Narrative

Narrative

a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious.

www.dictionary.com

Example:

Once upon a time there was a group of A level students … they all worked very hard … they all achieved grade ‘A’ and lived happily ever after!

This literary narrative describes a simple sequence of events (in this case completely fictional!)

A Narrative describes events (real or fictitious) which happen over some period of time (it has a temporal quality). Narrative means pretty much the same as the word ‘story’.

In the 1890s Jacob Riis was one of the first photographers to document the story of the New York poor. The narrative was one of squalor and deprivation, reproduced in his photo essay How the other half lives.

Note that these images could be presented in various orders – they need not follow a specific sequential order to convey the story.

Picture magazines become popular during the 20th century

Stories (narratives) were told using series of images rather than text as the primary conveyor of meaning.

Picture Post Magazine, c.1940

Life magazine Covers

Can you spot a famous film director in one?

In the 1930s America was in an economic ‘depression’.

Dorothea Lange and several other photographers produced photo essays, each consisting of several photographs to publicise the lives of the many poor farm workers.

Today’s photo magazines such as Hello tell stories about celebrities and their exciting lives (yawn).

Bayeux Tapestry

Commemorating the Battle of Hastings, 1066

Narratives which use images to tell the story are not a new idea.

Text (written words) can be used to direct or ‘anchor’ the meaning of an image or a group of images.

What narrative might these images be telling?

Cartoons often use text to help the narrative along.

Cartoons are an example of linear narrative – the story must be ‘read’ in a specific order.

Tony Ray Jones

A single image conveys information and meaning, but any narrative will usually be relatively short.

Why might this be?

Artist Barbara Kruger uses text to direct the meaning of her images, often in a counter-intuitive or subversive way.

What is the meaning of this image?

Edweard Muybridge

When photographs are taken at short intervals and then displayed quickly one after another, they can create the illusion of movement.

This effect is used to create moving narratives, called cinematic films.

Cinema - Capturing a story

Many movie films start with a wide or high viewpoint opening shot to set the scene. The camera then moves steadily closer to isolate a single street, building, and then finally a single person. This helps give the viewer a sense of the place or location which the character inhabits.

Example: The beginning of the film Forrest Gump, Robert Zemeckis (Director), 1994

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7voy1vit6Y

Stories created from still images often use the same technique.

Many photo stories include the following four different types of image:

1. Establish the scene shot(s)2. Action Image(s) – what is happening3. Portrait(s) – the people involved in the story4. Detail Image(s)

To achieve all 4 types the photographer must move around, in and out of the action or events taking place.

Note: not all photo essays/stories include all 4 types, but many picture editors will still expect to see them!

Four images from a short photo story entitled The Journey

Which of the four categories do each belong to?

Keith Arnett,

Self Burial, 1969

This is a very famous artwork consisting of 9 photographic images describing what is apparently a simple narrative.

What is the story?

Duane Michaels, Cavafy cheats playing strip poker, 2004

Duane Michaels, Paradise Regained, 1968

Advertising

Advertisements not only inform us about a product (documentary content), they are designed to make us want to purchase the product.

Advertising must often use a single image to convey the narrative … not always easy and certainly not as easy as the photo essays consisting of many images!

What product might this image be ‘selling’?

What is the narrative or story?

Why does it work as an advertisement?

This is an advert.

What is the story here?

Try to discover the intended narrative for the following single image advertisements.

Editing a photo story

Editing images to make a photo story sounds easy, but is often very difficult.

1. Display the images as thumbnails or contact sheets.

2. Mark, note or rank those images which are visually the most interesting or informative.

3. Hide the other images from view

4. Now try placing the selected images in different sequences in a variety of ways to explore possible narratives.

5. Once a rough sequence is decided upon you may need to add other ‘linking images’ from your first rejects, or remove any image which contradicts the narrative which you have decided to communicate.

6. Crop any images if required and produce the final edit.

Assignment

1. Create at least 20 images of an imaginary film or event.

2. Try to include photographs from all the four categories (establishing scene, action, portrait, detail).

AFTER CONTACT PRINTING AND DIGITAL PROCESSING (or view of thumbnails):

3. Edit the sequence and produce a final edit of 4 to 8 images.

4. Title the photo essay/film stills and display the photographs as if they were printed in a photo magazine of A4 size.

5. If you choose to caption your images you should keep the captions brief. (Only caption images if you decide this is necessary to help direct or anchor the meaning).