenses: the macro one – for details and the wide-angle one – when you want to include many elements in one shot.

3. Local Event

• Check out the “Monday Marathon” photo essay by Quinn G. Perini .

It doesn’t matter if you are a resident of a large city or a small town, there may be an upcoming local event, like a marathon or a festival. This is a nice opportunity to realize photo essay ideas.

You can capture the before, while and after stages of the event. Arrive earlier and take pictures of the preparation activities, then shoot the actual event starting with the official beginning.

Keep photographing even when the event is over, capture the cleaning up and disassembling processes.

• Check out the “Behind the Scenes with Obama” photo essay by Callie Shell .

Many people find behind-the-scene activities more fascinating than their results shown to the viewers. Movie filming, photo sessions, tours or stories of successful people are amazing photo essay themes. This always finds an emotional response from the audience. Such shootings show us the other side of a person or events which we knew nothing about.

5. Sport Fans

• View the “Homes of Football” photo essay by Stuart Roy Clarke .

Sport doesn’t only unite people but also evokes their passion and enthusiasm. Fans throughout the world are vigorously rooting for their favorite teams and players, regardless of the kind of sport.

The emotions are running high during different games and it is a perfect time to capture a photographic essay. No need to buy tickets to a big game, a local high school one will be enough to practice.

6. Social Issues

• View the “Juveniles in Prison” photo essay by Isadora Kosofsky .

The brightest examples of photo essays are related to social issues, like unemployment, domestic violence, gender discrimination and more. Address the topic carefully, with consideration and look for a proper perspective.

Your shots may draw the people’s attention to a truly burning and relevant matter and have a stronger effect than any text.

• View the “Last Moments” photo essay by Ross Taylor .

You don’t necessarily have to focus on profound photo essay topics to evoke emotions. Capturing pets enjoying their worry-free and untroubled life seems like an easy but at the same time interesting activity.

Choose any animal – from a domestic bird to a dog, cat or horse. For more emotional images, take pictures of a pet when it is still a baby and recreate these shots when it is older or is in its final days.

8. Street Style

• View the Tribal Street Photography photo essay by Hans Eijkelboom .

People often express themselves with the help of clothes. The way passers-by on the streets are dressed may reflect the clothing style of a whole society. That’s why you can travel around the world and capture people’s outfits in various areas.

This photo essay example allows you to get familiar with the identity of the inhabitants of various countries. You might be surprised to see that some stereotyped beliefs about people from a particular area aren’t true.

9. Landmarks

• View the “Volte-Face” Oliver Curtis .

The pictures of landmarks are typically taken from a certain spot. One of the best photo essay ideas is to try shooting sights from various angles. You will also have an opportunity to improve composition and your framing skills.

TA variety of perspectives is endless: through the streets, in the morning, afternoon and evening, with a drone or including reflections.

10. Charity

• Check out the “Helping to Heal” photo essay by Chris Usher .

Connect your persuasive photo essay to a relevant global problem. Look for a volunteer organization in your area, they will be eager to participate in your photography project.

Capture what exactly the volunteers are involved in, focus on the subjects they are providing help to and show why it matters.

11. Religious Traditions

• Check out the “Shanghai Sacred” photo essay by Liz Hingley .

Religion is an important part of any culture. The most prominent photo essay examples are connected to religious traditions across the world.

There are no limits on how you can interpret and reflect this topic in your shots. Pay attention to popular religious occasions, traditional religious clothing and dishes typical of these holidays.

• Check out the “A Look Inside a Public Boarding School” photo essay by David Burnett .

Consider visiting the school and capturing day-to-day activities of teachers and pupils as one of photo story ideas. Try to go unnoticed but feel free to ask people to take part in the shooting if they want to.

You can find plenty of captivating scenes at school: children and teachers on a break, different classrooms, cooks preparing food in the canteen.

13. Native Cultures

• Check out the “Indigenous Transitions” photo essay by Hannah Reyes .

Because of globalization, various cultures gradually begin to resemble each other. That’s why you can base your photographic essay on capturing native cultures.

In North America, you can try to find some Native American cultures. In Australia, you can visit aborigines and in Scandinavia – the Sami nation. Highlight their daily routine, traditions, the way of life, eating habits, etc.

14. Personal Space

• View the “Hackney Studios” photo essay by Jenny Lewis .

The working and living space of a person has a lot of peculiar details and is an ideal background for photo essays. You can narrow down this idea to representatives of certain professions.

For instance, the rooms and houses of people of creative professions will definitely surprise and tell a lot about those who live there.

15. Bodypositivity

• Check out the “Epidermis” photo essay by Sophie Harris-Taylor .

Modern beauty and fashion industry promote an unrealistically slim and perfect body. Therefore, the bodypositivity will make an excellent topic for powerful photo essays. For this project, you can invite people of different age groups, sizes, disabled people, etc.

Then place a real and retouched shot next to each other for comparison. Try asking your models the questions regarding parts of their bodies they are unsatisfied about the most and highlight them in the images.

16. Alternative Lifestyles

• Check out the “We are the Youth” photo essay by Laurel Golio .

Some people decide to lead a lifestyle that differs from the one generally accepted by society. Explore different areas and look for people with an unusual way of living. Take pictures of those, who reside in extraordinary conditions, representatives of various subcultures or the LBGTQ community.

These photo essay topics show other people that it is okay to go out of the comfort zone and run against the wind.

17. A Day in the Life

• Check out the “A Day in the Life of a Fashion Week Model” photo essay by Joseph Chi Li .

One of the best photo essays concepts is related to a day in the life. The main character can be any person – a relative or a family member, a teacher, a writer or policeman, etc.

People are generally interested in finding out facts about the lives and daily routine of others. A life of every human is incredible, especially if you learn it in more detail.

• Check out useful environmental photography tips .

18. Climate Change

• Check out the “Extreme Ice Survey” photo essay by James Balog .

It is possible to bring to life a variety of photo story ideas concerned to climate changes. Travel to places most affected by climate change, for instance, glaciers or famous resorts.

Capture the way the continuous drought has influenced the environment, animals and the inhabitants. As an alternative, take pictures of environmentalist protests or inexhaustible energy sources.

19. Struggles of Weight Loss

If you look at photo essay examples devoted to the improvement, they always attract plenty of attention from viewers. Capture the whole process of losing weight and show the results with the help of before/after shots. You are sure to get an inspiring and motivating photography essay.

Don’t hesitate to involve other people who have also become thinner. To add more emotions, snap pictures of people with loose skin after losing weight.

20. Pregnancy

• View the “What the Bump?” photo essay by Danielle Guenther .

As you already know, body changes are appealing and intriguing photo essay topics. Many shooters love capturing the way woman’s body is being transformed during pregnancy. In case you feel like experimenting and touching upon social matters, choose teenage pregnant girls as models for your project.

• Check out more maternity photo ideas .

21. Seasonal Changes

The most eye-catching photo story examples feature seasonal changes. This idea isn’t exactly an innovative one. But if you are ready for creative experiments, you can take fantastic pictures.

Come up with the way you can make this photo essay more unique. For instance, shoot your favorite location, a place where you spent your childhood or met the love of your life.

• View photography series ideas you can try to repeat.

22. “Every Day” by Noah Kalina

Noah Kalina, a photographer, has been taking photos of himself for 12 years every single day. After that, he managed to include all these shots in a video lasting for 7 minutes.

Noah isn’t going to stop and will continue taking pictures of himself till the last day of his life. A photography essay of a person growing up and then gradually getting older will be a touching and attention-grabbing story.

23. “42nd and Vanderbilt” by Peter Funch

One of the best photo essays 2018 was created by Peter Funch, a Danish photographer. He has been shooting one and the same place on a particular NY street at the same time for 9 years.

Peter combined shots of regular passers-by he captured on different days, focusing on identical activities, like drinking coffee or smoking, similar hairstyles and outfits.

24. “Standard” by Roger Eberhard

Hotel rooms in different areas of the world sometimes literally copy each other. Roger Eberhard, a photographer, traveled to 32 countries with the aim to capture repetitive interiors of Hilton hotel rooms.

Then he combined them with the shot of a window view for his book named Standard. Working on his photographic essay, Roger couldn’t help but wonder why people go traveling to different countries and in each new area, they live in identical-looking spaces.

25. “Riding the Tube” by Stefan Rousseau

On his way to the center of London, photographer Stefan Rousseau began taking photos of other passengers. People going in public transport often had their heads in the clouds and didn’t even notice him shooting.

Stefan takes pictures in black and white to avoid bright tones that divert attention from emotions on the people’s faces.

26. “Harlem Family” by Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks, the first African-American photographer of LIFE magazine, got an assignment to take pictures of the basis of urban violence in America.

He has been taking numerous pictures of one family for four weeks. This photo essay example touches the topic of racism, economic exclusion and poverty of many American citizens.

27. “Undocumented” by John Moore

John Moore has been concentrating on the problem of undocumented immigrants to the USA for ten years. He managed to photograph the entire US southern border, actively traveled all over Mexico and Central America, visited immigrant groups in the USA.

John’s unique photo essays feature massive deportations, ICE raiding immigrant groups and their growing panic that followed all these terrible events.

28. “Signed, X” by Kate Ryan

Among the most moving photo essay examples is “Signed”. It depicts various aspects of life after a sexual assault. Kate Ryan interviewed and photographed the sexual assault victims.

In this way, she wanted to reflect their traumatic experience and psychological stress that doesn’t go away even after many years.

29. “Aging in Prison” by Jessica Earnshaw

It took Jessica Earnshaw almost two weeks to take pictures of elderly inmates in prison. Her shots can be found on the pages of National Geographic and other well-known magazines.

Jessica’s project impresses people with its profound idea and special emphasis on people, who spend their last years being locked away. Prison photo essay themes should be explored even further.

30. “Breach of Piece” by Eric Etheridge

Eric Etheridge snapped photos of people approximately 50 years after their mugshots were taken. It is especially interesting to compare the portraits of that same women and men many years later.

Eric has added brief interviews to his picture study essay for a viewer to get familiar with these people’s stories.

Best Photo Essays Freebies

While editing your photography essay, remember that it is highly important to accentuate the concept and feelings you want to convey. With the following 5 freebies, stunning results are guaranteed.

Black and White Classic

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This black and white Ps action will put an emphasis on the artistic features of your shot and give a timeless B&W touch. Apply this action if you want to add a bit of mystery to your images. Due to the contrast between black and white tones, the photo will be more detailed.

HDR Contrast

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Advice for an Unforgettable Photo Essay

Six steps for turning your images into a memorable photo essay, from curating your best work to crafting a title.

A man sits alone on a chair on the side of the road. We see him from above, surrounded by grey cobblestones neatly placed, a broken plastic chair, and some pylons scattered along the curb. A street cat wanders out of the frame and away from the man. He appears lonely, the only person inhabiting the place in which he seems so comfortably seated. As the eye wanders throughout the frame, however, the viewer discovers more: a vast city cast beyond the street and behind the man’s chair. This image closes Sarah Pannell’s photo essay Sehir , a quiet study of urban life.

Possibilities, discovery, and stories: these are some of the most effective elements of a photo essay. Collections of images can help produce a narrative, evoke emotion, and guide the viewer through one or more perspectives. A well-executed photo essay doesn’t rely on a title or any prior knowledge of its creator; it narrates on its own, moving viewers through sensations, lessons, and reactions.

Famous photo essays like Country Doctor by W. Eugene Smith or Gordon Parks’ The Harlem Family are acclaimed for showing a glimpse into the lives of the sick and impoverished. Other well-made photo essays offer a new way to look at the everyday, such as Peter Funch’s much-reposted photo series 42nd and Vanderbilt , for which Funch photographed the same street corner for nine years. As shown by these photographers’ experiences with the medium, a collection of photos can enliven spaces and attitudes. Strong photo essays can give voice to marginalized individuals and shine a spotlight on previously overlooked experiences.

You don’t necessarily need to be a documentary photographer to create a powerful photo essay. Photo essays can showcase any topic, from nature photography to portraiture to wedding shots. We spoke to a few photographers to get their perspectives on what makes a good photo essay, and their tips for how any photographer can get started in this medium. Here are six steps to follow to create a photo essay that tells a memorable story.

Choose a specific topic or theme for your photo essay.

There are two types of photo essays: the narrative and the thematic. Narrative photo essays focus on a story you’re telling the viewer, while thematic photo essays speak to a specific subject.

The most natural method for choosing a topic or theme for your photo essay is to go with what you know. Photograph what you experience. Whether that includes people, objects, or the things you think about throughout the day, accessibility is key here. Common topics or concepts to start with are emotions (depicting sadness or happiness) or experiences (everyday life, city living).

For photographer Sharon Pannen , planning a photo essay is as simple as “picking out a subject you find interesting or you want to make a statement about.”

From Paper & Stories , a photo series by Sharon Pannen for Schön! Magazine.

Consider your photo subjects.

The subjects of your photographs, whether human or not, will fill the space of your photos and influence the mood or idea you’re trying to depict. The subject can determine whether or not your photos are considered interesting. “I always try to find someone that catches my eye. I especially like to see how the light falls on their face and how a certain aesthetic might add to their persona,” says photographer Victoria Wojtan .

While subjects and their interest factor are, well, subjective, when considering your subjects, you should ask yourself about your audience. Do other people want to see this? Is my subject representative of the larger idea my photo essay is trying to convey? Your projects can involve people you know or people you’ve only just met.

“Most projects I work on involve shooting portraits of strangers, so there’s always a tension in approaching someone for a portrait,” says photographer Taylor Dorrell . For Wojtan, that tension can help build trust with a subject and actually leads to more natural images “If there’s tension it’s usually because the person’s new to being photographed by someone for something that’s outside of a candid moment or selfie, and they need guidance for posing. This gives me the opportunity to make them feel more comfortable and let them be themselves. I tend to have a certain idea in mind, but try to allow for organic moments to happen.”

Aim for a variety of images.

Depending on your theme, there are a few types of photos you’ll want to use to anchor your essay. One or two lead photos should slowly introduce the viewer to your topic. These initial photos will function in a similar way to the introductory paragraph in a written essay or news article.

From there, you should consider further developing your narrative by introducing elements like portraiture, close ups, detail shots, and a carefully selected final photo to leave the viewer with the feeling you set out to produce in your photos. Consider your opening and closing images to be the most important elements of your photo essay, and choose them accordingly. You want your first images to hook the viewer, and you also want your final images to leave a lasting impression and perhaps offer a conclusion to the narrative you’ve developed.

Including different types of photos, shot at different ranges, angles, and perspectives, can help engage your viewer and add more texture to your series.

Says photographer Taylor Dorrell: “After I have a group of images, I tend to think about color, composition, the order the images were taken, the subject material, and relevance to the concept.”

From Taylor Dorrell’s photo essay White Fences : “White Fences is an ongoing photo series that explores the theme of suburban youth in the United States, specifically in the midwest suburb New Albany, Ohio.”

Put your emotions aside.

Self-doubt can easily come into play when working with your own photography. The adage that we are our own worst critics is often true. It can be difficult to objectively select your strongest images when creating a photo essay. This is why putting together photo essays is such a useful practice for developing your curatorial skills.

“The most important part for me is getting outside opinions. I don’t do that enough, and have a bias in selecting images that might not be the most powerful images or the most effective sequence of images,” says Dorrell. Your own perception of a photograph can cloud your ability to judge whether or not it adds to your photo essay. This is especially true when your essay deals with personal subjects. For example, a photo essay about your family may be hard to evaluate, as your own feelings about family members will impact how you take and view the photos. This is where getting feedback from peers can be invaluable to producing a strong series.

Collecting feedback while putting your photo essay together can help you determine the strengths, weaknesses, and gaps within the collection of photos you’ve produced. Ask your friends to tell you their favorites, why they like them, and what they think you’re going for in the work you’ve created. Their opinions can be your guide, not just your own emotions.

Edit your photo selection.

Beyond post-production, the series of photos you select as your essay will determine whether you’ve executed your theme or narrative effectively. Can the photos stand alone, without written words, and tell the story you set out to? Do they make sense together, in a logical sequence? The perfect photo essay will give your audience a full picture of the narrative, theme, or essence you’re looking to capture.

A good method to use to cull your images down is to remove as many as half of your images straight away to see if your narrative is still as strong with fewer photos. Or, perhaps, deciding on a small number you’d like to aim for (maybe just five to ten images) and using this as a method to narrow down to the images that tell your story best.

From Taylor Dorrell’s photo essay Over the Rhine , featured in Vice.

Give your photo essay a title, and add a concise written statement.

Finally, you’ll want to create a title and written statement for your photo essay. This will help position your work and can enable the viewer to fully understand your intention, or at least guide their perspective.

