While that rule is all well and good for written or spoken tales, does it work when you’re telling a narrative visually? How do you tell a story in a single image?
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
How do you tell a story in a single image?
While that rule is all well and good for written or spoken tales, does it work when you’re telling a narrative visually? How do you tell a story in a single image?
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As someone who works with comics and illustration a lot, I've delved into this and learned about creating story and narrative with image. This article does help to clearly and concisely talk about that, albeit more in terms of photography, but the same ideas can transfer over into visual arts like theater - say the lights come up on a still stage and you need to provide context, or you want to use a symbol that will convey a full story and connotation in a single glance like the emoji example in the text. I do think the connections to emotion are very interesting - to get a full story, there doesn't necessarily have to be literal narrative but an emotional narrative for the viewer. Images like boxed up storefronts with run down signs may bring to mind a narrative of former abundance and success being taken away and an overall mood of loss, which an image of two people on a beach holding hands may make you imagine their relationship and how they came to the beach. I also was fascinated by how the photographer still wrote out his story like a plot, play by play, to get the mood he wants. While ending with a still one-frame image, he goes through the entire story process like a writer, comic artist, or playwright would.
I thought it was interesting how the article contradicted its title. It asks "How do you tell a story in a single image?" But it answers that an image alone cannot tell a story. An image give a glance at a particular moment in time, but the image needs context for the story to have a plot. In film, we tell stories through a series of photos. Old silent films especially resemble a series of stills and less a facsimile of movement. The aesthetic of a photo may remind the viewer of a particular event, feeling, or emotion, but that photo alone does not a story make. The way Jake Green uses photosets to present narratives interests me. In theatre, we do not often have to persuade our audience to sympathize with any one character or group of characters; it's written into the book. Green's use of photography to not only tell stories, but to fight prejudices is something I've never seen before.
I have to disagree with Sydney about the statement that an image needs to have context for the story to have a plot. I believe that the image is the context that advances the plot. There is a difference between people taking a photograph of themselves or a friend to capture a moment and those who take photos to tell the history of the moment. A photographer or photojournalist tells stories through a single image and that lone image can, while telling the main story can also tell a host of other stories. Take for instance the photo titled “Unknown Rebel” by Jeff Widener. The photo, of a lone protester staring down the barrel of a tank, is a story within a greater story. What are the thoughts going through the head of the protestor? Or the tank operator? Or bystanders? How about the photo of Ronald Reagan at the Berlin Gate in 1987 as he proclaims “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”? The photo captures a moment but tells a story. These photos have characters, they have context, they have plot, they have story and they are single images. I also disagree in that you do have to persuade the audience to sympathize with your character and that it is not always written in the book. In the Phantom of the Opera, it’s not written into the script (and nor should it be) for the phantom to portray his character to get sympathy. The audience sympathizes with the Phantom through the way the actor tells the story of the character. We feel pain for the Phantom at the end. That doesn’t come from the script, it comes from the skill of the actor to connect with the audience. The skilled photographer does the same thing.
I took photography classes throughout high school. The biggest question that a photographer has to wrestle with as they take photos is “what is my story.” I will never look at stock photo images the same now that I have studied the art of photography. What makes a compelling visual story is one that is an image that only YOU can take. That’s the power of photography. In high school my muse was my little brother. We didn’t always see eye to eye, but when I brought out my camera, we got along. It was a way we bonded and a way I learned how to tell my story through my lens - an extension of my eyes. Whether someone is looking at a Guess advertisement or an REI advertisement - every image is connected to a story. The most successful advertisements that have stories that make you think about what isn’t apart of the image. Visual imagery is a huge part of our society and it’s important to recognize the power of storytelling through still and moving imagery.
As artists, telling a story is essentially our jobs. As such, the concept of telling a story in a single image is incredibly intriguing to me. In my freshman year of high school, I took a graphic arts class, in which I learned that any composition I created had a number of qualities that told a story in a certain way. If I used a serifed typeface, it signified a formality, while curves lend an organic quality to the piece. Consequently, every element of design changes the story our compositions tell. A designer can play with elements like line, shape, form, color, scale, and more to change the story he or she tells, just as a graphic artist can change a typeface or other elements within his or her composition to change the story he or she tells.
I found this article interesting, but there was one line in it that really resonated with me; “There’s a lot of creativity found in that tension between what’s held sacred and what’s profane.”. I think this is a really important factor to consider when making art. I believe that art is here to be used to make a statement. Sometimes those statements can be bold and bushing the boundaries. One of my favorite quotes is “art is made to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed”. This quote captures that fact that art can make you uncomfortable but it can start a dialogue about things that need to be discussed. That being said, there is a line when art goes from making a statement to being profane or stepping over the line. That is a very blurry line sometimes and as artist its out job to push that line, step over it occasionally if absolutely necessary, and then not cross it. A single image can say a lot, but you want it to say the right thing and to have the intended impact on an audience and in order to do that the artist has to be conscious about that imaginary line between making a statement and being outright profane.
I feel as though advances regarding social networks and the internet as a medium through which to communicate has really spurred cultures everywhere to adopt more visual - and subsequently, universal - means of communicating. More and more, content is finding ways to cross conventional language barriers, and thus images are finding greater use and value than words in some circumstances. I think this contemplation of narrative within an image raises several critical questions about how a story is not only relayed, but also how it can be perceived. With images being used as a method of communication more frequently, and the capacity to edit photos increasingly accessible, the need to consider the potential narratives a given image relays is more vital than ever before. Imagistic renderings are a pervasive part of our culture, transcending art and becoming a staple of any given person's everyday life. In this vein, their construction needs to be considered more thoroughly, examining both what is inside - and excluded from - any given frame.
I connected this article on many different levels, particularly “No matter how complete or comprehensive a narrative appears it will always be the product of including some elements and excluding others”. That ring true both within life and all storytelling. I really like the idea that all narrative is inherently about exclusion vs inclusion. In particular, this relates directly relates to framing an image. As the inclusion or exclusion of any object, can change the narrative of a single image. A single frame is the most challenging form of storytelling, as it is the most restrictive. While not all images tell a clear story, but I am fascinated by how much a single image convey even within the restricted medium. In turn, as someone who wants to be a designer, I find this challenge equally translates to design when thinking about what imagery to associate with a place or a person.
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