NARRATIVE is essentially the way a story is told. For example you can tell different narratives of the same story. It is a very subjective process and there is no right or wrong. Whether or not your photographic story is any good is another matter. Narrative is constructed when you begin to create relationships between images (and/or text) and present more than two images together. Your selection of images (editing) and the order of how these images appear on the pages (sequencing) contributes significantly to the construction of the narrative. So too, does the structure and design of the photo-zine. However, it is essential that you identity what your story is first before considering how you wish to tell it.
Once you have considered the points made between the differences in narrative and story, write the following:
The difference between narrative and a story is the sequence in which it’s told. A story can be completely changed through its narrative
STORY: What is your migrant community story?
Describe in:
3 words
Family, Homesickness, Jersey
A sentence
We moved to Jersey to be with family.
A paragraph
I moved to Jersey as a baby. My mum was born here but had moved to the England for school where she met my dad, settled down, and had me. When I was one my parents decided to move back to Jersey so my mum could be with her family and raise their own family there as it was a good place to grow up.
NARRATIVE: How will you tell your story?
Images > new photographic responses, photo-shoots
Archives > images from SJ photo-archive, family album, mobile
Texts > letters, documents, poems, text messages
AUDIENCE: Who is it for?
Reflect and comment on this in your specification (age group, demographic, social/ cultural background etc.
Think about visual relationship between images and their juxtaposition e.g colour, shapes, subject, repetition, landscape, portrait, objects, details etc.
Here is an example of how narrative is used. We were giving as selection of photos which we sequenced to create a narrative story on the theme of war
