What speechwriters can learn from photography

The industry now refers to me as a serious amateur, which means I shoot a lot. (This fall, I’m shooting a lot of football and clicking away upward of 1,700 shots a week, for instance.) It also means I try to pay attention to what’s happening in the photo world.

Rarely do the worlds of photography and speechwriting mix. That’s why I was so pleased when I recently heard a photographer—on the radio—talk about a subject that resonated deeply with me as a speechwriter.

The story was on NPR’s All Things Considered. Michele Norris was interviewing Steve Liss, a project director for Americanpoverty.org, which is a collection of photographers who are trying to capture the face of poverty in America today. ( Link to the interview transcript .)

Norris asked what role photography played in getting this story in front of people.