The Photograph as Storyteller (Page 3): A single question: Which story is true?

Rongnongno Loc: FL

RobertAltman wrote:

.../...On more than one occasion, I've cropped the same photo differently to tell different stories. .../...

A single question:

Which story is true?

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

    " ... photography has never been successful at narrative. It has in
    fact seldom attempted it." 

    "... the thing that happens at the decisive moment is not a dramatic
    climax but a visual one. The result is not a story, but a picture."

     -- John Szarkowski, in "The Photographer's Eye", 1966, based on his
        1964 Museum of Modern Art exhibit of the same name

    "They're mute, they don't have any narrative ability at all,  you know
    what something looked like, but you don't know what's happening ...
    There isn't a photograph in the world that has any  narrative ability,
    any of them."

    "They do not tell stories, they show you what something looks like,
    through a camera."

      -- Garry Winogrand, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQhZcKzbM9s 

For those who aren't familiar with the names. Winogrand is probably the most influential Street Photographer of the 20th century. Szarkowski was the Director of Photography at the NY Museum of Modern Art for 30 years. The point being that arguing they don't know what they are talking about suggests a person is very ill informed.

The most significant issue though is just exactly what constitutes a "story"? Every dictionary will define "story" in terms of a history, an account of, or a narrative explaining multiple events or happenings; it is a narrative. And a narrative is the same. Here is the definition from the Oxford dictionary at https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/narrative

Narrative
1 A spoken or written account of connected events; a story:

The simple fact is that 1 single photograph just shows you the things that were there, and does not tell a story because it cannot tell what has or what will happen. It shows a short interval of time, but does not show what is happening. No narrative, and no story.

Not that many people don't quickly produce a story when viewing a photograph! They do, but they produce it from their own memories, not from the photograph that triggers the memories.

Darkroom317 Loc: Mishawaka, IN

Apaflo wrote:

code br " ... photography has never bee... (show quote)

I would conclude as well that a photograph is a glimpse of a moment of a story but incomplete in tellings perhaps a full story. Thanks you for digging up Winogrands exact quote as well as Szarkowski's.

Of course the viewer thrusts their own interpretation up on image as to what is going on in said image.

I'm curious what you think about photographers that attempt to create narratives based on a glimpse of a situation such as Gregory Crewdson or better yet, going further back from his work, the painter Edward Hopper. Do you think that these works offer at least a clear glimpse of a larger unknown story, perhaps more so than other artists?

To me their works gets at a larger narrative, saying more about our culture overall than any of the individual characters. Therefore, to me an exhibition of their work does not tell a story in the same way that a novel does with a set cast of characters and an overall story arc.

I would say that on the definition of narrative, we used this word in the visual art world so often perhaps because it is the only one our language has available to describe what is occurring, whether accurate or not.

jaysnave Loc: Central Ohio

This is a very interesting discussion. It seems that whether a picture tells a story (to quote Rod Stewart) or not depends on the definition of "story" as it pertains to the individual viewer of a photograph. I prepared cost proposals for many years and the executives always wanted to see it in "story" form. To them, collections of numbers, charts, and graphs which guided the viewer to a conclusion was a story. This is just an example that if the viewer of anything is story oriented they will see a story. Maybe it is a remembrance of a past story such as a wedding day or the image will invoke the viewer to create their own story. Some say the reason that the Mona Lisa has been so popular is that people have been viewing the image and imagining her story. Is that a smile and what is she smiling about? Who was she?

There is no right answer here other than photos make us feel things and often invoke emotional reactions which sometimes lead to a story and people love stories. Regardless, I have been sitting on the fence but thanks to this post I have decided to to ahead and register for a local workshop untitled "Storytelling with Photographs". It involves assignments which are critiqued and I need some challenges.

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

Do photographic images tell stories? Stories about places, eras, times of day, social customs, leadership, courage, love, people by themselves, people interacting with others, events great or very small, flowers, trees, animals, birds, insects - stories about our universe and our role within it - of course they do!

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

rjaywallace wrote:

Do photographic images tell stories? Stories about places, eras, times of day, social customs, leadership, courage, love, people by themselves, people interacting with others, events great or very small, flowers, trees, animals, birds, insects - stories about our universe and our role within it - of course they do!

Individual images tell no stories. They cannot show what is happening, only what is there.

However, any two or more images such as an exhibition can and often do tell a story. It is not whether photographs can tell a story, but specificly if a single photograph can tell a story.

Also note that photography specifically is a means of commuication, somewhat similar to written text. Composing a pbotograph is much the same as composing a paragraph of text, except there is no tense to indicate the temporal distinctions needed for a narrative.

tdekany Loc: Oregon

Apaflo wrote:

Individual images tell no stories.

What ever you are smoking up there, you should stop.

