Introduction to Visual Narratives: Definitions and Purposes

Visual narratives use images to tell stories to the viewer.

After viewing each work of art, there is more background about the work of art. When possible, we include the artist’s own words. Even so, art histories carry bias and are rarely the complete story, so please use them with that knowledge in mind.

You will:

• Define “visual narrative”
• Explore different types of visual narratives and their purposes

Begin by looking at the image shown here, created by Michelle Jeronimo, a photographer from the Unshuttered teen program. Read the caption to situate the photograph in time and space.

Questions for Discussion:

• What do you notice first about this image?
• How would you describe the subject of this photograph?
• What is the photographer’s point of view or perspective?
• What can we tell about the subject or subjects of the photograph?
• What can we tell about the setting or surroundings of the subjects?
• Does the scene’s lighting add to the story?
• Are there noticeable visual elements such as patterns or leading lines?
• What do you think is going on in this photograph? What story is it telling you?
• Do you think the artist had a purpose in taking the photograph? Is so, what purpose?
• What other questions does the photograph pose for you?
• Is this photograph a visual narrative? How so?

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Further Context:

The physical closeness of the two subjects invites us to ask about their relationship—are they friends, siblings, cousins, a couple? Are they comparing themselves to each other? Are they expressing intimacy, or rivalry, or something else? Many purposes can be imagined from the photograph, depending on what one imagines the relationship of the two subjects to be—they could be documenting a relationship, creating a selfie to invite reactions on social media, or revealing what it’s like to be cousins, just as a few possibilities.

Your discussions bring forth responses about what the photograph shows, how it works visually, and how it tells its story. Next, you will start broadening this discussion into brainstorming a definition of visual narratives.

As you set out to study and create visual narratives, it is valuable to come to a shared understanding of what a visual narrative is. Start with a concrete question, “What are examples of visual narratives?” Share a list with the whole group. Examples may include:

• Comics (single panel and multi-panel)
• Photojournalism
• Art photography
• Advertisements/Commercials
• Graphic novels
• Collage and mixed media
• Social media including Instagram stories, TikTok videos, etc.

Brainstorm:

What elements need to be present in a visual narrative? Once you brainstorm a list of those elements, use the words to write a sentence or two to serve as a definition. Below is an example.

Visual narratives can encompass individual images, series of images, and sequences of images created with the intent to tell a story. Visual narrative formats include drawing, painting, illustration, still photography, film, collage, and performance art. The intent to tell a story is what sets visual narratives apart from works (including photographs) created using visual language purely to evoke imagination or engagement. [1]

Now that we have a shared definition, we can now think more about the purposes of visual narratives, especially photographic visual narratives. Four broad purposes for photographic narratives are outlined below, which are adapted from the work of Marvin Heiferman [2].

Brainstorm:

In order to arrive at a shared sense of the purposes of photographic visual narratives, brainstorm why artists create visual narratives. Use the list below to get you started. What would you add or expand on?

1. Exploring desire: Photographs can illustrate, stoke, provoke, twist, evoke, or even quell the viewer’s desires. Advertising or selling products and experiences is a significant purpose of photography. The instantaneity of photography in the early 21st century only strengthens its relationship with impulse or aspiration.
2. Revealing what lies beyond immediate sight: Photographs can reveal new perspectives and worlds that are invisible to the naked eye, for example through microscopes, thermal imaging, or cameras on spacecraft. Photos can also show us other places, whether for promotion, tourism or travel journalism.
3. Influencing choices: Photography can evoke responses by adding dimension and detail to stories about social justice issues, ranging from racism to sexism to human migration to climate change.
4. Creating and/or offering a particular perspective on history and memories: Works of photography can simply document history, frame history (for example, wedding and family portraits), or even offer a particular perspective on history (e.g., Ansel Adams’ photographs of the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California; For more information about this project, please visit https://www.nps.gov/manz/index.htm ).

Now, we will look at photographs from the Getty collection and analyze their purposes and how they work as storytelling devices. If possible, display all five images at once, and read their captions, to situate the photographs in time and place. Using the list of purposes of visual narratives, match each photograph to a purpose and support your choices with evidence from the work.

Next, you will explore all photographs as a group. Take 15–20 minutes to explore and discuss the photographs. Use the discussion questions below as a starting point. Write down what you noticed in 3–4 clear and detailed sentences to share out.

Questions for Discussion:

• What do you notice first about this image?
• How would you describe the subject of the photograph?
• What is the photographer’s point of view or perspective?
• What can we tell about the subject or subjects of the photograph?
• What can we tell about the setting or surroundings of the subjects?
• Composition: What principles of composition (framing, background, foreground, patterns, leading lines) do you notice in the photograph?
• Lighting: How is the photograph lit?
• What story is it telling you?
• What other questions does the photograph pose for you?

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Further Context:

The photograph is part of a project by the photographer called “Girl Culture,” which was an exploration of young women’s struggles with body image and self-acceptance. Greenfield sees girls’ bodies as a "…canvas on which girls express and evaluate themselves. It's such an important part of our culture" [3]. The background ads and their scale contrast with the human scale of the girls in the foreground, to suggest that the power of advertising can be ubiquitous and overwhelming. The photographer used available indoor light, to set the photograph firmly in the real world. Greenfield may be showcasing the power of advertising and its influence on girls, by showing the contrast between advertising photography and real life. Perhaps she is even calling into question what is most desirable—is it the beauty of the enlarged, retouched models, or the beauty of the sisters and their relationship?

