There are many different ways to tell a story. You can do it with short fiction, a novel or an essay, in a screenplay for a fiction film or in a documentary. As someone who tends to think in narrative, I’ve used all of these methods. But when it comes to succinctness and elegance, I think a single photograph is my favorite storytelling tool.
I like my photos to work both for people who just take one quick look to appreciate the surface qualities of composition and light, and to reward those who choose to spend more time. I want people to wonder about the people in them and how they fit into their surroundings, or about the people who were once there and have left fascinating traces behind. All are images in some way chronicling eras and aspects of my life from 1990 to today: from school, work and play; from my undergraduate years in Northern California; from my trips across the U.S. and to Spain, Hungary, Cuba, Grenada, and Guatemala; and, of course, of the New York City in which I live. They’re meant to provoke your curiosity about the who and what and why, because what I saw when I took them provoked mine. There’s a story, if not several, in every one.

BETSY NAGLER
August 2024