A solid written statement and title will be relevant to your topic, detail your primary objective, and introduce your point of view. It’s an opportunity to clarify your intentions to the viewer and ensure they walk away with a clear interpretation of your work. Depending on your photo essay, you may want to include several paragraphs of text, but even just one or two sentences of background can be enough to expand the viewer’s understanding of your work.

Consider if you’d like to add the written statement at the beginning of your essay to introduce it, or at the end as a conclusion. Either one can be impactful, and it depends how you’d like people to experience your work.

For his photo essay White Fences, excerpted above, Taylor Dorrell wrote only one sentence of introduction. But for his series Over the Rhine, Dorell included a longer written statement to accompany the work, which is “an ongoing photo series that seeks to explore the Cincinnati neighborhood of the same name and its surroundings. The series was started in response to the shooting of Samuel DuBose, an unarmed black man, by officer Ray Tensing of the University of Cincinnati Police, which happened July 19th, 2015.” Dorell’s text goes on to offer more background on the project, setting up the viewer with all the information they need to understand the context of the photo essay.

Depending on the motivations behind your photo essay and what sort of subject it depicts, a longer text may be necessary—or just a few words might be enough.

Looking for a place to share your photo essays with the world? Take a look at our guide to creating a photography website for tips on showcasing your photos online.

Cover image by Taylor Dorrell, from his photo essay Hurricane Over Sugar .

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Pictures That Tell Stories: Photo Essay Examples

Like any other type of artist, a photographer’s job is to tell a story through their pictures. While some of the most creative among us can invoke emotion or convey a thought with one single photo, the rest of us will rely on a photo essay.

In the following article, we’ll go into detail about what a photo essay is and how to craft one while providing some detailed photo essay examples.

What is a Photo Essay? 

A photo essay is a series of photographs that, when assembled in a particular order, tell a unique and compelling story. While some photographers choose only to use pictures in their presentations, others will incorporate captions, comments, or even full paragraphs of text to provide more exposition for the scene they are unfolding.

A photo essay is a well-established part of photojournalism and have been used for decades to present a variety of information to the reader. Some of the most famous photo essayists include Ansel Adams , W. Eugene Smith, and James Nachtwey. Of course, there are thousands of photo essay examples out there from which you can draw inspiration.

Why Consider Creating a Photo Essay?

As the old saying goes, “a picture is worth 1000 words.” This adage is, for many photographers, reason enough to hold a photo essay in particularly high regard.

For others, a photo essay allow them to take pictures that are already interesting and construct intricate, emotionally-charged tales out of them. For all photographers, it is yet another skill they can master to become better at their craft.

As you might expect, the photo essay have had a long history of being associated with photojournalism. From the Great Depression to Civil Rights Marches and beyond, many compelling stories have been told through a combination of images and text, or photos alone. A photo essay often evokes an intense reaction, whether artistic in nature or designed to prove a socio-political point.

Below, we’ll list some famous photo essay samples to further illustrate the subject.

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Famous Photo Essays

“The Great Depression” by Dorothea Lange – Shot and arranged in the 1930s, this famous photo essay still serves as a stark reminder of The Great Depression and Dust Bowl America . Beautifully photographed, the black and white images offer a bleak insight to one of the country’s most difficult times.

“The Vietnam War” by Philip Jones Griffiths – Many artists consider the Griffiths’ photo essay works to be some of the most important records of the war in Vietnam. His photographs and great photo essays are particularly well-remembered for going against public opinion and showing the suffering of the “other side,” a novel concept when it came to war photography.

Various American Natural Sites by Ansel Adams – Adams bought the beauty of nature home to millions, photographing the American Southwest and places like Yosemite National Park in a way that made the photos seem huge, imposing, and beautiful.

“Everyday” by Noah Kalina – Is a series of photographs arranged into a video. This photo essay features daily photographs of the artist himself, who began taking capturing the images when he was 19 and continued to do so for six years.

“Signed, X” by Kate Ryan – This is a powerful photo essay put together to show the long-term effects of sexual violence and assault. This photo essay is special in that it remains ongoing, with more subjects being added every year.

Common Types of Photo Essays

While a photo essay do not have to conform to any specific format or design, there are two “umbrella terms” under which almost all genres of photo essays tend to fall. A photo essay is thematic and narrative. In the following section, we’ll give some details about the differences between the two types, and then cover some common genres used by many artists.

⬥ Thematic 

A thematic photo essay speak on a specific subject. For instance, numerous photo essays were put together in the 1930s to capture the ruin of The Great Depression. Though some of these presentations followed specific people or families, they mostly told the “story” of the entire event. There is much more freedom with a thematic photo essay, and you can utilize numerous locations and subjects. Text is less common with these types of presentations.

⬥ Narrative 

A narrative photo essay is much more specific than thematic essays, and they tend to tell a much more direct story. For instance, rather than show a number of scenes from a Great Depression Era town, the photographer might show the daily life of a person living in Dust Bowl America. There are few rules about how broad or narrow the scope needs to be, so photographers have endless creative freedom. These types of works frequently utilize text.

Common Photo Essay Genres

Walk a City – This photo essay is when you schedule a time to walk around a city, neighborhood, or natural site with the sole goal of taking photos. Usually thematic in nature, this type of photo essay allows you to capture a specific place, it’s energy, and its moods and then pass them along to others.

The Relationship Photo Essay – The interaction between families and loved ones if often a fascinating topic for a photo essay. This photo essay genre, in particular, gives photographers an excellent opportunity to capture complex emotions like love and abstract concepts like friendship. When paired with introspective text, the results can be quite stunning. 

The Timelapse Transformation Photo Essay – The goal of a transformation photo essay is to capture the way a subject changes over time. Some people take years or even decades putting together a transformation photo essay, with subjects ranging from people to buildings to trees to particular areas of a city.

Going Behind The Scenes Photo Essay – Many people are fascinated by what goes on behind the scenes of big events. Providing the photographer can get access; to an education photo essay can tell a very unique and compelling story to their viewers with this photo essay.

Photo Essay of a Special Event – There are always events and occasions going on that would make an interesting subject for a photo essay. Ideas for this photo essay include concerts, block parties, graduations, marches, and protests. Images from some of the latter were integral to the popularity of great photo essays.

The Daily Life Photo Essay – This type of photo essay often focus on a single subject and attempt to show “a day in the life” of that person or object through the photographs. This type of photo essay can be quite powerful depending on the subject matter and invoke many feelings in the people who view them.

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Photo Essay Ideas and Examples

One of the best ways to gain a better understanding of photo essays is to view some photo essay samples. If you take the time to study these executions in detail, you’ll see just how photo essays can make you a better photographer and offer you a better “voice” with which to speak to your audience.

Some of these photo essay ideas we’ve already touched on briefly, while others will be completely new to you. 

Cover a Protest or March  

Some of the best photo essay examples come from marches, protests, and other events associated with movements or socio-political statements. Such events allow you to take pictures of angry, happy, or otherwise empowered individuals in high-energy settings. The photo essay narrative can also be further enhanced by arriving early or staying long after the protest has ended to catch contrasting images. 

Photograph a Local Event  

Whether you know it or not, countless unique and interesting events are happening in and around your town this year. Such events provide photographers new opportunities to put together a compelling photo essay. From ethnic festivals to historical events to food and beverage celebrations, there are many different ways to capture and celebrate local life.

Visit an Abandoned Site or Building  

Old homes and historical sites are rich with detail and can sometimes appear dilapidated, overgrown by weeds, or broken down by time. These qualities make them a dynamic and exciting subject. Many great photo essay works of abandoned homes use a mix of far-away shots, close-ups, weird angles, and unique lighting. Such techniques help set a mood that the audience can feel through the photographic essay.

Chronicle a Pregnancy

Few photo essay topics could be more personal than telling the story of a pregnancy. Though this photo essay example can require some preparation and will take a lot of time, the results of a photographic essay like this are usually extremely emotionally-charged and touching. In some cases, photographers will continue the photo essay project as the child grows as well.

Photograph Unique Lifestyles  

People all over the world are embracing society’s changes in different ways. People live in vans or in “tiny houses,” living in the woods miles away from everyone else, and others are growing food on self-sustaining farms. Some of the best photo essay works have been born out of these new, inspiring movements.

Photograph Animals or Pets  

If you have a favorite animal (or one that you know very little about), you might want to arrange a way to see it up close and tell its story through images. You can take photos like this in a zoo or the animal’s natural habitat, depending on the type of animal you choose. Pets are another great topic for a photo essay and are among the most popular subjects for many photographers.

Show Body Positive Themes  

So much of modern photography is about showing the best looking, prettiest, or sexiest people at all times. Choosing a photo essay theme like body positivity, however, allows you to film a wide range of interesting-looking people from all walks of life.

Such a photo essay theme doesn’t just apply to women, as beauty can be found everywhere. As a photo essay photographer, it’s your job to find it!

Bring Social Issues to Life  

Some of the most impactful social photo essay examples are those where the photographer focuses on social issues. From discrimination to domestic violence to the injustices of the prison system, there are many ways that a creative photographer can highlight what’s wrong with the world. This type of photo essay can be incredibly powerful when paired with compelling subjects and some basic text.

Photograph Style and Fashion

If you live in or know of a particularly stylish locale or area, you can put together an excellent thematic photo essay by capturing impromptu shots of well-dressed people as they pass by. As with culture, style is easily identifiable and is as unifying as it is divisive. Great photo essay examples include people who’ve covered fashion sub-genres from all over the world, like urban hip hop or Japanese Visual Kei. 

Photograph Native Cultures and Traditions  

If you’ve ever opened up a copy of National Geographic, you’ve probably seen photo essay photos that fit this category. To many, the traditions, dress, religious ceremonies, and celebrations of native peoples and foreign cultures can be utterly captivating. For travel photographers, this photo essay is considered one of the best ways to tell a story with or without text.

Capture Seasonal Or Time Changes In A Landmark Photo Essay

Time-lapse photography is very compelling to most viewers. What they do in a few hours, however, others are doing over months, years, and even decades. If you know of an exciting landscape or scene, you can try to capture the same image in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, and put that all together into one landmark photo essay.

Alternatively, you can photograph something being lost or ravaged by time or weather. The subject of your landmark photo essay can be as simple as the wall of an old building or as complex as an old house in the woods being taken over by nature. As always, there are countless transformation-based landmark photo essay works from which you can draw inspiration.

Photograph Humanitarian Efforts or Charity  

Humanitarian efforts by groups like Habitat for Humanity, the Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders can invoke a powerful response through even the simplest of photos. While it can be hard to put yourself in a position to get the images, there are countless photo essay examples to serve as inspiration for your photo essay project.

How to Create a Photo Essay

There is no singular way to create a photo essay. As it is, ultimately, and artistic expression of the photographer, there is no right, wrong, good, or bad. However, like all stories, some tell them well and those who do not. Luckily, as with all things, practice does make perfect. Below, we’ve listed some basic steps outlining how to create a photo essay

Steps To Create A Photo Essay

Choose Your Topic – While some photo essayists will be able to “happen upon” a photo story and turn it into something compelling, most will want to choose their photo essay topics ahead of time. While the genres listed above should provide a great starting place, it’s essential to understand that photo essay topics can cover any event or occasion and any span of time

Do Some Research – The next step to creating a photo essay is to do some basic research. Examples could include learning the history of the area you’re shooting or the background of the person you photograph. If you’re photographing a new event, consider learning the story behind it. Doing so will give you ideas on what to look for when you’re shooting.  

Make a Storyboard – Storyboards are incredibly useful tools when you’re still in the process of deciding what photo story you want to tell. By laying out your ideas shot by shot, or even doing rough illustrations of what you’re trying to capture, you can prepare your photo story before you head out to take your photos.

This process is especially important if you have little to no control over your chosen subject. People who are participating in a march or protest, for instance, aren’t going to wait for you to get in position before offering up the perfect shot. You need to know what you’re looking for and be prepared to get it.

Get the Right Images – If you have a shot list or storyboard, you’ll be well-prepared to take on your photo essay. Make sure you give yourself enough time (where applicable) and take plenty of photos, so you have a lot from which to choose. It would also be a good idea to explore the area, show up early, and stay late. You never know when an idea might strike you.

Assemble Your Story – Once you develop or organize your photos on your computer, you need to choose the pictures that tell the most compelling photo story or stories. You might also find some great images that don’t fit your photo story These can still find a place in your portfolio, however, or perhaps a completely different photo essay you create later.

Depending on the type of photographer you are, you might choose to crop or digitally edit some of your photos to enhance the emotions they invoke. Doing so is completely at your discretion, but worth considering if you feel you can improve upon the naked image.

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Best Photo Essays Tips And Tricks

Before you approach the art of photo essaying for the first time, you might want to consider with these photo essay examples some techniques, tips, and tricks that can make your session more fun and your final results more interesting. Below, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best advice we could find on the subject of photo essays. 

⬥ Experiment All You Want 

You can, and should, plan your topic and your theme with as much attention to detail as possible. That said, some of the best photo essay examples come to us from photographers that got caught up in the moment and decided to experiment in different ways. Ideas for experimentation include the following: 

Angles – Citizen Kane is still revered today for the unique, dramatic angles used in the film. Though that was a motion picture and not photography, the same basic principles still apply. Don’t be afraid to photograph some different angles to see how they bring your subject to life in different ways.

Color – Some images have more gravitas in black in white or sepia tone. You can say the same for images that use color in an engaging, dynamic way. You always have room to experiment with color, both before and after the shoot.

Contrast – Dark and light, happy and sad, rich and poor – contrast is an instantly recognizable form of tension that you can easily include in your photo essay. In some cases, you can plan for dramatic contrasts. In other cases, you simply need to keep your eyes open.

Exposure Settings – You can play with light in terms of exposure as well, setting a number of different moods in the resulting photos. Some photographers even do random double exposures to create a photo essay that’s original.

Filters – There are endless post-production options available to photographers, particularly if they use digital cameras. Using different programs and apps, you can completely alter the look and feel of your image, changing it from warm to cool or altering dozens of different settings.

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If you’re using traditional film instead of a digital camera, you’re going to want to stock up. Getting the right shots for a photo essay usually involves taking hundreds of images that will end up in the rubbish bin. Taking extra pictures you won’t use is just the nature of the photography process. Luckily, there’s nothing better than coming home to realize that you managed to capture that one, perfect photograph. 

⬥ Set the Scene 

You’re not just telling a story to your audience – you’re writing it as well. If the scene you want to capture doesn’t have the look you want, don’t be afraid to move things around until it does. While this doesn’t often apply to photographing events that you have no control over, you shouldn’t be afraid to take a second to make an OK shot a great shot. 

⬥ Capture Now, Edit Later 

Editing, cropping, and digital effects can add a lot of drama and artistic flair to your photos. That said, you shouldn’t waste time on a shoot, thinking about how you can edit it later. Instead, make sure you’re capturing everything that you want and not missing out on any unique pictures. If you need to make changes later, you’ll have plenty of time! 

⬥ Make It Fun 

As photographers, we know that taking pictures is part art, part skill, and part performance. If you want to take the best photo essays, you need to loosen up and have fun. Again, you’ll want to plan for your topic as best as you can, but don’t be afraid to lose yourself in the experience. Once you let yourself relax, both the ideas and the opportunities will manifest.

⬥ It’s All in The Details 

When someone puts out a photographic essay for an audience, that work usually gets analyzed with great attention to detail. You need to apply this same level of scrutiny to the shots you choose to include in your photo essay. If something is out of place or (in the case of historical work) out of time, you can bet the audience will notice.

⬥ Consider Adding Text

While it isn’t necessary, a photographic essay can be more powerful by the addition of text. This is especially true of images with an interesting background story that can’t be conveyed through the image alone. If you don’t feel up to the task of writing content, consider partnering with another artist and allowing them tor bring your work to life.

Final Thoughts 

The world is waiting to tell us story after story. Through the best photo essays, we can capture the elements of those stories and create a photo essay that can invoke a variety of emotions in our audience.

No matter the type of cameras we choose, the techniques we embrace, or the topics we select, what really matters is that the photos say something about the people, objects, and events that make our world wonderful.

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23 Photo Essay Ideas and Examples (to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing!)

A Post By: Kevin Landwer-Johan

Looking for inspiration? Our 23 photo essay ideas will take your photography skills to new heights!

A single, strong photograph can convey a lot of information about its subject – but sometimes we have topics that require more than one image to do the job. That’s when it’s time to make a photo essay: a collection of pictures that together tell the bigger story around a chosen theme.

In the following sections, we’ll explore various photo essay ideas and examples that cover a wide range of subjects and purposes. From capturing the growth of your children to documenting local festivals, each idea offers an exciting opportunity to tell a story through your lens, whether you’re a hobbyist or a veteran professional.

So grab your camera, unleash your creativity, and let’s delve into the wonderful world of photo essay examples!

What is a photo essay?

Simply put, a photo essay is a series of carefully selected images woven together to tell a story or convey a message. Think of it as a visual narrative that designed to capture attention and spark emotions.

