We’ve been posting a series of blogs on using photographs and stories in presentations. After all this time, it seems like its time to reveal to you why these blog posts are so important to us. 
Our exploration of the many stories that can be evoked by a single photo comes from our belief in the power of stories and photos to elevate a presentation. We believe, based on the viewing of hundreds of text-only, just-the-facts presentations, that many people underestimate the power of images and story.
As Lucia and I have proved to ourselves and I hope to you, there is a vast richness of meaning in every photo. Because Lucia takes the photos, she has a clear idea of the before and after of each image. She can’t forget that and that colors the story she tells about the photo. I come “clean” to the image without any idea of what happened before or after Lucia pressed the shutter or even why she took the photo. And meaning I take from the photos is different because I don’t know the actual circumstances.
The remarkable thing about using images in your presentation is that every person in your audience will make a personal connection to that image. Of course everything about your presentation – color, font, bulleted lists – will affect every member of your audience differently, but your images make a strong and personal connection.
The reaction to or interaction with a photo is dependent upon who you are, where you are in your life journey, your current mood, your past and present relationship to the places, people or things in the image. If a photo can take you to a personal place, open up a memory, you, as a presenter, have made a powerful connection. A heads up: please don’t use trite, overworked and cliched stock photos. A posed image isn’t evocative. It’s just a disconnect.
Second, we want to show the power of a photo to leave an idea in your audience’s memory. Since most people have many things they need to remember and do, the chances of your presentation sticking for any time after you’ve finished is slim. In fact, most presentations aren’t remembered after one day.
Here are two examples of images that made ideas stick in my memory. The social scientist Amy Cuddy used an image in her TED talk about how power is conveyed and reacted to by showing a photo of a powerful woman towering over a subdued man. It was unusual because the normal man/woman power status was tipped on its head, and it was funny because the man truly did look intimidated. In another instance a realtor talked about the investment market showing a horrific head-on image of a grinning shark. She used this image to reinforce her belief that the wealthy investors (the sharks) were no longer in the market, freeing up the smaller fish to make purchases. If you’ve ever felt powerless against the powerful, that image would encourage you to believe that you were safe to try. Images – whether funny or shocking – have the power to stick and to help cement the speaker’s message into memory.
