If you want to stretch your storytelling muscles, a great technique is to find interesting visuals and construct your own story about what’s going on in the visual. I had a blast with this type of exercise at a seminar during my PhD program in which we made up stories about images on New Yorker covers, as seen here.
An exhibition at the Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles until March 22 provides superb visuals for crafting stories. The story you craft may be nothing like what the artist, Achim Lippoth, had in mind, but no matter.
The exhibition, Achim Lippoth Storytelling, features a selection of color photographs from his latest publication, Pictures. This dramatic exploration of children’s behavior in a highly orchestrated and designed setting highlights the complex relationship between young minds and the adult expectations to which they both rebel and conform.
See 36 striking images here.
Children are the actors here, while adults are at most the decoration…The pictorial spaces are like stage sets, whether outdoors or in the studio. The photographer never leaves the choreography of his characters or the orchestration of light and colour up to the coincidence of capturing the right moment…After all, Lippoth’s world is a stage, and he is the sole director.
– Thomas Wiegand, Achim Lippoth: Pictures, Kehrer 2007
In the extended entry, see a press release about the exhibition.