Now, these images can revolve around a broad theme or focus on a specific storyline. For instance, you might create a photo essay celebrating the joy of companionship by capturing 10 heartwarming pictures of people sharing genuine laughter. On the other hand, you could have a photo essay delving into the everyday lives of fishermen in Wales by following a single fisherman’s journey for a day or even a week.

It’s important to note that photo essays don’t necessarily have to stick to absolute truth. While some documentary photographers prefer to keep it authentic, others may employ techniques like manipulation or staging to create a more artistic impact. So there is room for creativity and interpretation.

Why you should create a photo essay

Photo essays have a way of expressing ideas and stories that words sometimes struggle to capture. They offer a visual narrative that can be incredibly powerful and impactful.

Firstly, photo essays are perfect when you have an idea or a point you want to convey, but you find yourself at a loss for words. Sometimes, emotions and concepts are better conveyed through images rather than paragraphs. So if you’re struggling to articulate a message, you can let your photos do the talking for you.

Second, if you’re interested in subjects that are highly visual, like the mesmerizing forms of architecture within a single city, photo essays are the way to go. Trying to describe the intricate details of a building or the play of light and shadows with words alone can be challenging. But through a series of captivating images, you can immerse your audience in the architecture.

And finally, if you’re aiming to evoke emotions or make a powerful statement, photo essays are outstanding. Images have an incredible ability to shock, inspire, and move people in ways that words often struggle to achieve. So if you want to raise awareness about an environmental issue or ignite a sense of empathy, a compelling series of photographs can have a profound impact.

Photo essay examples and ideas

Looking to create a photo essay but don’t know where to start? Here are some handy essay ideas and examples for inspiration!

1. A day in the life

Your first photo essay idea is simple: Track a life over the course of one day. You might make an essay about someone else’s life. Or the life of a location, such as the sidewalk outside your house. 

The subject matter you choose is up to you. But start in the morning and create a series of images showing your subject over the course of a typical day.

(Alternatively, you can document your subject on a special day, like a birthday, a wedding, or some other celebration.)

2. Capture hands

Portraits focus on a subject’s face – but why not mix it up and make a photo essay that focuses on your subject’s hands?

(You can also focus on a collection of different people’s hands.)

Hands can tell you a lot about a person. And showing them in context is a great way to narrate a story.

3. Follow a sports team for a full season

Sports are all about emotions – both from the passionate players and the dedicated fans. While capturing the intensity of a single game can be exhilarating, imagine the power of telling the complete story of a team throughout an entire season.

For the best results, you’ll need to invest substantial time in sports photography. Choose a team that resonates with you and ensure their games are within a drivable distance. By photographing their highs and lows, celebrations and challenges, you’ll create a compelling photo essay that traces their journey from the first game to the last.

4. A child and their parent

Photographs that catch the interaction between parents and children are special. A parent-child connection is strong and unique, so making powerful images isn’t challenging. You just need to be ready to capture the special moments as they happen. 

You might concentrate on a parent teaching their child. Or the pair playing sports. Or working on a special project.

Use your imagination, and you’ll have a great time with this theme.

5. Tell a local artist’s story 

I’ve always enjoyed photographing artists as they work; studios have a creative vibe, so the energy is already there. Bring your camera into this environment and try to tell the artist’s story!

An artist’s studio offers plenty of opportunities for wonderful photo essays. Think about the most fascinating aspects of the artist’s process. What do they do that makes their art special? Aim to show this in your photos.

Many people appreciate fine art, but they’re often not aware of what happens behind the scenes. So documenting an artist can produce fascinating visual stories.

6. Show a tradesperson’s process

Do you have a plumber coming over to fix your kitchen sink? Is a builder making you a new deck?

Take photos while they work! Tell them what you want to do before you start, and don’t forget to share your photos with them.

They’ll probably appreciate seeing what they do from another perspective. They may even want to use your photos on their company website.

7. Photograph your kids as they grow

There’s something incredibly special about documenting the growth of our little ones. Kids grow up so quickly – before you know it, they’re moving out. Why not capture the beautiful moments along the way by creating a heartwarming photo essay that showcases their growth?

There are various approaches you can take, but one idea is to capture regular photos of your kids standing in front of a distinct point of reference, such as the refrigerator. Over a year or several years, you can gather these images and place them side by side to witness your childrens’ incredible transformations.

8. Cover a local community event

A school fundraiser, a tree-planting day at a park, or a parade; these are are all community events that make for good photo essay ideas.

Think like a photojournalist . What type of images would your editor want? Make sure to capture some wide-angle compositions , some medium shots, and some close-ups.

(Getting in close to show the details can often tell as much of a story as the wider pictures.)

9. Show fresh market life

Markets are great for photography because there’s always plenty of activity and lots of characters. Think of how you can best illustrate the flow of life at the market. What are the vendors doing that’s most interesting? What are the habits of the shoppers?

Look to capture the essence of the place. Try to portray the people who work and shop there.

10. Shoot the same location over time

What location do you visit regularly? Is there a way you can make an interesting photo essay about it?

Consider what you find most attractive and ugly about the place. Look for aspects that change over time. 

Any outdoor location will look different throughout the day. Also think about the changes that occur from season to season. Create an essay that tells the story of the place.

11. Document a local festival

Festivals infuse cities and towns with vibrant energy and unique cultural experiences. Even if your own town doesn’t have notable festivals, chances are a neighboring town does. Explore the magic of these celebrations by documenting a local festival through your lens.

Immerse yourself in the festivities, arriving early and staying late. Capture the colorful displays and the people who make the festival come alive. If the festival spans multiple days, consider focusing on different areas each time you visit to create a diverse and comprehensive photo essay that truly reflects the essence of the event.

12. Photograph a garden through the seasons

It might be your own garden . It could be the neighbor’s. It could even be the garden at your local park.

Think about how the plants change during the course of a year. Capture photos of the most significant visual differences, then present them as a photo essay.

13. Show your local town or city

After spending several years in a particular area, you likely possess an intimate knowledge of your local town or city. Why not utilize that familiarity to create a captivating photo essay that showcases the essence of your community?

Delve into what makes your town special, whether it’s the charming streets, unique landmarks, or the people who shape its character. Dedicate time to capturing the diverse aspects that define your locale. If you’re up for a more extensive project, consider photographing the town over the course of an entire year, capturing the changing seasons and the dynamic spirit of your community.

14. Pick a local cause to highlight

Photo essays can go beyond passive documentation; they can become a part of your activism, too!

So find a cause that matters to you. Tell the story of some aspect of community life that needs improvement. Is there an ongoing issue with litter in your area? How about traffic; is there a problematic intersection?

Document these issues, then make sure to show the photos to people responsible for taking action.

15. Making a meal

Photo essay ideas can be about simple, everyday things – like making a meal or a coffee.

How can you creatively illustrate something that seems so mundane? My guess is that, when you put your mind to it, you can come up with many unique perspectives, all of which will make great stories.

16. Capture the life of a flower

In our fast-paced lives, it’s easy to overlook the beauty that surrounds us. Flowers, with their mesmerizing colors and rapid life cycles, offer a captivating subject for a photo essay. Try to slow down and appreciate the intricate details of a flower’s existence.

With a macro lens in hand, document a single flower or a patch of flowers from their initial shoots to their inevitable wilting and decomposition. Experiment with different angles and perspectives to bring viewers into the enchanting world of the flower. By freezing these fleeting moments, you’ll create a visual narrative that celebrates the cycle of life and the exquisite beauty found in nature’s delicate creations.

17. Religious traditions

Religion is often rich with visual expression in one form or another. So capture it!

Of course, you may need to narrow down your ideas and choose a specific aspect of worship to photograph. Aim to show what people do when they visit a holy place, or how they pray on their own. Illustrate what makes their faith real and what’s special about it.

18. Historic sites

Historic sites are often iconic, and plenty of photographers take a snapshot or two.

But with a photo essay, you can illustrate the site’s history in greater depth.

Look for details of the location that many visitors miss. And use these to build an interesting story.

19. Show the construction of a building

Ever been away from a familiar place for a while only to return and find that things have changed? It happens all the time, especially in areas undergoing constant development. So why not grab your camera and document this transformation?

Here’s the idea: Find a building that’s currently under construction in your area. It could be a towering skyscraper, a modern office complex, or even a small-scale residential project. Whatever catches your eye! Then let the magic of photography unfold.

Make it a habit to take a photo every day or two. Watch as the building gradually takes shape and evolves. Capture the construction workers in action, the cranes reaching for the sky, and the scaffolding supporting the structure.

Once the building is complete, you’ll have a treasure trove of images that chronicle its construction from start to finish!

20. Document the changing skyline of the city

This photo essay example is like the previous one, except it works on a much larger scale. Instead of photographing a single building as it’s built, find a nice vantage point outside your nearest city, then photograph the changing skyline.

To create a remarkable photo essay showcasing the changing skyline, you’ll need to scout out the perfect vantage point. Seek high ground that offers a commanding view of the city, allowing you to frame the skyline against the horizon. Look for spots that give you an unobstructed perspective, whether a rooftop terrace, a hillside park, or even a nearby bridge.

As you set out on your photography expedition, be patient and observant. Cities don’t transform overnight; they change gradually over time. Embrace the passage of days, weeks, and months as you witness the slow evolution unfold.

Pro tip: To capture the essence of this transformation, experiment with various photographic techniques. Play with different angles, framing, and compositions to convey the grandeur and dynamism of the changing skyline. Plus, try shooting during the golden hours of sunrise and sunset , when the soft light bathes the city in a warm glow and accentuates the architectural details.

21. Photograph your pet

If you’re a pet owner, you already have the perfect subject for a photo essay!

All pets , with the possible exception of pet rocks, will provide you with a collection of interesting moments to photograph.

So collect these moments with your camera – then display them as a photo essay showing the nature and character of your pet.

22. Tell the story of a local nature preserve

Ah, the wonders of a local nature preserve! While it may not boast the grandeur of Yosemite National Park, these hidden gems hold their own beauty, just waiting to be discovered and captured through the lens of your camera.

To embark on this type of photo essay adventure, start by exploring all the nooks and crannies of your chosen nature preserve. Wander along its winding trails, keeping an eye out for unique and captivating subjects that convey the essence of the preserve.

As you go along, try to photograph the intricate details of delicate wildflowers, the interplay of light filtering through a dense forest canopy, and the lively activities of birds and other wildlife.

23. Show the same subject from multiple perspectives

It’s possible to create an entire photo essay in a single afternoon – or even in a handful of minutes. If you don’t love the idea of dedicating yourself to days of photographing for a single essay, this is a great option.

Simply find a subject you like, then endeavor to capture 10 unique images that include it. I’d recommend photographing from different angles: up above, down low, from the right and left. You can also try getting experimental with creative techniques, such as intentional camera movement and freelensing. If all goes well, you’ll have a very cool set of images featuring one of your favorite subjects!

By showcasing the same subject from multiple perspectives, you invite viewers on a visual journey. They get to see different facets, textures, and details that they might have overlooked in a single photograph. It adds depth and richness to your photo essay, making it both immersive and dynamic.

Photo essay ideas: final words

Remember: Photo essays are all about communicating a concept or a story through images rather than words. So embrace the process and use images to express yourself!

Whether you choose to follow a sports team through a thrilling season, document the growth of your little ones, or explore the hidden treasures of your local town, each photo essay has its own magic waiting to be unlocked. It’s a chance to explore your creativity and create images in your own style.

So look at the world around you. Grab your gear and venture out into the wild. Embrace the beauty of nature, the energy of a bustling city, or the quiet moments that make life special. Consider what you see every day. What aspects interest you the most? Photograph those things.

You’re bound to end up with some amazing photo essays!

Now over to you:

Do you have any photo essay examples you’re proud of? Do you have any more photo essay ideas? Share your thoughts and images in the comments below!

Read more from our Tips & Tutorials category

Kevin Landwer-Johan is a photographer, photography teacher, and author with over 30 years of experience that he loves to share with others.

Check out his website and his Buy Me a Coffee page .

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17 Awesome Photo Essay Examples You Should Try Yourself

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If you’re looking for a photo essay example (or 17!), you’ve come to the right place. But what is the purpose of a photo essay? A photo essay is intended to tell a story or evoke emotion from the viewers through a series of photographs. They allow you to be creative and fully explore an idea.

But how do you make one yourself? Here’s a list of photo essay examples. Choose one that you can easily do based on your photographic level and equipment.

Top 17 Photo Essay Examples

Here are some fantastic ideas to get you inspired to create your own photo essays!

17. Photograph a Protest

Protests tend to be lively events. You will find people standing, moving, and holding banners and signs. This is a great way to practice on a moving crowd.

Try to capture the essence and atmosphere of the protest itself. There are many ways to do so and you will need to utilise all your skills.

Think about framing , composition , and perspective . Run to the front and capture the head of the group moving forward. Then run towards the back to capture the families walking along.

16. Transformation Photo Essays

Transformation is one of the most used photo essay topics. It is a great way to show change. The change can be slow, such as a woman going through pregnancy , or watching a baby turn into a toddler and beyond.

As a photo essay project, this doesn’t even need to be about people. A building being torn down and rebuilt can make for a great time-lapse or photo series .

This is a great way to practice how to show change through images. You will need to be creative and meticulous in your approach. You will need to take the same image over and over again, but changing them enough to be interesting.

15. Photograph the Same Place

Have you seen the movie Smoke  with Harvey Keitel? His character goes out every morning at the same time and takes a photograph. The photo is from the front of his shop. He then prints the image and stores them in huge photo albums. Another character flips through these images to see all the different scenarios.

These are easy photo essays to do as you use a simple set up. It might be a challenge to find somewhere accessible to you at the same time every day. The great thing about this photo essay project is that you can create it about anything.

14. Create a Photowalk

As a photographer based in Budapest, I give guided photography tours. The idea is that you join me for three hours, and in that time I show you the streets and how to photograph them.

You will learn about your camera, composition, and what to look for. There is nothing stopping you from doing the same in your hometown. This can make for really interesting photo essays.

Have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and create it as if you were teaching someone else. Look at reflections  in buildings. Or change your perspective to photograph people in different settings.

13. Follow the Change

This photo essay is like the transformation essay but on a short-term basis. Think about men growing their mustaches for Movember. Or someone who wants to shave their head for charity.

You start by taking a before image, and the end result of an after image, with many photographs in between.

12. Photograph a Local Event

No matter where you live, there will be countless local events throughout the year. They might be fundraisers, farmers’ markets, dances and festivals, or food and music. Their organizers will need a photographer. Even if it’s just for social media images .

They may even offer you money, and if not, they will share the images for you with your name attached. Here, you will capture candid images of people going about their day.

11. Photograph an Abandoned Building

Urban exploration or Urbex is a thing. It is where you enter an abandoned building for the sake of (interest and) photography. It is a great social commentary on the state of our world.

Abandoned buildings also show us how life used to be. It’s time-travel without a time machine. They make for great photo essays because there are so many details.

Get permission before entering. And be careful as these buildings can be dangerous. Photograph the rooms and the details. This means you’ll have to work with different lenses .

10. Behind the Scenes of a Photo Shoot

I used to assist  fashion photography studio shoots. This means I had the great opportunity to see what happens behind the scenes.

For me, behind the camera is way more interesting than what is happening in front of it. The models pose, and hundreds of images are taken, so it can be slow and drab.

9. Capture Street Fashion

If you have ever read FRUiTS magazine, you will know what street fashion can be like. I have even heard of a street in Milan where people walk up and down, showing off their best styles.

You can easily photograph these styles in a sort of street photography way. You will also capture portraits while having to be mindful of your environment and surroundings.

And you can even stop people in the street for a quick pose . Photographers have stopped in one location while photographing those who walk past. Here, the background stays the same, and only the people change.

8. Landmark Photo Essay

One photo essay idea that I have always wanted to try is to photograph one landmark from many different vantage points. Think about it. Look at the Eiffel Tower and how many collections of images have been taken of it.

All are from many different angles ranging from many different distances away. This is a great way to practice your positioning and composition through different perspectives .

You can incorporate details and a down-up viewpoint. Or you can photograph it from above with a drone. And there are thousands of ways to capture it through streets and using reflections .

The landmark is your study and it will help you look at the light during different times of the day.

7. Fathers & Children

We live in a very different time than we did 50 years ago. Or even 20 years ago, as more and more fathers stay at home and look after the kids. A great photo essay example would be to capture these small families to show this as social commentary for the times we live in.

These portraits and group photographs are a great way to practice and start building up a network of people. The first images are always going to be the most difficult to take. But once you pick up speed, you will have images to show and persuade the next group.

6. A Day In the Life

There are going to be many jobs and careers that people do that you have no idea about. A great way to understand what people get up to in their day-to-day is to follow them and photograph as you go.

