the recipe
I believe that to tell a compelling and emotive story in pictures you need only four key ingredients.
ALL IMAGES ON THIS SITE WERE TAKEN ON AN iPHONE

Something that establishes the story and it's context. It's context being it's geographical place in the world and maybe anchoring it in a period in time. It may also set the mood, the tone and/or a genre.

This is the Portrait. We could call them the protagonist or the hero. It establishes who the main character is. It's who's eyes and point of view we will see the story through.
Objects are really Details. They can be seen as still lifes. They are not always objects but often are. Seemingly insignificant but actually very telling. They give us clues to the hero and the situation they find themselves in.

This is Action. We could call this the motion, the conflict or the hero’s call. It can be movement, maybe frozen or blurred. But it can also be emotional. It can be something that changes the protagonist. That moves them and the story forward.