Photocraig

Linda From Maine wrote:

Absolutely! I use the term often, and if you need ... (show quote)

Linda,
Then, I suppose, critics are saying the concept of "Pre-Visualization" is outside the realm of "thinking." Sparrow Farts!

tdekany Loc: Oregon

rdgreenwood wrote:

Earlier this week I posted a photo and asked what people thought the story was. I wasn't feeling well, the result of an "airliner cold," but I thought some banter about a light-hearted photo might perk me up. Well, let me tell you, in short order someone posted a rather splenetic response, informing me that photos don't tell stories. Not wanting to throw cold water on the conversation, I responded that I didn't agree but the person was entitled to his opinion.

Not good enough! The writer wrote back, citing sources and broadening his argument in an attempt to completely discredit the notion that a photo could tell a story. As I said, I wasn't feeling well, so I wrote it off as the rantings of some sparrow-fart (a nod to Kurt Vonnegut for that descriptor) and tried to put it behind me.

But it nagged at me. I thought of the photo of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square at the end of WWII, the Vietnamese girl running naked with festering burns caused by napalm, the recent photo of the Syrian child sitting bloodied and dazed in an ambulance. (I'm betting that every one of you knows exactly what photos I've just listed.) And I asked myself, "If those images aren't telling a story, then why have they become iconic?"

Then, on Tuesday evening, I attended my camera club meeting, and half of the meeting was dedicated to a "member critique," in which a panel of three of our better photographers sat and commented on images that members had submitted for evaluation. It's a really nice event, and everyone learns from it, whether they agree or disagree with the comments. And it happened: over and over, the panel members included an assessment of the photos' story-telling quality. Over and over, I heard, "This image tells a (You insert the adjective) story." Over and over, the panel members alluded to story telling as a normal and crucial element of their evaluation.

So here's my question--I know, I know, it's about time I got to my question--Do you think photos tell stories? Obviously, I do. Obviously, at least one person doesn't. What do you think?

Earlier this week I posted a photo and asked what ... (show quote)

He should be the last person you should worry about when it comes to photography. Just click on his website link in his signature and look around. He claims to be a professional photographer.

Matt Quinn Loc: Marriottsville, MD, Brewster, Cape Cod

That was a test to see whether I could engage in this discussion. Here goes.

RD, you have touched on a topic that I have been puzzling over for a few years without any conclusion. I guess I would call it the mixture of metaphors, or something akin to that. I have come across the word/synesthesia, the mixing of sense experience, where some people can "see" a sound or "smell" a color. I listen to music but hear only the sounds without seeing pictures, while others evidently can see a forest, (Beethoven) or hear a river (Moldau). So, with a photo, I puzzle in what sense it "tells" a story. For me, photos capture a moment in time, an event, a scene, while a story has a beginning, middle and end. A caption will add to the photo and ascribe a story to it; without it, we probably wouldn't know that the kiss celebrated the end of WWII, or that the child was running from napalm bombing.

These distinctions may seem pedantic or irrelevant, and I admit they might. What has prompted my rambling is that I have heard from many mentors that memorable photos express an emotion. I have been unable to express in words what I see in a photo or what attracts me to take a photo. Does anyone else feel this way?

Thanks. Matt

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Manuductor wrote:

...I have been unable to express in words what I see in a photo or what attracts me to take a photo. Does anyone else feel this way?Thanks. Matt

For me, sometimes yes, sometimes no. Sometimes it's a matter of digging a tunnel from the right brain to the left to find the words that fit the emotion. But I'm not sure it matters as long as you feel the emotion, or if you are satisfied with own photos.

Come visit one of UHH's specialty forums, For Your Consideration, where we talk about this kind of stuff all the time

The home page:

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/s-119-1.html

-

Matt Quinn Loc: Marriottsville, MD, Brewster, Cape Cod

Linda From Maine wrote:

For me, sometimes yes, sometimes no. Sometimes it'... (show quote)

Linda, How do I visit For Your Consideration?

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Manuductor wrote:

Linda, How do I visit For Your Consideration?

Click on the link I posted in my comment above; I'll send more info via pm (the link to your private messages is at top of page; it will be yellow highlighted when someone writes to you)

Mr. Greenwood, hopefully we haven't hijacked, but there are many stimulating discussions such as this one in FYC in case you are interested in checking out the section as well

Darkroom317 Loc: Mishawaka, IN

Linda From Maine wrote:

What a fascinating pov!

Thank you. It is something that has been weighing on my mind recently. Especially with the new series I am working on because I currently debating about making a both in addition to or rather than an exhibition.

One of the biggest things my mentor instilled in me was sequencing of photographs in a series. One thing I should mention is that I went nearly three years studying with him before I saw much of his work. I saw a few bits and pieces of his photography and found them to rather banal and uninteresting. However, a group of went to a conference and he had an exhibit there. Seeing the work all together on the walls changed everything. All of the work together had much more power and meaning than what I had seen before

rdgreenwood Loc: Kennett Square, Pennsylvania

TheStarvingArtist wrote:

...I am just wondering if you think my pictures tell a story or not?

Oh, mercy, of all the people who might ask that question, you are the one I'm most scared of answering in detail. To me--and I may be way off base--your story is pure erotica. I approach your images with great care.