In his TedTalk named “Photographing the Hidden Story”, Ryan Lobo shares stories of his experiences as a photographer in various parts of the world. He asserts that the power of storytelling lies in focusing on what is heroic, beautiful and dignified regardless of the context, which helps magnify the intangibles and feelings in the protagonist of the story, in the audience and also in the storyteller. A storyteller should therefore focus on what is dignified, courageous and beautiful.
His travel has exposed him to different parts of the world. He has seen both the worst side and the best side of the human psyche. He has been to war zones and in the slums as a photographer and tells of his experiences there. After coming back from the war zones and knowing the dangers and fears on a battlefield, he felt isolated from his peers who in his own words “spent more on a drink than they paid their 14 years old maid”. This led to self-examination and realized he had compromised himself as a storyteller, where context was used to avoid responsibility.
Compassionate storytelling involves not just recording the story but living the story and being able to bring out the human element in the story. He talks of the need for a storyteller to focus on the truth and the dignified to change themselves as well as others. He believes in the medium of storytelling should be used to communicate and resonate with both the storyteller and in others in a positive way. This is something every storyteller should focus on and not profits, ratings and other things that get in the true objective of storytelling.