The Man Who Was Not in the Photograph
One frame, taken from a train window outside Lausanne. The story is standing a metre to the left of it.
An image-led piece opens differently: the photograph has already done the work of the first paragraph, so the text begins after the scene rather than inside it. This sentence is where the reader’s eye lands second, and it should reward the picture rather than describe it.
The second paragraph names what is outside the frame. That is the entire format — not what the photograph shows, but the thing the writer chose not to include, and why the choice was made in the quarter of a second available.Source: PaidCHF 29, a half-fare regional ticket
The third paragraph is the shortest in the piece. It is the turn.
What the frame leaves out is the only part I chose.
A closing paragraph, four or five sentences, which lets the photograph mean something slightly different on a second look than it did on the first. The reader is expected to scroll back up. That is the only interaction this format asks for, and it works better without a caption explaining it.
If this changed something for you, tell me. I read every one, and I answer.