Powerful images send emotional messages – even when no words are expressed. Humans carry the unique capability to share and demonstrate emotions, so capturing striking emotions through photography always has a tendency to strongly draw an audience in. If you are a photographer interested in taking emotional or emotive photographs, whether for your own use or as part of a design for posters, booklet printing, or a website, the following collection may help provide you with some ideas. These photos include images that capture a broad range of emotions from anger to fear to pain and joy.

What are the elements of each shot that make it so powerful? Is it the subject or the surroundings? How does the color treatment of the photo help or hurt the effect? What emotion do you believe the photographer is attempting to convey? Do you think that these emotions are strongly dependent upon culture? These questions and others are important to ask yourself as you study these images.

Levi by Jeremy Cowart

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Regret by Mohsen Daemi

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Broken by Roby Bon

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Bird’s Story by Jess Ika

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n.e. by Aria Baro

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Facing fear by Ben Spurgeon

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Monsters by Rudolf Brosztl

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Vas by Kandaeva Anastasiia

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the long awaited big encounter by Lirca Lucian

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Seclusion by Yulia Cosmos

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As short as a kiss by Roby Bon

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Joey by Beth Armsheimer

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The secret life of children by Amanda Lucier

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Shelter by Abir Abdullah

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Riot in the city by Son Nguyen

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Memorial by Susan Meiselas

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Prisoner by Mein Klown

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Sorrow by Mein Klown

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Representation of heartache by Carlina

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Emotive 001 by Cheyenne Ralphs

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Loneliness by Oliver Kuka

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Emotive portrait of the girl 2 by Albert-Smirnov

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Crime Scene – The Hanging by Lara Jade

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Window by Andrei Nica

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Mia by Lara Jade

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Rough Hands by Lara Jade

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David Duchovny by Jason Bell

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Rhys Ifans by John Rankin Waddell

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Dreamer by Inga Ivanova

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