Gestures

I was introduced to Jay Maisel's concept of using gestures to give a sense of essence to a photo.

 

In his book, Light, Gesture & Color, Maisel states that of the three, gesture is the only one capable of carrying a narrative. He uses the word “gesture” as the “expression that is at the very heart of everything we shoot.”

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Maisel believes that gesture is “not just the determined look on a face; it’s not just the grace of a dancer or athlete…It exists in a leaf, a tree, and a forest. It reveals the complicated veins of the leaf, the delta-like branches of the tree, and when seen from the air, the beautiful texture of the forest. Gesture gives you a visual story of the essence of what you are looking at.