There’s something interesting that happens when you take a face out of a photo. At first, it feels like you’re losing the subject, but often times, there’s more of a revelation happening. When there’s no expression to read, your eye starts to look elsewhere, and you start to notice that there’s expresssion in hands, in movement, in objects, texture, and environment, and for photos, that not only be visually interesting, but also very useful.

I’ve collected a selection of images from past shoots to share here where you don’t see a full face, but you can see that you still gain so much visually from the image. You can see a pocast mic being held mid-episode, notes being scribbled, ingredients being prepped, collaborations, calculations, thoughts taking shape, tools of the trade.

Strong brand imagery isn’t always about showing your face. When you show what it feels like to work with you, learn from you, or be inside your world, that holds so much clarity and story.

But even after all that, there’s still a practical side. If every image in your gallery is one of you looking straight at the camera, you’d find you start to run out of places to actually use those photos. If you think about website design, what image will go on your contact page? What sits behind the text on your services page? What image works as a banner without competing with the classic headshot just below it in your about section? There are some sections where the image needs to give the rest of the design a chance to breathe. That’s where these kinds of photos come in.

Framing without faces gives you more of a variety of images that are flexible and that can live anywhere on your site without feeling repetitive or overwhelming. These types of images fill in the gaps and give your gallery flavor. They allow your story to unfold in more ways than one, and sometimes, they’re the images you end up using the most.

Denise Karis is an Arizona brand photographer who enjoys cooking, theater, and a good time travel movie. IG @denisekaris