A photo-essay is a set or series of photograph

Photograph

A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...

s that are intended to tell a story or evoke a series of emotion

Emotion

Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...

s in the viewer. A photo essay will often show pictures in deep emotional stages. Photo essays range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small notes to full text essay

Essay

An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...

s with a few or many accompanying photographs. Photo essays can be sequential in nature, intended to be viewed in a particular order, or they may consist of non-ordered photographs which may be viewed all at once or in an order chosen by the viewer. People who have undertaken photo essays include Bruce Davidson

Bruce Davidson (photographer)

Bruce Davidson is an American photographer. He has been a member of Magnum agency since 1958. His photographs, notably those taken in Harlem, New York City, have been widely exhibited and published in a number of books.-Youth:Bruce Davidson was born to a single mother, who worked in a factory...

, W. Eugene Smith

W. Eugene Smith

William Eugene Smith was an American photojournalist known for his refusal to compromise professional standards and his brutally vivid World War II photographs.- Life and work :...

, Walker Evans

Walker Evans

Walker Evans was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans's work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8x10-inch camera...

, David Alan Harvey

David Alan Harvey

David Alan Harvey is an American photographer. He has been a full member of the prestigious photographic collective Magnum Photos since 1997. He has photographed over 40 articles for National Geographic magazine, and in 1978 was named Magazine Photographer of the Year by the National Press...

, and Andre Kertesz.

• An article in a publication, sometimes a full page or a two-page spread
  Two-page spread
  In page layout and typography, a spread is the unit formed by two adjacent, facing pages in a magazine or other publication, featuring a single image or a themed group of images...
  
  . Newspapers and news magazines often have multi-page photo essays about significant events, both good and bad, such as a sports championship or a national disaster.
• A book or other complete publication.
• A web page or portion of a web site.
• A single montage
  Photomontage
  Photomontage is the process and result of making a composite photograph by cutting and joining a number of other photographs. The composite picture was sometimes photographed so that the final image is converted back into a seamless photographic print. A similar method, although one that does not...
  
   or collage
  Collage
  A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
  
   of photographic images, with text or other additions, intended to be viewed both as a whole and as individual photographs. Such a work may also fall in the category of mixed media
  Mixed media
  Mixed media, in visual art, refers to an artwork in the making of which more than one medium has been employed.There is an important distinction between "mixed-media" artworks and "multimedia art". Mixed media tends to refer to a work of visual art that combines various traditionally distinct...
  
  .
• An art show which is staged at a particular time and location. Some such shows also fall in the category of installation art
  Installation art
  Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
  
  .
• A slide show or similar presentation, possibly with spoken text, which could be delivered on slides, on DVD, or on a web site.
• In fashion publishing especially, a photo-editorial – an editorial
  Editorial
  An opinion piece is an article, published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.-Editorials:...
  
  -style article dominated by or entirely consisting of a series of thematic photographs