For example, a photo essay entitled A Day In the Life of a Fireman will get you access to inside the station, documenting what they get up to on their downtime. You may not be able to go put out a fire with them, but you never know.

This is great practice for documentary images , capturing portraits and still life of all the equipment they use. Again, let them use the images for social media.

5. Education Photo Essay

One great way to support your community, and possibly even get some of your photographs published is to photograph inside a school. You may find it difficult at first, but lay down your intentions to those in charge.

Offer to let them use and share the image as they see fit. You now have a team of people sharing and liking your images. They are giving you promotion all over Facebook and other social media channels .

Get into the classrooms, photograph the students and the teachers during their daily grind. Be as invisible as you can, but involve and integrate those interested when and where you can.

4. Fictitious Meals

One great photo essay example is putting all those great works of literature to good use. Think about all of the meals that characters in books have eaten.

Some will be as fictitious as the names of the characters eating them. Think of the gruel in Oliver Twist. Make the meals as realistic as possible, with table settings and appropriate mise en scène .

3. Photograph Coffee Shops Using Cafenol

Cafenol is a film photography chemical that sits in place of the developer. The developer is what strips the film down to a negative after it has been exposed. The cafenol is made partly from instant coffee granules, hence the name.

A great photo essay idea would be to photograph a coffee shop, the staff, the patrons, and the equipment. Then use the coffee that they serve as a film developer.

2. Photograph the Photographers

How many times have you seen tourists photograph the same landmark ? These landmarks or points of interest are magnets for foreigners, all hosting cameras and taking the same shot. Sometimes, even pretending to hold up or grab the landmark themselves.

As the area in question has already been captured, why not go 180 degrees in the opposite direction for your photo essay. You will be photographing the photographers, who are the rarely seen artists.

1. Capture the Neighbors

One great photo essay would be to localize your efforts. No matter where you live, you will have neighbors. Unless you live out in the sticks, then you will have to find someone else’s neighbors. This would be a great way to get into portrait photography .

What a perfect scenario would look like is capturing the people in their own space. And everyone’s space is completely different.

You will come across stay-at-home fathers, night-shift workers, grandmas with heirlooms, musicians, and families. There is no telling what is behind these doors. It is a great way to work on your feet, and also meet those who make up your community.

Photo essays tell stories. And there are plenty of amazingly interesting stories to tell! Photographing photo essays is a great way to practice your photography skills while having fun. You might even learn something!

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Creating a Thematic Photo Essay

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Creating a thematic photo essay requires a combination of photographic and journalistic skills. The author must convey a powerful message to the viewers and hence structure an essay in an appropriately interesting manner. Every photograph must make an identifiable contribution to the overall theme. To do this successfully is not easy and requires some experience. Nevertheless, well-composed and aesthetically-pleasing individual images, each with a strong and readily understood informative message, make an excellent start. It is then up to the author to select and present images in a manner that conveys the required message.

The following tips may be useful :

• The final presentation should stand on its own feet. Viewers may know little about the chosen theme but should still be able to understand the overall message without making further enquiries.
• Use a powerful leading image to attract the interest of viewers. This may or may not be the best image obtained during the project, but it must convey a powerful and preferably simple message to provoke curiosity and an emotional response.
• Include a wide variety of images - environmental shots, clos-ups, portraits, details etc.
• Present images in a way that allows the message to develop as the viewer scans the essay. Thematic essays do not normally follow a chronological sequence. Images are presented in whatever order is necessary to convey the message effectively. Above all, keep the story interesting and make the viewer want to see more.
• Images that convey information while provoking an emotional response are very valuable.
• Captions can be used where necessary, but try to use images that are self-explanatory.
• Conclude the essay with another powerful signature image that draws together all the stands of the message, summarizing the key threads and emotions.
• Never be afraid to experiment and try new ideas. Equally, be ruthless in weeding out weak images.
• Always take on board the views of a few other people. Ask whether they understand the message and what they take from the essay. If they are left unmoved then something is wrong.

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How to create an outstanding Photo Essay

If you are working on your photo essay and would wish to know how to create a successful one, we have some tips, tricks, and techniques outlined in this article. With the sophistication of digital publishing, you need to be on your A-game when creating digital photos that tell a story.

As a custom essay writing service , our ultimate goal in this article is to guide you on creating a photo essay without straining. We like it when writing, and creativity is fun altogether. Therefore, we have outlined examples, classifications, and a framework that you can use when creating your photo essay.

This article also bears the definition of what a photo essay is. And although you could use this as a professional or a student, you can pay someone to do your essay on our website. When you do so, a polished essay writer will work with you in creating a good photo essay,

We have creatives with expertise, a knack for experimentation, critical thinking and creativity, and an insatiable urge to produce top content. If it sounds like you could use our help, let us know the best way we can assist you in creating a perfect photography essay.

If, however, all you need is insights to point you in the right direction, here is how to create a good photo essay without straining. Let’s explore!

What is a Photo Essay?

Visual storytelling appeals to everyone who has a sense of sight.

Unlike your typical essay in college, a photo essay is a project where you present a series of photographs or images to tell a story, share a narrative, or push a theme/agenda. Thus, a photo essay facilitates picture-led storytelling , which is a creative innovation in photojournalism.

It is also known as a photographic or picture essay. A great photo essay powerfully evokes emotions and appeals to the understanding of its intended audience without using words or with minimal words alongside the series of images.

A perfectly-created photo essay narrates a story using many photographs that take the viewer along your narrative journey. Indeed, it proves that a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, since there are many pictures/images, you could say a photo essay is rich in words, flavor, and content, yet it does not have words.

Talking of photo essays, Ansel Adams is one of the revered and famous photo essayists. Other photo essayists include James Nachtwey, Eugene Smith, and Nancy Borowick .

How to Create a Photo Essay in a step-by-step format

Here is a step-by-step approach to follow to successfully create a compelling and engaging photo essay:

Step 1 – Do your Research

If you are to create an attractive and relevant photo essay, begin by researching the best framework to adopt. Look at what people are doing out there and find out how creatively you can do it better. There are inexhaustible ideas and concepts that you can explore when writing a photo essay. If you’ve not chosen a topic, thorough research can help you decide on a topic and handle it well.

Step 2 - Choose a theme for your photo essay

With the research, you can already identify a specific theme or narrative for your picture essay. Therefore, highlight the theme or narrative, write some notes about the direction you will tackle and how you will reach and satisfy your audience.

Step 2 – Choose a topic that aligns with the theme

Following the findings from your research, choose a great topic. You are not that lucky photo essayist who opportunistically happens upon a story and turns it into a brilliant photo essay. Therefore, you should choose an attractive, reasonable, short, and memorable topic. You are free to select any topic that interests you and one that you find fun to work on. Your chosen theme or narrative can help define the topic for your photo essay.

Step 3 – Pick your subjects

With the theme/narrative and the topic, you can then choose your subjects. These are the people, things, sceneries, or places of central focus in your photography essay.  

The subjects are the ones that give your photo essay a voice, strengthen your narrative, and engage the audience.

Step 4 – Select your top images

Define the appropriate number of images that you intend to use when telling the story. For example, if you intend to leave the audience under suspense, choose which images to use and their order of appearance.  Your photo essay project does not have to use all your images but the best.

The best way to integrate your theme, narrative, and subjects is to create a storyboard that helps you decide how to tell the story. Then, when you lay your ideas out, a storyboard helps you focus on what is essential, especially when you have little control over a given subject.

Step 5 – ask for insights and input from others

After creating the storyboard, choosing the photos, and writing a narrative or theme statement, you can share it with someone knowledgeable for critique. You should also invite views and comments from another person. Ensure that you give the entire photo cache to the person so that they can choose, then compare with your best photos and tweak your choice accordingly.

Step 6 – Write the captions and text

With everything set, write the accompanying content for your photo essay. As well, make sure you caption each photo to enhance your visual narrative. Nothing is cast in stone here because you can also drop using image captions. You can experiment with lighting, tone, color, composition, angles, and location so that the narrative flows. Also, don’t forget to create introductory messages and closing messages. You need to have your signature introductory and closing images well-decided.

Step 7 – Edit your work

Now that you have created a photo essay, it is now time to edit everything. You can ask for help or rest and do it when you are energetic and objective. If you want a skilled essay writer to write you an excellent narrative to post alongside your photo essay, you can always trust our essay website.  We can also edit the narrative to maintain a good flow.

Step 8 – Publish/submit your work

If everything else is okay, convert the photo essay to the correct format and submit or publish it. Remember, photo essays can be a portion of a webpage, a webpage, a document, fashion publication, photo editorial, collage of images, or mixed media.

Helpful Tips when compiling your Photographic Essay

If you are on track to become a photo essayist, you need to grasp the most critical photo essaying tips, techniques, and tricks. Here is some best advice you could use to find a subject for your photo essay.

1. Try to tell a diverse and confident story

When you get out there to tell a story, make sure you do it most awesomely. Understand your target audience, do anything that will resonate with their needs, appeal to their emotions, logic, and thoughts, and leave them musing over your narrative. It is, therefore, vital that you consider what your key message will be and be confident when handling it in your photo essay.

2.Storyboard before building

Architects, surgeons, artists, engineers, you name the profession, all begin with either a sketch, blueprint or a plan to visualize the entire concept or creation before its actualization. In the real of photo essays, you have to be invested right from the beginning. Therefore, you need to create a storyboard that helps you to convert your vision, abstract thoughts, and ideas to a concrete plan that you can execute to succeed in your project. A storyboard also doubles as a shortlist for your photography project.

When storyboarding, you will notice that you take an outsider view, which helps you evaluate how every element fits into the larger picture – your narrative/theme. When doing it, you can discard otherwise burdensome but irrelevant content, which saves you time and leaves you to focus more.

Storyboarding is a critical, creative step when building a perfect photo essay as it ensures the flow to your viewers.

3. Have a visual structure

A contemporary photo essay follows a simple or basic framework that gives your theme direction and scope. Therefore, having a visual structure, marker, or framework helps you transform the photo series into a narrative. For instance, this Growing up young photo essay published in the BBC chooses to have quotes from the subjects running alongside the photos. Likewise, the picture essay done by photojournalist Stefanie Glinski titled  One Month in Kabul Under Taliban rule – a photo essay has narrative and captions to further illustrate the themes, content, and narratives.

4. Have a variety of images

To write an exceptional photo essay, ensure that you have as many photos or images as possible. Assemble as much as you think you will need for the project, then use your ruthless photo editing skills to pick the best photos.

Although shedding content hurts, it’s the only best way to achieve the best piece. It is also better to be in a dilemma of which photos to use than wish that you included a specific shot. Having multiple shots ensures that everything is captured. Then compiling your photo series becomes easier.

5. Edit your photos well

When editing, do it ruthlessly. While you cannot be Annie Leibovitz, Stefanie Glinski, or Ansel Adams, you certainly have to up your game to be at par with them. You can either use a professional editor. Alternatively, you can edit your photos using Photoshop, Illustrator, or other image-editing software. Whatever you choose your struggle to be, ensure that you end up with high-quality photos that make sense to your theme or narrative. If you have to refine an image to remove blemish or flaws, use it as long as it ends up fine. Make sure that the focus of each photo is visible and that unwanted areas are cropped out. If you are editing on your own, edit the photos a few days after the shoot to have an objective mind when doing it.

6. Choose the top 10 images

You are not just going to lazily throw images and words all over a structure and have it for the best photo essay out there. Instead, you need to select quality photos that will tell your narrative. Be keen enough to ensure that any photo that makes it to the top 10 list is compelling and poignant. If you notice that you don’t have good equipment to produce or capture quality photos, don’t be afraid to pull in a professional photographer.

7. Use outside input to perfect your choice

When working on a photo essay project, you are not necessarily an island. The photo essayists we’ve mentioned work with teams. You equally need to get a trusted, visually active, and sophisticated individual, professional, or friend to help you.

Have them look at the photos you took and ask them to choose the best. As well, provide them with a written description of your narrative and ask them to select their 10 best photos.

Compare their choice with yours and if they differ, make a point of asking the reason. Listen keenly and tweak your narrative and choice as they most likely reflect what an audience would perceive from the photo essay.

8. Select the best photos from the best

Based on the reasons from your external source (friend, editor, or photographer), select the 10 best photographs to use in telling your story. As well, change the narration if there is a need to tweak it.

9. Write reasonable captions

For your final choice of 10 images, write a befitting caption that will help to enhance your visual narrative. You need to be concise, brief, and clear. If the photos have a strong or exciting background story you wish to run, have the narrative written as content alongside the photos.

However, if you feel like the images can stand alone without captions, don’t beat yourself over it; leave them out. After all, using captions is not a must.

Look at this example of Black Lives Matter Photo Essay (Link to external site).

Apart from the caption, you can add text that contains data, complex metrics, or maps to support your narrative. Using maps can help drive the point home.

10. Focus on the details

Yes, the devil is always in the details. When you eventually display your photo essay to an audience, everybody analyzes it their way. However, when you capture the details, you will take care of each perspective, judgment, and reasoning from your audience. Ensure that you place everything in context and that everything is up to date.

11. Make it fun

Unlike college essays that come with challenges, creating a photo essay should be fun. Therefore, enjoy every bit of the project. Doing so helps you to step up your game, inspire creativity, and relaxes your mind. There is nothing creative and innovative you cannot do in a photo essay with a let loose sort of spirit.

12. Set the scene

When telling a story through photography, you are equally writing your story. Therefore, ensure that you set a scene to capture the moment that appeals to your audience.

For the events that you have no control over, try as much as possible to take photos that match your narrative or theme.

13. Experiment more when taking photos

There is no single bullet to creating an outstanding photo essay. To achieve perfection, let your photo essay express your story in the best way it can. Therefore, you need to test filter effects, use fonts, adjust the visuals, check the contrast, adjust color, hue, and feel, and crop your photos well. With experimentation comes creativity and innovativeness, which birth perfection.

Classification of Photo Essays

In terms of classification, there are two general classes of photo essays where all the genres of photo essays fall. These classes are narrative and thematic.

1. Narrative Photo Essays

A narrative photo essay, as the name suggests, tells a specific story. But, mainly, these types of photo essays tend to tell a peculiar and more direct story.

Unlike thematic photo essays, narrative photo essays give less freedom to the photo essayist. The use of text is to have some sense of completion to the story.

For instance, the 28 Days in Afghanistan by Andrew Quilty published in the SBS is a narrative photo essay that documents the photographer’s experience in the war-torn nation using both text and unadulterated photos.

The picture essay by photojournalist Stefanie Glinski titled  One Month in Kabul Under Taliban rule – a photo essay also falls under this category as it highlights her one-month encounter in Kabul.

2. Thematic photo Essays

Thematic photo essays are topic-specific. For example, they can be on politics, pollution, police brutality, global pandemic, poverty, crime, etc.

You have the freedom of choosing the subjects, location, and you do not necessarily have to incorporate text.

An example of a thematic photo essay is the “ They call us bewitched ” picture essay published in the Guardian. We also bumped into the Olympics Photos: Emotion runs high by the NBC News, which we find as an excellent thematic photo essay. Next, look at this Hurricane Katrina photo essay. It is thematic in the sense that it focuses on a natural disaster. Finally, if you want more examples, this photo essay titled “ From Trayvon Martin to Colin Kaepernick ” details the theme of Black Lives Matter/ police brutality.

Typical Photo Essay Examples/Genres to inspire your creativity

• The daily life photo essay – A Day-in-the-life photo essay tells a story about the day-to-day life of a given subject. It could be a lawyer, president, celebrity, farmer, industrialist, pope, student, etc. most of these photographic essays evoke emotions and help the audience enter into the subject's world.
• Transitioning through life photo essay – These are essays that detail photos of how people transform through life. It can be a photo of a celebrity, president, farmer, or famous person since they were young to date.
• Special events photo essays – As the name suggests, these are photo essays on special events, festivities, and occurrences. The events can be weddings, burials, art exhibitions, car shows, auction events, or celebrations. They have very elaborate and relatable background objects that connect to the main idea.
• Family photo essays – These can be photo essays on family members. You can include photos that show how the family has grown or detailing the family tree. They can also be family business photos that detail the leaders assigned roles to family businesses.
• Protest photo essays – These are thematic photo essays that detail how protests occurred and paint a clear picture of the theme of such protests as the Black Lives Matter protests. When creating a protest photo essay, you should have information about the particular protest. Focus on incidents and protests that occurred in history.
• Sports photo essays – Sports essays can be on sports events such as Olympics, Wimbledon, football leagues, or about sportsmen and women. For instance, the Skysports’ picture essay on Diego Maradona titled Diego Maradona: Images of a football Icon .
• Medical Photo Essays – Organizations such as WHO , Universities , or CDC have various examples of medical photo essays. These visual illustrations focus on medical research, medical practice, diseases, and medical breakthroughs.
• Scientific Photo Essays – Like medical essays, these photo essays detail scientific encounters, breakthroughs, inventions, etc.
• Celebrity photo essays – You can create a photo essay on a celebrity.
• Political photo essays are photo essays that capture and narrate political events, history, and news in a series of photographs and narratives. It could be about leftist and rightist politics or geopolitics as well as policy-making.
• War photo essays – Captures the critical and significant elements of conflict, war, and peace. There are many samples online.
• Timelapse photo essays – These are transformational photo essays that capture the changes of a subject through time. They might take longer to develop and can be on buildings, estates, cities, trees, or landscapes.
• Relationship photo essays – This photo essay genre captures the interaction between people, families, and loved ones. It is the most common assignment in journalism class. It offers an excellent chance to capture emotions like love, family, and friendship.
• Poverty photo essays – This genre of photo essays captures poverty from the standpoint of the subject. They can contain infrastructure, housing, amenities, food, water, etc. They are very emotional and can use narratives. They are the same as drought photo essays that capture how the drought has ravaged a geographic region of interest.
• City photo essays – These are photographic essays that capture a city's feel, life, and pleasures. They are thematic in nature and allow you to focus on specific areas, moods, and feeling that such places evoke.
• Education photo essays – Details issues in education. For instance, it can be a photo essay showing the disparity in access, challenges in education, or infrastructure in education. An example is The Many Faces of Learning, published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Another one is Embracing Education , published by the Lutheran World Federation.

