Narrative Workshop Notes

The deadlines for two of our Assignments are drawing close. I have been working steadily on both but still feel that I have much to do.

Today we had a workshop about Editing and Sequencing starting with the works of other Artists.

Simon Roberts "Motherland"

thanks to shenphotoblog.blogspot.com for this image

Firstly Simon Roberts "Motherland." A British Photographer who went to Russia and shot 30,000 frames of film. This is a huge number of images and must have taken months to edit. As with the other Artists we looked at, Roberts began the process by scanning the images and making hundreds of contact sheets. It is a process of elimination deciding at every stage which images work best and which begin to form a pattern and which ones to discard.

It was advised in this session, that we always show our work to peers or others' that we trust to give us an honest opinion about our work. Not on the Internet where the quality of image deteriorates, but to actually print images of at least a size 6 x 4 and to spread them out. This is the best way to "see" what lies before you and pick out images that sit well together.

Other artists mentioned were Anne Celine Jaeger (Image Makers, Image Takers), Mary Ellen Mark, Eugen Richards, Rankin, Alec Soth. David Hurn's book "On being a photographer" was also recommended.

Mary Ellen Mark

thanks to digitaljournalist.org for this image

Eugene Richards

with thanks to ciubuxabinaphoto.wordpress.com for this image



The things to consider for a narrative of images are:
The beginning, Middle and End, the chronological order, linear sequence, general - specific, the opening image is important as is the conclusion.

Slow down and connect to your images and notice which ones make an impact on you.

We were asked to consider who our audience will be and what we want to convey in our narrative.