Information and Visual Narrative

Some photographs seek to document an event, object, place, or person. It is important to remember that photos primarily created as documentation also tell stories. Examining documentary photographs that tell stories can also relate them to traditional journalism. Now you can connect elements of informational text with features of photography. Thinking about “story” can influence and strengthen your photography and reading or interpreting photographic works.

The questions for inquiry at the center of this lesson include:

• What are some common elements of informational text and narrative nonfiction?
• How do the elements of informational text and narrative nonfiction relate to the content and visual features in photography?
• How is photography similar to informational text, and how is it different?
• How can the elements of narrative nonfiction inform photography?

Begin by looking at the image here, created by Anissa Murillo, an Unshuttered Program student artist. Look at the photo and read the caption quietly.

Questions for Discussion:

• What do you notice first about this image?
• How would you describe the subject of this photograph?
• What do you think is going on in this photograph? What do you think the main idea is? What story is it telling you?
• What aspects of the photograph are showing you that story? For example:
  • What is the photographer’s point of view or perspective?
  • Who are the subjects of the photograph? How are the subjects framed or positioned?
  • Are there telling details from the subjects or their surroundings?
  • Does the scene’s lighting tell aspects of the story?
  • Are there noticeable visual elements such as patterns or leading lines?
• What is the effect of the title?

Narrative nonfiction writing often does the same thing as photography, giving the reader facts but also shaping those facts into a story. So next, let’s look at the elements of narrative nonfiction text, and discuss how those elements might be present in photography.

Make a list:

Create a list of the essential elements of narrative nonfiction, and define terms as you go. As you create the list, consider the following questions:

• In photography, what features are parallel to the elements of narrative nonfiction?
• Are some of those elements easier to address with photography? Are some of them more difficult? (For example, subjects, comparisons, and visual details might be shown more clearly in photography, while cause and effect, chronology, and identification of the central conflict might be easier to explain in text.)

Sample terms and definitions are found in the Vocabulary section.

Now that we have considered how photographs and narrative nonfiction can both reflect facts and also tell stories, it is time to apply those ideas and questions to photographs from the Getty collection. Look at the images shown here. Or view the images on getty.edu. Read the captions to learn more about the series of photographs.

Begin by taking a few quiet minutes to simply look at the Getty collection photographs from the series, “Midnight Reykjavik.”

At first glance, these photographs may appear to be traditional landscape photography; do they go beyond documentation and become stories?

Questions for Discussion:

• What do you notice first about these images?
• How would you describe the subject of the photographs?
• What do you know about the chronology and setting of the images?
• Point of view/perspective: Where do you think the photographer stood to take the photographs? Why those angles?
• How do you think the photographs were made?
• Composition: How do the different layers relate to each other? Do you see a relationship between the photographic technique and text features in informational text?
• How do you feel when you look at these photographs?
• What do you think the photographer’s main idea was in creating this series? What story do you think the photographer is telling? Or, what story do you interpret from these photographs?
• What questions do the photographs pose for you?

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Further Context:

The photographer, Soo Kim, wanted to photograph the experience of the midnight sun. She says, “The series makes up a panorama of a city, but a humanistic view where horizons rise and drop rather than a complete but mechanistic panoramic view.” [1] About the layering technique, Kim explains, “I see the excision of photographic material from the picture plane as a subtractive method that lets me insert a range of different information with each body of work I make….I wanted to make an image of a city that highlights urban experience as being an indeterminate one both physically and psychologically. In both cases the focal point of the work is not what you can see, but instead what the viewer can add to the scene suggested by the absence, collision, and fantastic reconstruction given by the photograph…./The photographs were made in 2005, and finished in 2007. During this time, Iceland, and the world, experienced a global economic crash with the housing market becoming iconic of that crash. This body of work, in hindsight, also speaks not just of the city and of ideas of home and community, but can also be considered as a picture of this economic crisis, of the housing market where the stability of home as idea and investment underwent a radical shift and alteration.” [2] Regarding the larger question of her artistic process, she says, “Each body of work starts with an idea that sometimes deals with seeing, photography, representation. I have in mind a structure, or system, for what information gets removed from each photograph that makes up a body of work, but that could change over the course of the making of the series. I don’t use rulers, or assistants, and I don’t adhere to a system that is absolute. I learn while I make the work, and I consider my practice mistake-driven. The mistakes I make often lead me to new ideas.” [3]

View Soo Kim photographs in the Getty collection.

How do writers begin creating narratives? One tool is a mind map, a visual tool for recording, organizing, and connecting ideas. A mind map can take different structures, but one helpful metaphor is a tree that branches in every direction. The story's central idea is the trunk, and the related ideas are branches. Details are tree shoots that continue to branch off. Branches can turn back on themselves and tangle or connect with other branches.

In this exercise, you will mind map your own works of narrative nonfiction about real-life events, ideas, or individuals, using the elements of narrative nonfiction. Use the Mind Map handout [See Resources section] to create your mind map. Start with the central idea, person, or event of their narrative. Write related ideas, keywords, and phrases. Use colored pencils or markers to track idea strands and discover new connections. Share the mind map at the end.

Now, use tools for writing to make storyboards that bring together visuals and text. You will utilize your narrative nonfiction mind maps to bring back visuals. Use your mind maps to create storyboards.

Traditionally, a storyboard is a set of sequential drawings that tells a story. Storyboarding is a tool for planning a visual narrative. Storyboards allow the visual presentation of information and simultaneously reveal a story's arc. When creating visual narratives with photography, “storytelling” can refer to single photographs, series, or sequences. With the storyboard format, you may choose to create a single frame, a series of related frames, or a set of sequential frames. The key is to both “tell” and “show” a story.

Use the Storyboard template [See Resources section] to get started. Storyboard visuals can be anything from stick-figure drawings to detailed illustrations to photography to collages. Use as many pages (or as few) as you like.

Introduce, show, and describe your narrative nonfiction storyboards to the class. Set up your storyboard presentation along with your mind maps to display how those elements translated into the storyboards.

As a viewer, provide positive feedback to fellow students.

Discuss:

Be prepared to answer the following questions when viewing and sharing work.

• What is the first thing you notice about the storyboard?
• What is the main idea of the story?
• How did the artist communicate the main idea of the story, both visually and in text?
• What elements of narrative nonfiction do you observe in the storyboard?
• What aspects of the story would you like to learn more about?
• Are there any further opportunities to add major ideas or telling details to the story?

Reflect:

Answer the following question on your own.

• What did you discover about yourself and others during the project?
• What was challenging, and why?
• What detail are you most proud of, and why?
• Is there anything you would do differently?