As long as you can think of any topic, there is always a picture or photo essay genre where it can fall under. Remember, you can be asked to create a photo essay on a Word Document or PDF for class, which is where you get the chance to display your prowess and creativity.

Common Photo Essay Examples

Here are the famous photo essays that you can draw inspiration from:

• Various American Natural Sites by Ansel Adams
• “Everyday” by Noah Kalina
• “Signed, X” by Kate Ryan 
• “The Vietnam War” by Philip Jones Griffiths
• “The Great Depression” by Dorothea Lange

Structure/Anatomy of a Photo Essay

Here is a blueprint or skeleton of how a basic photo essay can look like

Introductory text/content

This is where you type the text that explains or introduces the photo essay to your audience.

Signature Image

This is the strongest image that has a visual impact on the story you are running. It should be an image that invites the viewers to your story to be interested in looking further. In simple terms, this is your window, attention grabber, or icon; make it count.

This is the picture of a key player or the main subject of your story. You must ensure that the foreground and background elements reinforce the theme or narrative.

Where the subject is caught in real moments, such as in environmental portraits, is reportedly more compelling. You can use a series of posed portraits as well.

Overall wider view

This is the photograph that gives the viewers a sense of the place or part of the place where the story happens. You use such images to create a scene. It can also be a series of detailed images bundled together to set the scene.

Here, you need to follow up with a photograph that explains the finer details. The photo can be abstract but eye-catching in the sense that it draws the attention of the audience. It should be an image that reveals to the audience some aspect that is otherwise missed in a wider shot. You are allowed to use series of small detail photos as a mosaic in one image .

When defining an action, look for a photograph that shows the main theme in your story. For instance, if it is a Black Lives Matter protest, focus on a photo that captures banners, police, and protesters.  Specifically, focus on the most poignant or dramatic images that capture people interacting with one another. You can as well capture gestures or moments that amplify the visual narrative you want to communicate.

Closing Photo and text

This is the powerful closing photograph that lets your audience ponder more about your visual narrative. You can follow it with a text highlighting the thoughts you want the audience to reason with as they come to the end of your photo essay.

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What is a Photo Essay? 9 Photo Essay Examples You Can Recreate

A photo essay is a series of photographs that tell a story. Unlike a written essay, a photo essay focuses on visuals instead of words. With a photo essay, you can stretch your creative limits and explore new ways to connect with your audience. Whatever your photography skill level, you can recreate your own fun and creative photo essay.

9 Photo Essay Examples You Can Recreate

• Photowalk Photo Essay
• Transformation Photo Essay
• Day in the Life Photo Essay
• Event Photo Essay
• Building Photo Essay
• Historic Site or Landmark Photo Essay
• Behind the Scenes Photo Essay
• Family Photo Essay
• Education Photo Essay

Stories are important to all of us. While some people gravitate to written stories, others are much more attuned to visual imagery. With a photo essay, you can tell a story without writing a word. Your use of composition, contrast, color, and perspective in photography will convey ideas and evoke emotions.

To explore narrative photography, you can use basic photographic equipment. You can buy a camera or even use your smartphone to get started. While lighting, lenses, and post-processing software can enhance your photos, they aren’t necessary to achieve good results.

Whether you need to complete a photo essay assignment or want to pursue one for fun or professional purposes, you can use these photo essay ideas for your photography inspiration . Once you know the answer to “what is a photo essay?” and find out how fun it is to create one, you’ll likely be motivated to continue your forays into photographic storytelling.

1 . Photowalk Photo Essay

One popular photo essay example is a photowalk. Simply put, a photowalk is time you set aside to walk around a city, town, or a natural site and take photos. Some cities even have photowalk tours led by professional photographers. On these tours, you can learn the basics about how to operate your camera, practice photography composition techniques, and understand how to look for unique shots that help tell your story.

Set aside at least two to three hours for your photowalk. Even if you’re photographing a familiar place—like your own home town—try to look at it through new eyes. Imagine yourself as a first-time visitor or pretend you’re trying to educate a tourist about the area.

Walk around slowly and look for different ways to capture the mood and energy of your location. If you’re in a city, capture wide shots of streets, close-ups of interesting features on buildings, street signs, and candid shots of people. Look for small details that give the city character and life. And try some new concepts—like reflection picture ideas—by looking for opportunities to photographs reflections in mirrored buildings, puddles, fountains, or bodies of water.

2 . Transformation Photo Essay

With a transformation photography essay, you can tell the story about change over time. One of the most popular photostory examples, a transformation essay can document a mom-to-be’s pregnancy or a child’s growth from infancy into the toddler years. But people don’t need to be the focus of a transformation essay. You can take photos of a house that is being built or an urban area undergoing revitalization.

You can also create a photo narrative to document a short-term change. Maybe you want to capture images of your growing garden or your move from one home to another. These examples of photo essays are powerful ways of telling the story of life’s changes—both large and small.

3 . Day in the Life Photo Essay

Want a unique way to tell a person’s story? Or, perhaps you want to introduce people to a career or activity. You may want to consider a day in the life essay.

With this photostory example, your narrative focuses on a specific subject for an entire day. For example, if you are photographing a farmer, you’ll want to arrive early in the morning and shadow the farmer as he or she performs daily tasks. Capture a mix of candid shots of the farmer at work and add landscapes and still life of equipment for added context. And if you are at a farm, don’t forget to get a few shots of the animals for added character, charm, or even a dose of humor. These types of photography essay examples are great practice if you are considering pursuing photojournalism. They also help you learn and improve your candid portrait skills.

4 . Event Photo Essay

Events are happening in your local area all the time, and they can make great photo essays. With a little research, you can quickly find many events that you could photograph. There may be bake sales, fundraisers, concerts, art shows, farm markets, block parties, and other non profit event ideas . You could also focus on a personal event, such as a birthday or graduation.

At most events, your primary emphasis will be on capturing candid photos of people in action. You can also capture backgrounds or objects to set the scene. For example, at a birthday party, you’ll want to take photos of the cake and presents.

For a local or community event, you can share your photos with the event organizer. Or, you may be able to post them on social media and tag the event sponsor. This is a great way to gain recognition and build your reputation as a talented photographer.

5. Building Photo Essay

Many buildings can be a compelling subject for a photographic essay. Always make sure that you have permission to enter and photograph the building. Once you do, look for interesting shots and angles that convey the personality, purpose, and history of the building. You may also be able to photograph the comings and goings of people that visit or work in the building during the day.

Some photographers love to explore and photograph abandoned buildings. With these types of photos, you can provide a window into the past. Definitely make sure you gain permission before entering an abandoned building and take caution since some can have unsafe elements and structures.

6. Historic Site or Landmark Photo Essay

Taking a series of photos of a historic site or landmark can be a great experience. You can learn to capture the same site from different angles to help portray its character and tell its story. And you can also photograph how people visit and engage with the site or landmark. Take photos at different times of day and in varied lighting to capture all its nuances and moods.

You can also use your photographic essay to help your audience understand the history of your chosen location. For example, if you want to provide perspective on the Civil War, a visit to a battleground can be meaningful. You can also visit a site when reenactors are present to share insight on how life used to be in days gone by.

7 . Behind the Scenes Photo Essay

Another fun essay idea is taking photos “behind the scenes” at an event. Maybe you can chronicle all the work that goes into a holiday festival from the early morning set-up to the late-night teardown. Think of the lead event planner as the main character of your story and build the story about him or her.

Or, you can go backstage at a drama production. Capture photos of actors and actresses as they transform their looks with costuming and makeup. Show the lead nervously pacing in the wings before taking center stage. Focus the work of stagehands, lighting designers, and makeup artists who never see the spotlight but bring a vital role in bringing the play to life.

8. Family Photo Essay

If you enjoy photographing people, why not explore photo story ideas about families and relationships? You can focus on interactions between two family members—such as a father and a daughter—or convey a message about a family as a whole.

Sometimes these type of photo essays can be all about the fun and joy of living in a close-knit family. But sometimes they can be powerful portraits of challenging social topics. Images of a family from another country can be a meaningful photo essay on immigration. You could also create a photo essay on depression by capturing families who are coping with one member’s illness.

For these projects on difficult topics, you may want to compose a photo essay with captions. These captions can feature quotes from family members or document your own observations. Although approaching hard topics isn’t easy, these types of photos can have lasting impact and value.

9. Education Photo Essay

Opportunities for education photo essays are everywhere—from small preschools to community colleges and universities. You can seek permission to take photos at public or private schools or even focus on alternative educational paths, like homeschooling.

Your education photo essay can take many forms. For example, you can design a photo essay of an experienced teacher at a high school. Take photos of him or her in action in the classroom, show quiet moments grading papers, and capture a shared laugh between colleagues in the teacher’s lounge.

Alternatively, you can focus on a specific subject—such as science and technology. Or aim to portray a specific grade level, document activities club or sport, or portray the social environment. A photo essay on food choices in the cafeteria can be thought-provoking or even funny. There are many potential directions to pursue and many great essay examples.

While education is an excellent topic for a photo essay for students, education can be a great source of inspiration for any photographer.

Why Should You Create a Photo Essay?

Ultimately, photographers are storytellers. Think of what a photographer does during a typical photo shoot. He or she will take a series of photos that helps convey the essence of the subject—whether that is a person, location, or inanimate object. For example, a family portrait session tells the story of a family—who they are, their personalities, and the closeness of their relationship.

Learning how to make a photo essay can help you become a better storyteller—and a better photographer. You’ll cultivate key photography skills that you can carry with you no matter where your photography journey leads.

If you simply want to document life’s moments on social media, you may find that a single picture doesn’t always tell the full story. Reviewing photo essay examples and experimenting with your own essay ideas can help you choose meaningful collections of photos to share with friends and family online.

Learning how to create photo essays can also help you work towards professional photography ambitions. You’ll often find that bloggers tell photographic stories. For example, think of cooking blogs that show you each step in making a recipe. Photo essays are also a mainstay of journalism. You’ll often find photo essays examples in many media outlets—everywhere from national magazines to local community newspapers. And the best travel photographers on Instagram tell great stories with their photos, too.

With a photo essay, you can explore many moods and emotions. Some of the best photo essays tell serious stories, but some are humorous, and others aim to evoke action.

You can raise awareness with a photo essay on racism or a photo essay on poverty. A photo essay on bullying can help change the social climate for students at a school. Or, you can document a fun day at the beach or an amusement park. You have control of the themes, photographic elements, and the story you want to tell.

5 Steps to Create a Photo Essay

Every photo essay will be different, but you can use a standard process. Following these five steps will guide you through every phase of your photo essay project—from brainstorming creative essay topics to creating a photo essay to share with others.

Step 1: Choose Your Photo Essay Topics

Just about any topic you can imagine can form the foundation for a photo essay. You may choose to focus on a specific event, such as a wedding, performance, or festival. Or you may want to cover a topic over a set span of time, such as documenting a child’s first year. You could also focus on a city or natural area across the seasons to tell a story of changing activities or landscapes.

Since the best photo essays convey meaning and emotion, choose a topic of interest. Your passion for the subject matter will shine through each photograph and touch your viewer’s hearts and minds.

Step 2: Conduct Upfront Research

Much of the work in a good-quality photo essay begins before you take your first photo. It’s always a good idea to do some research on your planned topic.

Imagine you’re going to take photos of a downtown area throughout the year. You should spend some time learning the history of the area. Talk with local residents and business owners and find out about planned events. With these insights, you’ll be able to plan ahead and be prepared to take photos that reflect the area’s unique personality and lifestyles.

For any topic you choose, gather information first. This may involve internet searches, library research, interviews, or spending time observing your subject.

Step 3: Storyboard Your Ideas

After you have done some research and have a good sense of the story you want to tell, you can create a storyboard. With a storyboard, you can write or sketch out the ideal pictures you want to capture to convey your message.

You can turn your storyboard into a “shot list” that you can bring with you on site. A shot list can be especially helpful when you are at a one-time event and want to capture specific shots for your photo essay. If you’ve never created a photo essay before, start with ten shot ideas. Think of each shot as a sentence in your story. And aim to make each shot evoke specific ideas or emotions.

Step 4: Capture Images

Your storyboard and shot list will be important guides to help you make the most of each shoot. Be sure to set aside enough time to capture all the shots you need—especially if you are photographing a one-time event. And allow yourself to explore your ideas using different photography composition, perspective, and color contrast techniques.

You may need to take a hundred images or more to get ten perfect ones for your photographic essay. Or, you may find that you want to add more photos to your story and expand your picture essay concept.

Also, remember to look for special unplanned, moments that help tell your story. Sometimes, spontaneous photos that aren’t on your shot list can be full of meaning. A mix of planning and flexibility almost always yields the best results.

Step 5: Edit and Organize Photos to Tell Your Story

After capturing your images, you can work on compiling your photo story. To create your photo essay, you will need to make decisions about which images portray your themes and messages. At times, this can mean setting aside beautiful images that aren’t a perfect fit. You can use your shot list and storyboard as a guide but be open to including photos that weren’t in your original plans.

You may want to use photo editing software—such as Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop— to enhance and change photographs. With these tools, you can adjust lighting and white balance, perform color corrections, crop, or perform other edits. If you have a signature photo editing style, you may want to use Photoshop Actions or Lightroom Presets to give all your photos a consistent look and feel.

You order a photo book from one of the best photo printing websites to publish your photo story. You can add them to an album on a photo sharing site, such as Flickr or Google Photos. Also, you could focus on building a website dedicated to documenting your concepts through visual photo essays. If so, you may want to use SEO for photographers to improve your website’s ranking in search engine results. You could even publish your photo essay on social media. Another thing to consider is whether you want to include text captures or simply tell your story through photographs.

Choose the medium that feels like the best space to share your photo essay ideas and vision with your audiences. You should think of your photo essay as your own personal form of art and expression when deciding where and how to publish it.

Photo Essays Can Help You Become a Better Photographer

Whatever your photography ambitions may be, learning to take a photo essay can help you grow. Even simple essay topics can help you gain skills and stretch your photographic limits. With a photo essay, you start to think about how a series of photographs work together to tell a complete story. You’ll consider how different shots work together, explore options for perspective and composition, and change the way you look at the world.

Before you start taking photos, you should review photo essay examples. You can find interesting pictures to analyze and photo story examples online, in books, or in classic publications, like Life Magazine . Don’t forget to look at news websites for photojournalism examples to broaden your perspective. This review process will help you in brainstorming simple essay topics for your first photo story and give you ideas for the future as well.

Ideas and inspiration for photo essay topics are everywhere. You can visit a park or go out into your own backyard to pursue a photo essay on nature. Or, you can focus on the day in the life of someone you admire with a photo essay of a teacher, fireman, or community leader. Buildings, events, families, and landmarks are all great subjects for concept essay topics. If you are feeling stuck coming up with ideas for essays, just set aside a few hours to walk around your city or town and take photos. This type of photowalk can be a great source of material.

You’ll soon find that advanced planning is critical to your success. Brainstorming topics, conducting research, creating a storyboard, and outlining a shot list can help ensure you capture the photos you need to tell your story. After you’ve finished shooting, you’ll need to decide where to house your photo essay. You may need to come up with photo album title ideas, write captions, and choose the best medium and layout.

Without question, creating a photo essay can be a valuable experience for any photographer. That’s true whether you’re an amateur completing a high school assignment or a pro looking to hone new skills. You can start small with an essay on a subject you know well and then move into conquering difficult ideas. Maybe you’ll want to create a photo essay on mental illness or a photo essay on climate change. Or maybe there’s another cause that is close to your heart.

