STORY: What is your story?

What is a story?

A story is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional or fictional. Narratives can be presented through a sequence of written or spoken words, through still or moving images, or through any combination of these.

Stories can be described in:

• 3 words
• A sentence:
• A paragraph

NARRATIVE: How will you tell your story?

• Images > new photographic responses, photo-shoots
• Archives > old photos from family albums, iPhone 
• Texts > letters, documents, poems, text messages

What does narrative mean?

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 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 or photobook.

It is also essential that you identity what your story is first before considering how you wish to tell it. Planning and research are also essential to understanding your subject and there are steps you can take in order to make it successful.

There are many different types of narratives such as:

• Linear Narrative = A linear narrative presents the events of the story in the order in which they actually happened.
• Non-linear Narrative = presents the events of the story out of order, employing flashbacks and other literary devices to shift the chronology of a story.
• Quest Narrative = a story in which the protagonist works tirelessly toward a goal.
•  Viewpoint Narrative = designed to express the points of view or subjective personal experience of the main character or other fictional characters in the story.

Other examples of narratives:

• Descriptive narrative = Descriptive narrative connects imagery, ideas, and details to convey a sense of time and place. They are used to create a sense of setting, of time and place and convey the mood and tone of said time and place (e.g. threatening, peaceful, cheerful, chaotic).
• Viewpoint narrative = Viewpoint narrative presents events or scenes to us so that we see understand them through narrators’ feelings, desires, beliefs or values.
• Historical narrative = Narration shows sequence of past events, cause and effect.

AUDIENCE: Who is it for?

Most image makers tend to overlook the experience of the viewer. Considering who your audience is and how they may engage with your photo-zine is important factor when you are designing/ making it.

• Reflect and comment on this in your specification (age group, demographic, social/ cultural background etc.)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

STILL LIFE HISTORY

There are various types of still life paintings, which are referred to as “pieces” and fall within the following categories: “flowers”, “banquet or breakfast”, “animal”, and “symbolic”. Within the symbolic category, we also see the popular Vanitas Still Life, which made use of various objects to convey a deeper message about life and death.

Modern Still Life prevailed during art movements like Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Notably, during Post-Impressionism, Vincent van Gogh brought Still Life painting to life with his expressive and flower and vase paintings. An example of this includes his piece, Sunflowers (1889).

A French artist from Post-Impressionism, Paul Cézanne, painted Still Life’s with fruit, bread, bottles, and baskets atop a seemingly toppling table, as in The Basket of Apples (c. 1895). The difference between these paintings and the more realistic Dutch Still Life paintings was that these modern artists used more expressive brushstrokes, colours, and different perspectives.

• 

• 

• 

Still life derives from the Dutch word stilleven, coined in the 17th century when paintings of objects enjoyed immense popularity throughout Europe. The impetus for this term came as artists created compositions of greater complexity, bringing together a wider variety of objects to communicate allegorical meanings.

Still life has come to serve, like landscape or portraiture, as a category within art. Although it typically refers to depictions of inanimate things, because it incorporates a vast array of influences from different cultures and periods in history, it has always resisted precise definition.

Still life featured prominently in the experiments of photography inventors Jacques-Louis-Mandé Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot. They did this in part, for practical reasons: the exceptionally long exposure times of their processes precluded the use of living models.

Several decades into the twentieth-century, the American artist Man Ray emerged as a pioneer of two European art movements, Dada and Surrealism, in which the element of surprise figured prominently. This image seems both unusual for Man Ray in its apparent straight-forward approach, but also typical in its somewhat dark emotional tone.

Still life

Still life, as a particular genre, began with Netherlandish painting of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the English term still life derives from the Dutch word still even. Early still-life paintings, particularly before 1700, often contained religious and allegorical symbolism relating to the objects depicted.

Still life has captured the imagination of photographers from the early 19th century to the present day. It is a tradition full of lavish, exotic and sometimes dark arrangements, rich with symbolic depth and meaning. One of the main preoccupations among those living in the 16th and 17th centuries was the brevity of life and its fragility. Still life paintings of this period are more commonly referred to as ‘vanitas’.

History

Still life has captured the imagination of photographers from the early 19th century to the present day. It is a tradition full of lavish, the first still life work was by the Italian painter Jacopo de’Barbari painted in 1504.

Still life, as a particular genre, began with Netherlandish painting of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the English term still life derives from the Dutch word still even. Early still-life paintings, particularly before 1700, often contained religious and allegorical symbolism relating to the objects depicted. In the early days of photography long exposures were required to take a picture. Still life made an ideal subject because the inanimate objects did not move during the process. 

Analysis

The vocal point for this image is the skull leaning on the piano notes, the image then leads towards the left leading your eyes around the painting analysing the small aspects and details. You can depict this painting with the historical background, the 15th century being a very controversial century with many historical artefacts.

Still life is viewed as a historic art form in the world of contemporary painting, has been kept very much alive in historic and contemporary.