Displaying emotions is the key to nonverbal communication among both humans and animals. People often behave in certain ways as a direct result of their emotional state, such as crying, fighting or fleeing depending on their state of mind, and emotional displays also form the foundation for human society. In photography, the capturing of true emotion is what photographers strive for when it comes to photographing people. However, as any actor or actress will tell you, displaying emotion in a staged scene can be quite difficult.

The beauty of emotion is that it is often subtle and is natural, however, cameras tend to affect the behavior of models, so the challenge for a photographer is to draw out the true emotion from a scene. In an episode of the popular medical show House M.D., the photographer who is being treated at the hospital is asked about her photography and how she manages to capture emotion, to which she replies: “I just keep shooting until I can see what’s really inside of them.”

Here, you’ll find inspiring and emotional portrait photographs that range from subtle to overt in emotional display.

A whiter shade of pale by Felicia Simion

Bluesman (Alex Dolgov) by Dmitry “Lukas”

Snow queen by Geoffrey Jones

Depressive Thoughts by Piotr Kaniewski

Sad Clown by Anthony Grahl

Breath by Tertius alio

Under the Red Hood by Benedict Gacutan

*** by Igor Xrenov

Georgy by Anton Ivanov

lauf by Marija Heinecke

you ain’t nothing but trouble by Holger van Dreumel

simplicity with innocence by Jubayer Suhan

Memoirs of The Red Riding hood by Kristian Leprozo

your own title by christian setiawan

Piercing by Melissa Alicia

Anger by Andy T

Intimate by xomi

emotion by Olga Borovskykh

warmth by piet flour

ann by Kandaeva Anastasiia

Lt. Speirs by Gabor Dvornik