Whatever your passion, you can bring it to life with a photo essay.

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If you’re suddenly wondering, “Can someone do my paper for me?”, there’s likely a very good reason for that. After all, college is an eye-opening experience for most students. Not only is it your first attempt at independent life free from parents’ oversight, but it’s also a completely new level of academic requirements and independent study many aren’t ready for. 

And if you’re an overachiever or a perfectionist, keeping up with all the classes, assignments, extracurriculars, and side gigs will keep you up most nights. You will soon forget about your plans to discover the party scene, visit your parents every other weekend, or find your soulmate on campus. If you try to stay on top of all your responsibilities, you’ll likely burn out or suffer an anxiety attack sooner rather than later. 

So don’t feel bad if your thoughts go from “Can someone write my paper?” to “Write me a paper asap!” within the first few weeks of the college term. You’re not alone, and it’s perfectly normal to struggle in a new environment and buckle under the weight of elevated expectations. 

Luckily, you don’t have to suffer in silence or give up on your dream of a college degree. Instead, you can seek help. And nowadays, it’s as easy as typing “Make an essay for me” in live chat.

Why Should I Choose Write Paper For Me As My School Assistant?

A quick Google search will unearth dozens of do-my-paper services, adding to your stress, instead of alleviating it. But unfortunately, you cannot trust the first company you find, tell the writers “Write a paper for me”, and hope for the best. Although you may be lucky enough to stumble upon a reliable company by accident, choosing a trustworthy service requires some research.

We suggest you look for these staples of a solid writing service WritePaperForMe has in spades:

• Academic writers with proven experience in your major. For instance, our write my paper service employs hundreds of experts across the most popular majors, so we can handle anything from Anatomy to Zoology.
• Thorough anti-plagiarism protocols. In our experience, a combination of writer training, strict citation procedures, and a mandatory plagiarism check ensure the best results for our clients.
• Round-the-clock access to human support agents. With our 24/7 support, you don’t have to wait for office hours to ask “Can you do my paper for me?”. You can get answers to all your questions, paper progress updates, and other help whenever you need it.
• Free and frictionless revision process. Although our writers do their best to meet your expectations on the first try, we guarantee free revisions and make the revision process easy and painless for everyone involved.
• Detailed confidentiality terms that protect your personal and financial data. We adhere to local and international data protection regulations and keep the specifics of your order private, so your school can never learn about your paper from us.
• Affordable rates that ensure the best value for money. We realize how tight money can be for students, so we keep our prices as low as possible while still keeping the writers happy and motivated.

If you want to make the most of these and other benefits, start by typing “Help me write my essay” in live chat, and we’ll see what we can do for you.

We Handle Any Paper Writing Task for High School, College, and Grad School

One of the most common complaints when it comes to paper writing is a poor writing style, unsuitable for a specific academic level. Fortunately, that never happens to our customers, as we carefully match your requirements with our writers’ expertise levels while keeping the rates affordable.

For example, when you come to us asking for a college essay, we’ll round up our experts with Bachelor’s degrees and above. Similarly, if you want us to handle MBA coursework, we’ll match you with a writer who already has their Master’s degree. And even doctorate papers, like thesis proposals or research papers, are not beyond our expertise, as our talent pool includes a fair share of PhDs.

So if you think our order form is too complex and your order doesn’t need to go beyond “Write essay for me,” we ask for your patience. After all, the more details you provide, starting with your academic level, the better we’ll be able to help you.

“Type an Essay for Me” Is Not the Only Service We Offer

You’ve probably found our site when you were looking to pay someone to write your essay. And we will happily take over argumentative, persuasive, narrative, and creative pieces for you. However, the do-my-paper service is not your only option. We have plenty of offers for students who are unwilling to let others take over their work completely. Here are a few viable suggestions that can make your college writing much easier:

• Editing works wonders for students unwilling to admit, “I need someone to write papers for me,” and looking to improve their writing style. Choose this service if you want actionable suggestions that will instantly improve your chances of getting a higher grade.
• Proofreading goes beyond the standard spellcheck and weeds out the smallest grammar, spelling, and style errors. Your professors will appreciate a flawless piece of writing without a single typo. 
• Formatting doesn’t have to be dull and time-consuming, especially when your reference list exceeds a few dozen sources. If you let our experts take over, you’ll save yourself hours and submit a picture-perfect paper.
• Paraphrasing is the best choice for fast results when you already have a flawless piece but need it to pass a plagiarism check the second time. Just say, “Help me write my paper based on this sample,” and our writers will deliver a perfect replica, capable of fooling Turnitin.

We Employ Expert Academics to Make Your “Write My Paper” Order Perfect

Whether you’re an English or a STEM major, you’re probably wondering, “Who can write essay for me?” or “Why should I pay someone to write my paper for me when I know nothing about them?” And you’re absolutely right about asking these questions. After all, thousands of freelancers offer to write essay online, but you can’t know who to trust with your grades and record. To make your life easier, we take over the screening tasks to ensure only the best are hired and have the privilege to write an essay for you.

To get on our team, each writer must:

• Provide us with a copy of a college or postgraduate diploma.
• Share multiple samples of academic writing across different subjects, topics, and paper types.
• Write a paper on a topic of our choosing within 24 hours to demonstrate research and writing skills.
• Pass a timed English proficiency test with and score 80+ points.

And once hired, writers must keep their customer feedback rating high. Those who get negative comments don’t stay on our team for long.

Although our hiring approach may seem harsh, it’s proven its efficiency for writers and students. And we urge you to give our experts a chance to prove they’re as good at writing papers as we claim they are.

We Deliver Every “Write My Paper” Order on Time

Timing is critical in the college papers market. An hour’s delay can make your submission late and cause you to fail the class. And a drawn-out revision may fry your last nerve and end in a breakdown.

To guarantee your every “write papers for me” order arrives in your inbox on time, we use an efficient communication and time-management approach and train our writers, editors, and proofreaders in beating procrastination and writer’s block. 

Still, we urge you to be realistic in your expectations. Research alone would usually take several hours, and writing and finishing touches need time, too. So please give our experts enough time to work on your paper and give yourself enough leeway for a quick review and revision.

Our “Write Essay for Me” Service Is Online and Ready to Help 24/7 

With so many responsibilities, it’s not uncommon for students to forget about essays. So if you wake up in cold sweat scrambling for answers to “Can someone do my essay for me asap?” you won’t be left to deal with the problem alone.

Our write my paper service never sleeps. The support agents operate round-the-clock through weekends and holiday seasons to ensure you can reach a human manager in your darkest hour and get the answers and support you need.

You can contact our team via:

Simply reach out, and explain your “write my paper” problem, and our managers will help you find a suitable solution. They can also get you in touch with your expert, provide progress updates, and explain our policy clauses and conditions.

We Guarantee Our “Write My Essay” Help Is Private and Confidential

“Can someone do my essay for me without risking my reputation?”

“I’m afraid my school will kick me out if they learn about my order.”

If you’re familiar with either of these lines of thinking, you’re just like any other college student. However, you have nothing to worry about when you pay someone to write your essay for you with our service. We carefully guard the details of your order and do not disclose your personal information to anyone without a court order.

So the only way your professors and school administration can learn about our help is if you tell them, “I pay to write my essay”. Without your confession, they’ll have no hard evidence. Their accusations and threats will be empty, and you’ll get away with buying papers easily, like thousands of our clients before you.

We Keep Working on Your “Write a Paper for Me” Requests Until You’re Happy

Reputation is everything for paper writing services. Although no company is safe from accusations, negative reviews, and underhanded rivalry with fellow “write my paper for me” platforms, we strive to keep every customer happy and willing to return.

That’s what our satisfaction guarantee is about. Whenever you come asking, “Write my essay online, we take your requirements seriously and ensure the experts fulfill your every instruction. And if you still think our writing could be better, you can order a free revision with your initial “write essay for me” parameters. Your writer will rework your piece according to your comments and return the second draft for your approval within 24 hours. With luck, you’ll like it better, and if not, you can repeat the whole process again and again until you’re 100% satisfied with your paper.

Ready to Reap the Benefits of Our “Write Papers for Me” Services?

If you’re ready to place your first “write my paper” order, welcome to the order form. It’s streamlined to guide you through sharing all the information your expert will need beyond your request of “write my paper for me”. And if at any point you feel lost, confused, or too tired to deal with our simple “do my essay” order form, reach out to our support team. Call or type something like “I want you to write a paper for me,” and they’ll respond within seconds to help you complete the order, finalize the payment, and get the first progress update when we assign the best expert to your case.

How can I pay someone to write a paper for me? What are your payment methods??

We accept credit and debit card payments by Visa, MasterCard, Discover, JCB, and American Express. You can use a reliable and secure payment system that keeps your personal and financial information safe to get us to write an essay for you. So you don’t have to worry and ruminate, “Is it safe to pay someone for writing my papers online?” After all, it’s as safe as getting your next coffee batch on Amazon or paying for your Netflix subscription.

How fast can you write my essay for me?

“Write my essay ASAP!” and “Write my essay, and I need it yesterday!” are two of the most common requests we get from college students. And although we can’t trick time and only have 24 hours in our days, we can deliver short pieces in 6 hours and longer assignments—within a day. As long as you don’t come asking “Write my research paper in six hours,” and are realistic about your expectations, our experts should be able to handle the tightest deadlines. But please account for a preview and revisions not to miss your submission deadline.

Can I talk to the person who’ll do my essay for me?

Of course, you can. We realize you’re probably thinking, “When I pay someone to write my paper, I want to have a direct line to this person.” So all you need to do is log into your account and find the chat tab to ask your questions or provide comments. But please remember that writers may not be available 24/7, as they have research and writing to take care of. If you’re thinking “I want round-the-clock access with the person I hired to write an essay for me,” you’re unlikely to find a writing service that will satisfy your needs.

Can you write my essay for me cheap?

Sure, our rates start as low as $6.99. Despite inflation and global crises, we keep our prices student-friendly. So anyone who comes asking, “write my paper for cheap” or “write my term paper without breaking the bank” will feel welcome and safe in the knowledge they’ll get the best value for money. At the same time, we urge you to beware of online frauds promising free results, as every “Write my research paper for me for free” may end in a scam.

Is it legal to use your service and pay someone to write my paper?

Yes, it is legal. Whether you’re carefully considering “Can someone do my paper for me?” in the privacy of your own mind or clamoring for assistance with the bold demands of “Write my paper for me now!”, you’re in the clear until you submit the paper you purchase for grading under your name. Even that isn’t illegal in most countries, though it is frowned upon in most schools. It’s up to you to decide what to do with the paper you get after we fulfill your order.

Can I pay someone to do my essay after it’s done?

Sadly, no. In an ideal world of perfectly honest people, you’d say, “I need help write my research paper”, and we’d have it ready for you for free and rely on your generosity. In the real world, our writers, editors, and support managers are real people who like to have a roof over their heads and meals on their tables. Our refund policy keeps you safe, but only your upfront payment protects our writers from scams. So whenever you ask, “Can you write my essay cheap?”, we say, “Sure”, but we ask you to cover the cost first.

Who will write my paper for me? How do I know they’re qualified to handle it?

Every writer on our team holds a degree in one or more majors, possesses years of academic writing experience, and has a solid reputation among our clients. You can be sure that whenever you run asking, “Write essay for me”, we’ll match you with an expert best suited to handling your academic level, class, and topic. Be safe in the knowledge that we only hire seasoned academics to write papers for you.

How do I choose the best writer to write my paper for me?

You can select a specific expert to deal with your “write my essay” issue or pick a top or pro-level writer. Although either of these options will add to the bottom line, you won’t have to wonder, “Who will write my essay?”. We recommend selecting one of our premium experts for critical assignments that need a special touch to score top grades and improve your class ranking or GPA. Contact our support team to ask, “Can someone write my paper for me with top results?” to learn more about writer options.

How do I know if you’ll make my essay original?

Your every “write my essay” order goes through a plagiarism checker to guarantee originality. After all, our writers know “write my paper” means crafting an original piece from scratch, not rewriting a stale sample found online. But if you want further proof, you’re welcome to order an official plagiarism report with a similarity percentage. All it takes is checking the box in the order form or asking a support agent to add it to the bottom line when you come asking, “I need you to write an essay for me.”

How can I lower the price when ordering an assignment?

Although we keep our online paper help rates as low as possible, you can play around with the order parameters to lower the price. For example, instead of crying, “I need you to write my essay in 12 hours”, set the deadline for two weeks, and your bottom line will be much more affordable. You can also wait for a seasonal promotion with discounts of up to 15% if you’re thinking, “I’m in no hurry to pay someone to write my essay.”

What do I do if you write my paper for me, and I don’t like it?

You can get a revision or a refund, depending on how much your “write my essay for me” order went off track. We know when you pay someone to write your paper you expect the best results, and we strive to follow every instruction to a T when we write a paper for you, but miscommunication can occur. In this case, don’t be shy about requesting a free revision or a new writer to rework your assignment. And if you feel the paper is unsalvageable, you may be liable for a partial or full refund.

How do I know you’ve finished writing my paper?

We’ll notify you via email the moment the writer uploads the first draft for your revision. You can then preview it and approve the piece to download an editable file or get it sent for a revision round with your comments about necessary corrections. Besides, you can always request a progress update from your writer or a support manager. Just ask them, “Any progress since I hired you to write my essay for me?”. As you see, you don’t need to fret, thinking, “How will I know when you write my essay, and it’s ready?”

What are you waiting for?

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14+ Photo Essay Examples & Samples in PDF

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• Don’t be afraid to experiment. Find the right angle and be dramatic with your description, just be creative.
• Pay attention to detail. Chances are, your audience will notice every single detail of your photograph.
• Shoot everything. Behind a single beautiful photo is a hundred more shots.
• Don’t think twice about editing. Editing is where the magic happens. It has the ability to add more drama to your images.
• Have fun. Don’t stress yourself out too much but instead, grow from your experience.

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26+ examples of essay outlines, how to start an essay, tips for writing an effective essay, 29+ examples of college essays, 6+ literary essay examples, samples, 6+ analytical essay examples, samples, 7+ personal essay examples, samples, 4+ travel essay examples, samples, 6+ expository essay examples, samples.

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How to Order Our Online Writing Services.

There is nothing easier than using our essay writer service. Here is how everything works at :

• You fill out an order form. Make sure to provide us with all the details. If you have any comments or additional files, upload them. This will help your writer produce the paper that will exactly meet your needs.
• You pay for the order with our secure payment system.
• Once we receive the payment confirmation, we assign an appropriate writer to work on your project. You can track the order's progress in real-time through the personal panel. Also, there is an option to communicate with your writer, share additional files, and clarify all the details.
• As soon as the paper is done, you receive a notification. Now, you can read its preview version carefully in your account. If you are satisfied with our professional essay writing services, you confirm the order and download the final version of the document to your computer. If, however, you consider that any alterations are needed, you can always request a free revision. All our clients can use free revisions within 14 days after delivery. Please note that the author will revise your paper for free only if the initial requirements for the paper remain unchanged. If the revision is not applicable, we will unconditionally refund your account. However, our failure is very unlikely since almost all of our orders are completed issue-free and we have 98% satisfied clients.

As you can see, you can always turn to us with a request "Write essay for me" and we will do it. We will deliver a paper of top quality written by an expert in your field of study without delays. Furthermore, we will do it for an affordable price because we know that students are always looking for cheap services. Yes, you can write the paper yourself but your time and nerves are worth more!

Still not convinced? Check out the best features of our service:

Estelle Gallagher

If you can’t write your essay, then the best solution is to hire an essay helper. Since you need a 100% original paper to hand in without a hitch, then a copy-pasted stuff from the internet won’t cut it. To get a top score and avoid trouble, it’s necessary to submit a fully authentic essay. Can you do it on your own? No, I don’t have time and intention to write my essay now! In such a case, step on a straight road of becoming a customer of our academic helping platform where every student can count on efficient, timely, and cheap assistance with your research papers, namely the essays.

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Benefits You Get from Our Essay Writer Service.

Typically, our authors write essays, but they can do much more than essays. We also offer admissions help. If you are preparing to apply for college, you can get an admission essay, application letter, cover letter, CV, resume, or personal statement from us. Since we know what the admissions committee wants to see in all these papers, we are able to provide you with a flawless paper for your admission.

You can also get help with business writing from our essay writer online. Turn to us if you need a business plan, business proposal, presentation, press release, sales letter, or any other kind of writing piece for your business, and we will tailor such a paper to your requirements.

If you say, "Do not write an essay for me, just proofread and edit it," we can help, as well. Just provide us with your piece of writing and indicate what exactly you need. We will check your paper and bring it to perfection.