View Lauren Greenfield photographs in the Getty collection and learn more about the artist.

Questions for Discussion:

• What do you notice first about this image?
• How would you describe the subjects of the photograph?
• What is the photographer’s point of view or perspective?
• What can we tell about the subject of the photograph?
• What details of the setting do you notice?
• Composition: What principles of composition (framing, background, foreground, patterns, leading lines) do you notice in the photograph?
• Lighting: How is the photograph lit?
• What story or narrative does the image inspire you to create about this scene or place?
• What changes when you have the artist’s descriptions of the events that took place at this site? (see “context,” below)
• Does the story shift once you learn more about the history of the location?
• How does the individual story of this photograph resonate with others as part of the series?
• Was the artist’s text essential to understanding the story of the series? What role does text play in interpreting visual narratives? Is it always necessary?
• Do you think the artist had a purpose in taking the photographs? Is so, what purpose?
• What other questions does the photograph pose for you?

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Further Context:

The choices of subject, composition and lighting add to the sense that this is an ordinary, unremarkable place with an air of mystery or possibly, tragedy.

The artist’s description adds significantly to the understanding of the photograph. Sternfeld created the photograph as part of his series, On This Site: Landscapes in Memoriam. You can see other works from the series on the Getty website here. About the series, he said: “I set out to photograph sites that were marked during my lifetime….Experience has taught me again and again that you can never know what lies beneath a surface or behind a façade. Our sense of place, our understanding of photographs of the landscape is inevitably limited and fraught with misreading.” [4] On his website, the artist describes the events that took place at each site:

• “Jennifer Levin and Robert Chambers were seen leaving Dorrian’s Red Hand, an Upper East Side bar, at 4:30 a.m. on August 26, 1986. Her body was found beneath this crab apple tree in Central Park at 6:15 a.m. that same morning. An autopsy revealed that she had been strangled. She was eighteen years old when she died. Chambers, who was nineteen at the same time of the crime, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter.” [5]

View Joel Sternfeld photographs in the Getty collection and learn more about the artist.

Questions for Discussion:

• What do you notice first about this image?
• How would you describe the subject of the photograph?
• What is the photographer’s point of view or perspective?
• What can we tell about the subject or subjects of the photograph?
• What can we tell about the setting or surroundings of the subjects?
• Composition: What principles of composition (framing, background, foreground, patterns, leading lines) do you notice in the photograph?
• Lighting: How is the photograph lit?
• What story is it telling you?
• What do you know about when and where the images were created?
• What other questions does the photograph pose for you?

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Further Context:

In the 1960s, Leonard Freed embarked on a project that culminated in the book Black in White America, in which this photograph appears. His project was to influence the course of justice by documenting, as an outsider, the daily existence of people living with injustice. In his words, “I wanted to see the black city in my city.” [7]

View Leonard Freed photographs in the Getty collection and learn more about the artist.

Questions for Discussion:

• What do you notice first about this image?
• How would you describe the subject of the photographs?
• What is the photographer’s point of view or perspective?
• What can we tell about the subject or subjects of the photograph?
• What can we tell about the setting or surroundings of the subjects?
• Composition: What principles of composition (framing, background, foreground, patterns, leading lines) do you notice in the photograph?
• Lighting: How is the photograph lit?
• What story is it telling you? How is it creating a history?
• Why did the artist choose to include text in the artwork? How might your reading of the artwork be different if no text was included?
• What other questions does the photograph pose for you?

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Further Context:

In a later artist statement in 1993, Laura Aguilar develops ideas of framing the history of queer people and people of color: “My artistic goal is to create photographic images that compassionately render the human experience, revealed through the lives of individuals in the lesbian/gay and/or persons of color communities. My work is a collaboration between the sitters and myself, intended to be viewed by a cross-cultural audience. Hopefully the universal elements in the work can be recognized by other individuals' communities and can initiate the viewer to new experiences about gays, lesbians and people of color.” [8]

View Laura Aguilar photographs in the Getty collection.

Now that you have a definition and an understanding of some of the purposes of photographic narratives, you can find or create your own visual narrative. Choose two of the following prompts, and find or create multiple examples of each:

• A visual narrative that advertises
• A visual narrative that explains or shows something otherwise often unseen or overlooked
• A visual narrative that spotlights an aspect of history or humanity
• A visual narrative that influences a choice or belief
• A visual narrative that explores a place
• A visual narrative that establishes or complicates a memory

Introduce your visual narratives with the name and background of the makers, their titles, and when and how they were made.

Share the work and answer the following questions with the class:

• What purpose do you see in the work?
• How do the image’s technical aspects (principles of art and elements of design) support its purpose?
• What aspects of the story would you like to learn more about?

Answer these questions for individual reflection:

• What was challenging, and why?
• What details do you find most interesting, and why?
• Is there anything you would do differently?