Richard Bernabe
PHOTOSNACK #848
I regularly contact photographers featured on PHOTOSNACK and ask them to share their spontaneous thoughts, observations, reflections, or advice.
Today, I am sharing the message I received from Richard Bernabe.
Richard Bernabe
Mystery: The Photographer’s Secret Weapon
There’s a paradox at the heart of great photography: what you choose not to show is often more powerful than what you reveal. In an age of oversharing and instant gratification, mystery has become the photographer’s most undervalued tool. The unseen, the suggested, and the ambiguous can transform a literal photograph into an expressive one that haunts us long after we’ve looked away.
Human beings are hardwired to complete incomplete patterns. When we encounter mystery in a photograph, whether it’s an animal partially hidden in grass, a doorway opening into darkness, or a trail disappearing over the horizon, we lean in closer. We linger. We construct visual narratives to fill in what’s missing. An image that explains everything might provide immediate gratification, but it’s also likely to be forgotten as quickly as it was understood.
Photography inherited the use of mystery from centuries of artistic wisdom. Hemingway’s iceberg theory held that deeper meaning should remain hidden beneath the surface. The Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile has captivated viewers for five centuries because it can never be fully understood. The shark in Jaws is terrifying partly because we see it so rarely. Music understands that silence creates meaning. The pauses between notes and the unresolved chord generate resonance that full resolution never could.
Hiding or withholding parts of a scene taps into a primal impulse: our need to complete what’s missing. The human mind assigns more weight to the unknown than to the known. This is why a partially hidden lion in the grass feels more chilling than one standing in clear sight. When a photograph suggests rather than declares, the viewer draws upon their own emotional reservoir to complete the story. The phantom bear living in the viewer’s imagination endures far longer than any portrait of the bear itself could.
Ambiguity is mystery’s closest cousin. A leopard staring beyond the frame might evoke superiority or fear, hunger, or threat. These possibilities transform the viewer from a passive observer into an active co-creator, bringing their own experiences and desires to the image. That collaboration is what gives ambiguous images their true staying power.
Creating mystery means exercising tools you likely already possess: shadows, negative space, shallow depth of field, partial framing, backlighting, fog, and rain. The decisive moment works precisely because it asks more questions than it answers.
The need for mystery has grown more urgent in the age of AI-generated imagery. What AI cannot possess is mystery itself, a signature of human intentionality and evidence that deliberate choices were made about what to reveal and what to hide.
The images that truly stay with us are mysterious and remain slightly out of reach. That is where photography transcends documentation and becomes art.
Richard Bernabe was featured in PHOTOSNACK #825.
Through Sunday Editions, I occasionally connect you with photographers whose work you previously explored through PHOTOSNACK.
I want to reveal some authentic parts of the people behind the cameras. I don't ask them any specific questions. I ask them to share whatever comes to mind when they think about YOU, the newsletter readers. It makes their responses genuine and personal.
Until next time,
Tomasz