How to write a thematic essay + examples

Thematic essays are a common teaching and assessment technique in schools and colleges. They are an excellent way to teach students how to develop a theme, as well as providing a variety of writing assignments for different purposes. Thematic essay can also be used by teachers as assessments of student understanding at the end of each unit or chapter in their textbook.

The three main types of thematic papers include:

• Theme-based essays, which require you to discuss one issue from various perspectives;
• Application-based papers that focus on practical use of what was learned;
• Response-based papers where the student is asked to react or respond to something they have read.

A good thematic essay should cover all three aspects listed above with equal weight given to each.

How to shorten an essay

• How to write an essay cover page – Format and Examples
• Police/Law enforcement career essay
• Critical lens essay
• short answer questions/ examples
• How to title an essay

What is a thematic essay?

Thematic essay (also known as a theme analysis essay ) is a type of essay that analyzes the themes or underlying messages within a literary work. It does so by examining the way in which the author develops and displays these themes. In order to write a theme analysis essay, it is important to read the text closely, identifying what are the central ideas or recurring patterns.

This kind of academic essay writing , consists in analysing or arguing in favor of or against some statement, claim, idea, theme , proposal, thesis , question etc. The thematic essay is to be based on a specific topic which the student must choose himself/herself and no one else can do it for him/her.

Themes are often revealed through an author’s diction, word choice, use of figurative language, repetition, imagery and other devices. Themes include messages about human nature that authors want to communicate through their work. Analyzing thematic elements helps readers to better understand how a writer communicates ideas in their work. Theme analyses are therefore often used to study many literary works, including

• short stories

Not only can themes provide the basis for analyzing a piece of literature, but they also can help readers understand themselves and the world around them better.

A thematic essay is mostly a free-form essay based on a predetermined topic. Like other essays, thematic essays have an introduction, body and conclusion which are typically defined by the teacher who assigns the essay.

Although examples of this type of essay can be found in many collections of literary criticism or as literature course papers for certain classes at most colleges and universities, there is no consensus as to what defines a thematic essay.

Thematic essays are often used as benchmark tests for evaluating reading, writing and analytical skills. They can also be used in a teaching capacity to determine whether an incoming freshman has the requisite knowledge of literary devices or as a means for assessing a student’s ability to analyze literature.

Structure of a thematic essay

The structure of a thematic essay depends on length, topic and how in-depth you want the analysis to be. As far as essay structure goes, it’s best to use a general outline that will help guide you throughout the writing process.

Introductory paragraph:

A good introductory paragraph includes a thesis statement and sets up what will be discussed further in the body paragraphs . This can be followed by one or more paragraphs devoted to each part of your argument .

Body paragraphs:

Your argument may take several different forms, which can depend upon the kind of thematic essay you’re writing. If multiple pieces of evidence are used, a paragraph may be devoted to each one.

If you are writing some sort of analysis or interpretation of the text, you could devote one body paragraph to analyzing each theme presented in the book and how it reflects society as a whole. You might also want to include a final concluding paragraph that sums up everything discussed earlier and restates your thesis statement to make certain all points have been considered by the reader.

Conclusion:

In this last part of your essay , you need to reinforce what has already been said and help readers understand what they have learned from your previous statements. This is also where you can pose new questions or suggest ideas for future research based on what was previously stated to get readers thinking about other topics that fit within the boundaries of this theme. Using quotations, paraphrasing, and summarizing are all good ways to reinforce your ideas and provide a sense of closure for the piece.

5 paragraph theme analysis essay

Here are some guidelines for crafting your own 5 paragraph theme analysis essay :

• Paragraph 1 – The introduction makes an assertion about how something affects society, either positively or negatively. This paragraph should include examples from the text that relate to your argument.
• Paragraph 2  – 4  – These may include further examples or evidence from the text that support claims made in paragraph one. Each of these paragraphs should follow the same pattern of introduction, development and conclusion.
• Concluding paragraph – This final paragraph summarizes what was discussed previously and restates the thesis statement to make certain all points have been considered by the reader.

Thematic essay outline

A thematic essay outline can be very useful when students are working on essays. The thematic essay outline structure can help students develop their ideas and encourage them to think about their writing in a more organized way.

A thematic analysis is an essay that identifies themes, patterns of occurrence, or the main topic and how it applies to particular objects or situations.

For example, if you were writing about your family members, you could create a theme by choosing just one of those members (your father) and write about him using that single word (honesty). This would be considered a complete them analysis.

When to use a thematic outline

Thematic essays have several purposes, such as analyzing an idea or subject in depth. They can also be used to compare two subjects side by side, and place emphasis on the differences and similarities between the two subjects. Using a thematic analysis is one way for students to organize and think about their writing before actually sitting down to write their essay.

Another purpose of this style of writing is to point out how certain ideas connect with each other and may interact throughout something larger than themselves, such as a novel or work of art.

For example, you could examine how different literary works all have similar themes running through them.

As another example, you could write your essay about how the themes of racism and racial discrimination are apparent in both the movie “12 Years a Slave” and the book “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Remember that your professor probably expects you to have some knowledge or understanding of what is being analyzed, so make sure you do your research before beginning your thematic essay.

You may want to begin with an outline, which can help aid you in identifying the main points of your argument as well as give you structure for writing your paper. The theme should be clearly evident throughout all parts of your paper.

Other elements such as organization, evidence, examples and transitions are also important when writing this type of essay.

In order to more effectively analyze these elements, it can be helpful to formulate a thematic outline. It’s not uncommon for students to have a difficult time creating this type of essay due to the need for extensive research, so it can be especially helpful to have an organized plan to work with as you begin writing an essay .

You should also note that even though most thematic essays are based on some sort of word theme or idea, your thesis statement does not necessarily need to consist of just one single word.

A lot will depend upon the topic and how much depth is required in discussing it. You may wish to take into account how many words will best capture the main point and convey your overall argument when revising your thesis statement .

There are several different types of thematic analysis essay topics that can help spark ideas or provide inspiration for writing.

For example, you might choose a theme or topic that is controversial and try to understand what both sides of the story feel about the particular issue being studied.

Another type of thematic essay could explore what something means in terms of its overall effect on people as well as how it affects their lives. One way to write this type of essay would be to examine how life has been impacted by an event or object, such as a war, famine or natural disaster.

A biographical thematic essay can focus on someone’s personality and life choices; however, other types of essays may also provide insight into that person which can help the reader gain further understanding about his motives and intentions.

Using several different examples or pieces of evidence that address main points is a good way to make your argument clear and easy for the reader to follow.

An example of a thematic essay topic could be ” How does the theme of love affect the novel “Wuthering Heights?”

The most important part of any kind of thematic analysis essay is examining how it affects or influences society in general, which means that you should provide solid evidence , support your ideas with appropriate examples and use proper transitions – both within paragraphs and when moving from one paragraph to another.

Here is an example of how to write a thematic essay outline :

• Introduce the theme
• Describe how the theme is represented in different texts from a variety of genres, time periods, or cultures
• Provide an interpretation for why this theme is important to explore and what it tells us about human nature
• Discuss why this topic has remained relevant over time and what its significance will be in the future
• Conclude by summarizing your argument and proposing new avenues for exploring this idea further.

How to write a thematic essay

A thematic essay is a topic-based essay that usually has a more specific focus than a standard research paper. They can often take the form of an argumentative essay or persuasive essay , but they don’t need to. They’re typically used in high school English classes and sometimes in college courses as well.

In order to help you be as successful as possible with this type of assignment, here are some tips and steps that will help you get started.

Topic Selection

Choose a topic based on your own opinion, experience, and/or point-of-view. You’re not just going to be arguing for or against something; with a thematic essay , you’ll need to develop a well-reasoned argument supported by relevant evidence.

Develop strong thesis statement

Make sure that you develop a strong thesis/argument in your introduction. You’re probably familiar with the standard five-paragraph essay format, which includes an introductory paragraph followed by three body paragraphs and then a closing paragraph. With these kinds of essays, the first and last paragraphs are usually straightforward: The opening paragraph (the one right after the introduction itself) typically introduces the topic in more detail while the concluding paragraph summarizes what’s been said in order to wrap things up neatly before moving on to other topics…but it doesn’t necessarily have to be this way. That is, you don’t always have to introduce or conclude your argument within a particular place or part of your; you can actually have your conclusion appear anywhere within the body of your essay, provided that it works.

Brainstorm Ideas

Pay careful attention to developing a consistent and coherent argument in every paragraph. In fact, if you’re going to write an argumentative or persuasive essay on a thematic topic, then all paragraphs should serve as part of your overarching argument. To do this, each paragraph needs to have one point (which will become clearer once you choose either pro or con for your thesis/argument). It’s important that each paragraph be completely relevant to the main idea that you plan to discuss in relation to the topic; otherwise, it won’t really fit with everything else and may start to feel like filler text (or worse).

Create an outline

Organize your ideas in an outline format. Once you’ve figured out which side of the argument you want to take, it’s important to go back and organize these ideas so that they can be presented in a logical way. At this point, organizing your thoughts should probably feel like it’s not all that different from organizing information for any other kind of essay—just make sure you include all relevant details and examples within each paragraph and don’t get off track by writing something too long or tangential.

Include examples

Include lots of specific examples and details to help reinforce your argument. The best thing about thematic essays (as opposed to just basic research papers) is the fact that they allow for a lot of explanations and examples to be included within the argument. This allows you to give your paper a more personal feel by explaining what you know from firsthand experience, which may actually help you come across as less like an intellectual robot (the good kind).

Proper referencing

Include citations when necessary—and use MLA format correctly . You probably don’t need to worry about citation format too much with most other types of essay assignments, but it can be pretty important for thematic essays. Why? Well, you never really know whether or not someone is going to take issue with your arguments; if so, then they’ll probably expect specific sources from which those arguments have been drawn. So make sure that when using any outside source information that you cite it accordingly, either in-text or via a Works Cited page.

Proofread twice.

Just as you should with any other kind of essay assignment, proofread your thematic essay carefully and with a sharp eye for grammar and spelling errors before submitting the final draft to your professor. Since this type of paper relies so much on its argumentative structure and clarity, it’s important that there be absolutely nothing else distracting from these things; all typos, grammatical errors, run-on sentences/fragments, etc., can serve as distractions (even if they’re minor ones), which may cause your reader to lose interest or focus on something that may not really be all that relevant.

Don’t get discouraged; ask for help .

Everyone has moments where they feel like their writing isn’t coming out right or that an argument isn’t all that convincing. That’s nothing to worry about, just make sure you talk to your teacher and explain what’s going on so he/she can tell you how to improve the paper based on the assignment requirements. Ultimately, thematic essays are a lot of fun if you know what’s expected of you as far as structure goes; otherwise, they’ll turn out kind of bland. But with the right amount of effort put into making sure your points are solid and organized in a way that makes sense logically—not to mention plenty of examples—you should be able to write a great paper that’ll get you an A. Just don’t forget to do everything on this list, and you’re set!

What are the three parts of a theme essay?

The three parts of a theme essay are the body, the introductions and transitions, and the conclusion. When writing a theme analysis essay, you need to first analyze the work. After reading the work, you should write about what it is generally about and why it was written in that way. Then you’ll have a chance to analyze specific aspects of the work before finally concluding with your thoughts on the work as a whole.

How to write a theme analysis essay

If you’re writing high school or college thematic essays, your teacher may assign a certain book, article or story. When this is the case, the most important thing for you to do will be reading the assignment carefully and making notes about its author’s use of theme. After you’ve read it once, go ahead and highlight passages that seem to be especially relevant — those are going to be good places for you to cite while writing your paper. The more often you re-read the work as you’re preparing your outline and draft, the more likely it is that details will stick with you when it comes time to write. Once you have chosen an analytical approach (see below), think about how your approach, and the works you cite as support, will connect to the paper’s body paragraphs.

What are some tips for writing a good thematic analysis essay conclusion?

A thematic analysis essay conclusion serves two purposes:

• It helps to bring together all of the information that was stated earlier in the paper;
• It gives your readers something to think about going forward.

To write a great ending for your theme analysis essay, simply try to build on the tone that you’ve established throughout your paper.

Make sure that you’re linking up all of the different threads that have been discussed, and try to finish on a high note.

Use of theme analysis essay in college

When assigning thematic assignments teachers are encouraged to provide students with topics that will challenge the student while not being so difficult as to discourage honest attempts at completing the assignment. Themes that fit this description include:

There is some controversy regarding what should be considered when grading these types of essays. In general, teachers look for “how well does an essay answer the question – and how well do you respond with evidence from your sources?” But what constitutes evidence can vary. Teachers who assign thematic essays are advised to clarify what constitutes evidence in their assignments. Some teachers would want students to provide quotes from the work in lieu of paraphrasing while others would not consider direct quotes as acceptable.

There are many different thoughts on what makes for a proper or successful thematic essay, but most would agree that the following list is important:

Thematic essays can also be adapted for use with college-level freshmen and sophomores by changing the required length of essay (1200 words instead of 500). With this change, they can better serve as a diagnostic tool for incoming freshman such that teachers will get an idea about how well students will perform in literature courses at their institution.

A general rule of thumb for completing an essay is one page per point made (though there are exceptions). This means that if a teacher gives four questions, the paper should be at least 4 pages long.

Theme analysis essays have distinct advantages over traditional papers in that they encourage students to think more creatively and develop their own thesis rather than just proving one provided by the instructor. The following example shows how a teacher might ask a student to analyze three works on the same theme: love.

With this type of assignment, it can be expected that many different ideas will be brought to light and students will learn about literature from perspectives they may not have considered before attempting the essay. It also allows teachers to observe whether students’ writing styles change depending on what they are writing about.

Another benefit of thematic essay assignments is that they encourage students to explore literature on their own time and allow students to think beyond the constraints of what a teacher might choose. Additionally, it allows teachers to step into the role of “guide” rather than “sage on the stage.” Students who have an interest in a theme can ask questions about it or bring up examples from outside texts – knowing full well that their instructor has no objection whatsoever to such an approach.

Thematic essays can be used as a curriculum supplement by challenging students with specific themes over a series of class sessions. This would also help prepare students for when they enter college courses where thematic units are almost always found early in the syllabus. They can also be used to introduce students to a new topic in literature. Rather than providing an introduction through textbook readings or lecture, thematic essay assignments encourage students to explore on their own and possibly gain insights into topics they would have otherwise not considered.

In high school, timed writing assignments provide an extra incentive for completing a paper on time. Teachers can assign thematic essays for a similar effect if they have access to online grades. Completion of thematic essay assignments would then be included in any high school students’ overall assessment grade.

Thematic essay assignments are likely to be helpful for students who have trouble with traditional paper writing or are completely new to the process of critical analysis. However, they could present a problem if students do not like branching out into other topics and therefore struggle with thematic essays that ask them to do so. In those cases, teachers can provide an alternative assignment where students can write about their favorite work on a specific theme and explain why it fascinates them so much.

Thematic essay example 1:

Below is an illustrated essay of a thematic essay example on the theme of crime. Follow how the essay is written to write a custom essay for school.

Introduction of Essay:

So what does it mean when someone says we live in a “free society”? We all know there are laws that must be obeyed for us to survive as an individual; but is something wrong if you break these laws? Crime is an issue in America today because one person breaks the law while another person watches with their hands tied behind their backs. Will this continue to occur until nothing is left but a bunch of criminals? In my opinion, yes! Crime has been a part of society for many years. However, since the beginning of time, crime rates have never declined. If anything, they continue to grow and affect our daily lives more and more each year. Therefore, there must be solutions to help decrease crime rates in our communities .

Thesis statement:

My goal is to examine the way crime has become an issue in our society today, taking into account what effects it has on people’s lives, and how we can create solutions to decrease crime rates in our communities. I will explore both national and international examples of crime rates, and analyze the reasons why crime rates are so high. I am also going to identify how major catastrophes have caused crime rates to increase, and explain why some people are more vulnerable than others. In addition, I plan on discussing several solutions that may help to decrease crime and create a safer environment in our world.

Body Paragraph 1:

Crime is an issue because one person breaks the law while another person watches with their hands tied behind their backs. Will this continue to occur until nothing is left but a bunch of criminals? Crime has been a part of society for many years; however, since the beginning of time, crime rates have never declined. If anything they continue to grow and affect our daily lives more and more each year. Therefore there must be solutions to help decrease crime rates in our communities.

Body Paragraph 2:

How does crime affect our lives? It is a fact that all people are always on the lookout for crimes they may have seen, or been a victim of themselves. Crimes such as rape, murder, theft and many others take control of our minds and scare us into thinking people out there are truly evil. But how do we measure these crimes? if you ask different people this question, chances are you will receive different answers because everyone has their own views on what is right and wrong. I believe that most criminals have no idea what it really means to live with the consequences of breaking laws; however, those who do know exactly what happens when they break the law, are usually repeat offenders.

