johannielscom
Snorting silver salts
Simple: Google it.
I did so last week (is this a coincidence?) and found this: http://www.visualstorytelling.com/.
It's not that the information presented at that site is only valid for cartoon drawing, it's equally useful for photographers.
I did so last week (is this a coincidence?) and found this: http://www.visualstorytelling.com/.
It's not that the information presented at that site is only valid for cartoon drawing, it's equally useful for photographers.
Roger Hicks
Veteran
First, as I said before, that's not context: that's content.
Second, how do you know what they are doing, unless they are doing something you recognize? How do you know anything about them? How can you be sure where and when the picture was taken? Suppose you see a picture of ragyapa at work. Most people know very little about ragyapa. If they don't, are they not 'clever'?
And (as I pointed out before) knowledge is not cleverness. Even if you think you know what they are doing and what's going on, there's no guarantee that you do. That is most assuredly not cleverness in my book. It's rather closer to stupidity, or perhaps gullibility. How do you know it isn't (for example) staged propaganda? Historical reconstruction? A vintage-style portrait? A timeless scene?
Cheers,
R.
Sparrow
Veteran
jammcat
Lick My Lens Cap
Let's all just take photographs of our cats with our expensive cameras and exotic glass and forget about all of this story-telling nonsense.
Bob Michaels
nobody special
or better still, go to the Magnum in Motion website and watch the slide show with his narration / description / comments / background sound about it. It is here. This is a clear case where to photos do not even come close to telling the story.
BTW, this is one of my favorite examples of using modern technology to enhance photography. And all the original work was shot LF
Jamie123
Veteran
No, not really true. Words are the medium of storytelling and you can easily tell a 'complete' story with words. They're not always that good at painting a complete picture, though.
Jamie123
Veteran
But that's a book that heavily relies on text to tell the story as it's filled with love letters.
Bob Michaels
nobody special
My next exhibit which will be at the Univ. of Mississippi in Jan - Feb will have 1-3 paragraph mini-stories under each photo rather than short captions. It will be interesting to see the reaction. Here is an example:
This church in Regla, just across the harbor from downtown Havana, serves two religions simultaneously.
This woman could be a Catholic praying to the Blessed Virgin Mary in a church built in 1810 and consecrated by the Archbishop of Havana.
Or, the woman could be Santeria invoking the good will of the spirit Yemayá which is represented as the Virgin of Regla. Santeria, an Afro-Cuban religion, has always physically depicted its orishas or spirits as Catholic saints to avoid problems with the early missionaries.
While the majority of Cubans are of mixed race, the Regla community has a decided bias toward Negro genes. It is almost exclusively Santeria in its religious beliefs.
This woman could be a Catholic praying to the Blessed Virgin Mary in a church built in 1810 and consecrated by the Archbishop of Havana.
Or, the woman could be Santeria invoking the good will of the spirit Yemayá which is represented as the Virgin of Regla. Santeria, an Afro-Cuban religion, has always physically depicted its orishas or spirits as Catholic saints to avoid problems with the early missionaries.
While the majority of Cubans are of mixed race, the Regla community has a decided bias toward Negro genes. It is almost exclusively Santeria in its religious beliefs.
Roger Hicks
Veteran
Well, now we need to start trying to define 'complete' -- just think how few farts are reported, even when (no doubt) they happened -- and we also start getting into signs, symbols and all the paraphernalia of semiotics, before we even start on exegesis.
Cheers,
R.
Roger Hicks
Veteran
Dear Bob,
Without your admirably brief explanation, it would be equally possible to hang half a hundred other stories on the same picture, in dozens of other countries. If I say no, he's lying, it's in North London (or as it might be, suburban Paris) and it's part of a Brazilian wedding, people have to take your word against mine. Personally I'd back your word, because I just made up my 'contexts'.
And, as Sparrow pointed out, what's actually in the picture is content; you supply the context.
Cheers,
R.
dcsang
Canadian & Not A Dentist
Sparrow
Veteran
Jamie123
Veteran
True, we would have to define 'complete' first and, to be honest, I'm not quite sure what it means in this context.
I didn't really mean telling a story in the sense of an account of events that happened. You can tell a simple story with words. Like: A man got up in the morning and got dressed. He went out of the house and was on his way to work when he got hit by a bus." End of story.
Of course that's a very silly story but it is a story nonetheless. Telling that same story with only images and no words would already present a few difficulties.
Anyways my point was just that what Pablito said just doesn't ring true. There are many limitations to the word, especially the written one but saying that words can never tell a story (not a specific one) is like saying that a piano can never play a song.
Viewing and understanding images is informed by one's experiences. Without the proper experiences, the image will be just as foreign as any language you do not understand.
While the image Dennis posted tells me a depressing story that feels familiar, I'll admit that I don't know which war for sure... I can guess (Civil) but I don't know for sure without someone verifying it. For someone in a tribe somewhere who had never seen a photo or knows nothing of our wars, it could just a be a weird photo of a lady and a boy in strange animal skin posing with a piece of strange animal skin in some weird location they've never seen before (a studio).
While the image Dennis posted tells me a depressing story that feels familiar, I'll admit that I don't know which war for sure... I can guess (Civil) but I don't know for sure without someone verifying it. For someone in a tribe somewhere who had never seen a photo or knows nothing of our wars, it could just a be a weird photo of a lady and a boy in strange animal skin posing with a piece of strange animal skin in some weird location they've never seen before (a studio).
ChrisN
Striving
I thought this one told a (short) story well:
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2007535&postcount=842
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2007535&postcount=842
Sparrow
Veteran
... and he would form a better narrative if you spoke to him loudly and clearly in English? ... I think not
Roger Hicks
Veteran
Which Civil War? Irish? Spanish? Definitely not American.
Frances reckons it's WW1. I go for the Second Great Patriotic War (the Russian name for WW2, because the cap looks Russian to me).
And, of course, are we looking at a real widow and semi-orphan, and why was the picture taken? As you say, for most Western observers, we can work out most of the story, or alternatively, one story. But now substitute an obviously Nazi uniform. One partial story is identical (wars leave widows and fatherless children, as they did with both my grandmothers). What other stories are told?
Cheers,
R.
No, so thank you for supporting my point.
There you go... I'm probably supposed to have a better idea, but I didn't. Proves our points as well. The only story a photo can tell is the one that the viewer brings to it based on preconceived notions / experiences (which may or may not be accurate).
Pickett Wilson
Veteran
Most of the time, a photo is just a photo. If a specific interpretation is important to the intent, it needs words attached to it. Otherwise, each viewer is going to read their entire life into it.