Body Paragraph 3:

What makes people more vulnerable to commit crimes? There are many reasons why someone may decide to break a particular law; mainly for monetary gain. For example, if you are in a state of poverty and you have children or dependents that cannot afford anything, stealing seems like a good way to feed your family. However, no matter how much money you end up with from doing something illegal it never lasts because sooner or later they will catch you and send you to jail. I often wonder why some of these criminals can still manage to get caught even after they change their identity by either changing their name or moving far away from the place where they committed the crime. I believe these criminals have no fear, because they think they will never get caught; therefore, when they do it just encourages them to continue doing these crimes.

Body Paragraph 4:

How can we reduce crime rates in our communities? I believe that there are many things we can do to help decrease crime rates and make the world more peaceful place for people to live. First of all, parents should teach their children about right from wrong at an early age so that by the time they grow up, they know how to distinguish between what is good and what is bad. Secondly, people need religious guidance in order to learn about God’s laws and commandments. Lastly, every country needs police officers who are committed to protecting our society, and have the heart to be able to stop repeated offenders no matter how small or large their crime may be.

Conclusion Paragraph:

In conclusion, everyone needs to play a part in helping reduce crime rates in our communities and create a safe environment for all citizens. Everyone has the power and freedom to choose between right or wrong; however some people are not educated enough on what is good and bad, which causes them to commit crimes. I believe that one important factor we should take into consideration when creating solutions for reducing crime rates is learning about everyone’s views on what is right or wrong, before taking action so that we can figure out how they think and what they do. Finally by making smart choices such as educating poor families about God’s laws and commandments, teaching our children right from wrong at an early age, helping police officers protect society by putting repeat offenders in jail for good; we can begin to reduce crime rates in our communities.

Thematic essay example 2

There are many reasons why I would recommend the book “what I know for sure”, by Oprah Winfrey. She is one of the most influential women in America today, and has been on television for more than thirty years. This is why there is no surprise that she had incredible success with this nonfiction book. Oprah was born into poverty but rose above it all because of her determination and desire to succeed. The book is inspirational because of her perseverance to become successful and overcome the things that have been put in front of her, such as sexual abuse. However, another reason why I love this book is because it gives an inside view into Oprah’s life.

The book “what I know for sure” by oprah winfrey makes me feel inspired because she tells you about her childhood and how she got to where she is today. Many people admire Oprah because of what she has accomplished in her career; however, they don’t realize how hard it was for her to get there. She struggled through many situations like poverty which gave her a different perspective on life than most other wealthy mothers do not have. For example, when Oprah was six years old, she was sexually abused by a family member. This event shaped the rest of her life and helped her to be more compassionate to all types of people that are going through hard times. Another lesson Oprah had learned at an early age was how it is important to have higher education, because she said that her mother would always tell her how powerful knowledge is. This helps develop one’s self esteem because after receiving an education they will know their value in society as well as their potential.

The book “what I know for sure” also teaches many valuable lessons that everyone can benefit from, such as how life can change in a moment’s notice. For example, when Oprah was ten years old someone close to her took their own life which made her realize how precious life really is. Another lesson that I learned from the book was to be free with your opinions but also respect others for having their own opinions as well. For example, Oprah talks about how she went into a restaurant one time and ordered pancakes and they brought her cornbread instead, which made her extremely uncomfortable. She approached the waiter and expressed that she would not eat the food because of religious reasons. The waiter asked if he could pray with her so she stood up where everybody in the restaurant could see them praying together, then a few minutes later he came back out with real pancakes for Oprah.

In conclusion, there are many positive lessons that can be gained from reading “what I know for sure” by oprah winfrey. My favorite part of the book is when Oprah shares her story about how she overcame sexual abuse and poverty to become one of the most admired women in America today. I highly recommend this book, but be ready for tears because it will make you cry!

I would definitely recommend that everyone read “what I know for sure” by oprah winfrey, because it is an inspirational story written by one of the most successful women in America. The book covers several valuable life lessons from growing up in poverty and overcoming sexual abuse to becoming a famous celebrity on television. Most people think that Oprah has everything figured out, however they don’t realize how many hardships she had to overcome before reaching success. She is one person who knows what their worth and doesn’t settle for anything less. This book is an easy read and has a lot of valuable lessons to teach anyone who reads it. I would recommend this book to my friends because they are just like me, in the sense that we have big dreams but sometimes need help figuring out exactly how to make those dreams come true. This book teaches lessons about life; many of which would be great advice if I could give myself as a teenager!

FAQ – Theme Analysis Writing Summary

Here are a summary of the topics and questions asked about theme analysis essays by high school and college students. The points have been lifted above so make sure you read the rest of the guide.

How to start a thematic essay

The first step is to find a theme that you are passionate about. The second step is to research the topic to see if it’s feasible for a paper. The third step is to develop your thesis and outline your points. It should be easy to get started when you have a passion for what you’re writing about.

Once you’ve settled on a topic, the first step is to find a good thesis.

The next thing that you want to do is come up with an outline for your paper. You don’t need to focus on irrelevant aspects of the paper since it will most likely be discarded later anyway. You can keep this as a work in progress and revise it as time goes by. As long as you’re making progress every day, you’ll be able to make something out of it eventually.

If your theme isn’t feasible, then there’s no point in trying too hard to think about writing it down. If people don’t even care about what you have written, then why should they bother reading? You need facts if you want thematic essays to have some sort of impact on people.

If you do manage to find something that people care about, then it’s time to start writing. You will want to make sure that your work makes an impact as soon as possible.

What is a thesis statement in a thematic essay?

Example thesis statement for a thematic essay..

A thesis statement in a thematic essay provides the audience with a way of understanding an interpretation or a discussion.

This paper will explore the history of the theme and how it has been used in the media to portray significant events that occurred in recent years. It will also discuss the different ways in which this theme has been portrayed, and how it has affected our daily lives.

What is a thematic essay for english?

A thematic essay is an essay that focuses on an idea or argument that you are passionate about. It usually tells a story, and you may use quotes in your paper to backup your points. You can either make the theme of the paper really broad, like “family,” or it can be specific, like “nostalgia.”

The key to a good thematic essay is that you need to write about something you are passionate about. If it’s not something that means something to you, then you’ll have a hard time finishing the paper.

So what can be used as an idea for a thematic essay?

The possibilities are endless. You could write about anything from war and peace to technology and computers. However, if your topic isn’t feasible or workable in some way, don’t even bother writing it down. It will accomplish nothing and people won’t care about what you have written anyway. Make sure that whatever theme you choose has enough facts and proof behind it so that people will see why they should care.

You could also read through old books like “The Grapes of Wrath” or “1984.” These classic pieces are still read to this day, and you can see why. If you’re writing a paper on the effects of television, you could use one of these books as a source and compare how people were affected back then with how they are affected now.

How do you choose an idea for your thematic essay? You want to choose something that means a lot to you. This is because if it doesn’t mean anything to you in some way, then it probably won’t work out too well. You should also make sure that the theme is feasible too. It doesn’t matter if no one else cares about what you’ve written down since it won’t leave any sort of impact on them.

Once you come up with a theme for your paper, make sure that it’s something people are passionate about. Don’t choose a topic that has been written about over and over again. Chances are that either nothing will be added to the conversation or it won’t mean anything to anyone anyway. You want people to feel like they’re part of what you have written down too, so leave some room for them to get involved in the conversation as well.

You could also write a paper based on an issue that others care about and use those same facts to show why YOUR point is more important than theirs. It doesn’t matter if their point is different from yours either because there is always another side to every story.

You can write about the issues people have with your point of view or you can write about how others are affected by your theme, so it’s best to be ready for any situation.

The last thing you need to do is make sure that you show a bit of personality in your thematic essay. If the reader doesn’t know where you stand on something, then they won’t know what to think about what YOU have written down either! At least give the readers some insight so they know whether or not they should agree with what you have said.

You should also read through as many other essays as possible. Read things like newspapers and magazines so that you can see how writers express their own opinions. You need to find a way to add your own twist and personality to the paper so that other people feel like they can connect with you too.

Thematic essay writing help

Do you need help writing a theme analysis essay for college?

When writing a theme analysis essay , it is often difficult to identify the main issue. One of the key skills you must develop in order to write an excellent theme analysis essay is identifying various issues contained within the text. A writing a theme analysis essay revolves around an examination of what the author’s message was for their work and how that message relates to real life situations as well as social and cultural phenomena. It also involves paying attention to other key elements of literature such as characters (both major and minor), plot, setting, symbols, tone etc.

A professional writer will help by not only showing you how to analyze a literary piece but also by making suggestions on which themes are best suited for your paper. They will review your paper before it is submitted so that you are sure it meets all of your professor’s requirements. A professional theme analysis essay writing service will make sure that the quality of your paper is top notch so you get good grades on your assignment.

Students who need assistance with their assignments should contact our writers at Tutlance – essay writing help before they hand in an incomplete project. Our team can help finish off whatever is left so that students don’t get any of the consequences that come with not following standards.

Our writers help students throughout all stages of writing for thematic essay , including brainstorming, creating drafts and revisions. Our academic writing experts have extensive knowledge in English language and literature as well as publishing experience. They are also familiar with most professors’ guidelines which ensure that each paper is completed according to proper standards so there are no problems when the assignment is submitted. Tutlance essay writers offers guaranteed services so students aren’t wasting their money!

Author: tutlance

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That’s what our satisfaction guarantee is about. Whenever you come asking, “Write my essay online, we take your requirements seriously and ensure the experts fulfill your every instruction. And if you still think our writing could be better, you can order a free revision with your initial “write essay for me” parameters. Your writer will rework your piece according to your comments and return the second draft for your approval within 24 hours. With luck, you’ll like it better, and if not, you can repeat the whole process again and again until you’re 100% satisfied with your paper.

Ready to Reap the Benefits of Our “Write Papers for Me” Services?

If you’re ready to place your first “write my paper” order, welcome to the order form. It’s streamlined to guide you through sharing all the information your expert will need beyond your request of “write my paper for me”. And if at any point you feel lost, confused, or too tired to deal with our simple “do my essay” order form, reach out to our support team. Call or type something like “I want you to write a paper for me,” and they’ll respond within seconds to help you complete the order, finalize the payment, and get the first progress update when we assign the best expert to your case.

How can I pay someone to write a paper for me? What are your payment methods??

We accept credit and debit card payments by Visa, MasterCard, Discover, JCB, and American Express. You can use a reliable and secure payment system that keeps your personal and financial information safe to get us to write an essay for you. So you don’t have to worry and ruminate, “Is it safe to pay someone for writing my papers online?” After all, it’s as safe as getting your next coffee batch on Amazon or paying for your Netflix subscription.

How fast can you write my essay for me?

“Write my essay ASAP!” and “Write my essay, and I need it yesterday!” are two of the most common requests we get from college students. And although we can’t trick time and only have 24 hours in our days, we can deliver short pieces in 6 hours and longer assignments—within a day. As long as you don’t come asking “Write my research paper in six hours,” and are realistic about your expectations, our experts should be able to handle the tightest deadlines. But please account for a preview and revisions not to miss your submission deadline.

Can I talk to the person who’ll do my essay for me?

Of course, you can. We realize you’re probably thinking, “When I pay someone to write my paper, I want to have a direct line to this person.” So all you need to do is log into your account and find the chat tab to ask your questions or provide comments. But please remember that writers may not be available 24/7, as they have research and writing to take care of. If you’re thinking “I want round-the-clock access with the person I hired to write an essay for me,” you’re unlikely to find a writing service that will satisfy your needs.

Can you write my essay for me cheap?

Sure, our rates start as low as $6.99. Despite inflation and global crises, we keep our prices student-friendly. So anyone who comes asking, “write my paper for cheap” or “write my term paper without breaking the bank” will feel welcome and safe in the knowledge they’ll get the best value for money. At the same time, we urge you to beware of online frauds promising free results, as every “Write my research paper for me for free” may end in a scam.

Is it legal to use your service and pay someone to write my paper?

Yes, it is legal. Whether you’re carefully considering “Can someone do my paper for me?” in the privacy of your own mind or clamoring for assistance with the bold demands of “Write my paper for me now!”, you’re in the clear until you submit the paper you purchase for grading under your name. Even that isn’t illegal in most countries, though it is frowned upon in most schools. It’s up to you to decide what to do with the paper you get after we fulfill your order.

Can I pay someone to do my essay after it’s done?

Sadly, no. In an ideal world of perfectly honest people, you’d say, “I need help write my research paper”, and we’d have it ready for you for free and rely on your generosity. In the real world, our writers, editors, and support managers are real people who like to have a roof over their heads and meals on their tables. Our refund policy keeps you safe, but only your upfront payment protects our writers from scams. So whenever you ask, “Can you write my essay cheap?”, we say, “Sure”, but we ask you to cover the cost first.

Who will write my paper for me? How do I know they’re qualified to handle it?

Every writer on our team holds a degree in one or more majors, possesses years of academic writing experience, and has a solid reputation among our clients. You can be sure that whenever you run asking, “Write essay for me”, we’ll match you with an expert best suited to handling your academic level, class, and topic. Be safe in the knowledge that we only hire seasoned academics to write papers for you.

How do I choose the best writer to write my paper for me?

You can select a specific expert to deal with your “write my essay” issue or pick a top or pro-level writer. Although either of these options will add to the bottom line, you won’t have to wonder, “Who will write my essay?”. We recommend selecting one of our premium experts for critical assignments that need a special touch to score top grades and improve your class ranking or GPA. Contact our support team to ask, “Can someone write my paper for me with top results?” to learn more about writer options.

How do I know if you’ll make my essay original?

Your every “write my essay” order goes through a plagiarism checker to guarantee originality. After all, our writers know “write my paper” means crafting an original piece from scratch, not rewriting a stale sample found online. But if you want further proof, you’re welcome to order an official plagiarism report with a similarity percentage. All it takes is checking the box in the order form or asking a support agent to add it to the bottom line when you come asking, “I need you to write an essay for me.”

How can I lower the price when ordering an assignment?

Although we keep our online paper help rates as low as possible, you can play around with the order parameters to lower the price. For example, instead of crying, “I need you to write my essay in 12 hours”, set the deadline for two weeks, and your bottom line will be much more affordable. You can also wait for a seasonal promotion with discounts of up to 15% if you’re thinking, “I’m in no hurry to pay someone to write my essay.”

What do I do if you write my paper for me, and I don’t like it?

You can get a revision or a refund, depending on how much your “write my essay for me” order went off track. We know when you pay someone to write your paper you expect the best results, and we strive to follow every instruction to a T when we write a paper for you, but miscommunication can occur. In this case, don’t be shy about requesting a free revision or a new writer to rework your assignment. And if you feel the paper is unsalvageable, you may be liable for a partial or full refund.

How do I know you’ve finished writing my paper?

We’ll notify you via email the moment the writer uploads the first draft for your revision. You can then preview it and approve the piece to download an editable file or get it sent for a revision round with your comments about necessary corrections. Besides, you can always request a progress update from your writer or a support manager. Just ask them, “Any progress since I hired you to write my essay for me?”. As you see, you don’t need to fret, thinking, “How will I know when you write my essay, and it’s ready?”

What are you waiting for?

You are a couple of clicks away from tranquility at an affordable price!

• Plagiarism report. .99
• High priority status .90
• Full text of sources +15%
• 1-Page summary .99
• Initial draft +20%
• Premium writer +.91

Finished Papers

You get wide range of high quality services from our professional team

Deadlines can be scary while writing assignments, but with us, you are sure to feel more confident about both the quality of the draft as well as that of meeting the deadline while we write for you.

Benefits You Get from Our Essay Writer Service.

Typically, our authors write essays, but they can do much more than essays. We also offer admissions help. If you are preparing to apply for college, you can get an admission essay, application letter, cover letter, CV, resume, or personal statement from us. Since we know what the admissions committee wants to see in all these papers, we are able to provide you with a flawless paper for your admission.

You can also get help with business writing from our essay writer online. Turn to us if you need a business plan, business proposal, presentation, press release, sales letter, or any other kind of writing piece for your business, and we will tailor such a paper to your requirements.

If you say, "Do not write an essay for me, just proofread and edit it," we can help, as well. Just provide us with your piece of writing and indicate what exactly you need. We will check your paper and bring it to perfection.

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As we have previously mentioned, we value our writers' time and hard work and therefore require our clients to put some funds on their account balance. The money will be there until you confirm that you are fully satisfied with our work and are ready to pay your paper writer. If you aren't satisfied, we'll make revisions or give you a full refund.

Customer Reviews

From a high school essay to university term paper or even a PHD thesis

Gombos Zoran

Customer Reviews

"Essay - The Challenges of Black Students..."

Customer Reviews

Gustavo Almeida Correia

EssayService strives to deliver high-quality work that satisfies each and every customer, yet at times miscommunications happen and the work needs revisions. Therefore to assure full customer satisfaction we have a 30-day free revisions policy.

Team of Essay Writers

Andre Cardoso

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