Periodically, I like to present a collection of visual materials with significant storytelling content.
This collection is especially rich.
- Romantic visual storytelling: A storied wedding invitation that has
made the rounds of the Internet is that of Jill and Matt. The invitation tells the story of the relationship up to the time of the planned wedding. What’s visually interesting is that the invitation uses type almost exclusively rather than any other images, but the graphic treatment is what lends the visual element. In another romantic visual story, photographer Adam Barker captures his sister being proposed to on waterskis - Storied objects and artifacts: Lizzie Skurnick of NPR.org describes Important Artifacts, a book by Leanne Shapton, this way:
Foregoing narrative entirely, Shapton tells the story of a couple’s relationship in the form of a staggeringly precise ersatz auction catalog that annotates the common detritus of a love affair — notes, CD mixes, e-mails, photos, books– and places the objects up for sale. … In choosing the conceit of an auction catalog, Shapton reminds us that the story of love can be told through the things we leave behind, but also by the condition in which we leave them. The idea behind The Significant Objects Project is that “a talented, creative writer invents a story about an object. Invested with new significance by this fiction, the object should — according to our hypothesis — acquire not merely subjective but objective value. How to test our theory? Via eBay!” How do they test the theory? “The project’s curators (Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn) purchase objects — for no more than a few dollars — from thrift stores and garage sales. Participating writers are paired with object about which they write a fictional story. “An unremarkable, castoff thingamajig has suddenly becomes a ‘significant’ object’ that is then listed for sale on eBay. The significant object is pictured, but instead of a factual description the significant object’s newly written fictional story is used. The project is not out to hoax eBay buyers. The curators catalog what happens with the objects and may write a book.
- Unusual media: Remember Viewmaster reels? “Vladmaster” makes a version called “Vladmasters.” You can see a good selection of these images here. What is described as
“the world’s largest, most comprehensive illustrated Bible is “The Brick Testament,” with more than 3,600 illustrations that retell more than 400 stories from the Bible — made with “bricks,” LEGO-like construction pieces. I’d love to show a sample here, but the site has very strict rules about not reproducing its material. - Photographic stories: The Photography Channel, the tagline of which is “Cinematic Storytelling for The Modern Media,” celebrates “the enduring power of still photography storytelling.” Vewd “is a documentary photography magazine continuing the tradition of storytelling through a visual medium.” (Pictured is “The Christmas Lights Fued” by Ross McDermott, which “tells the story of two neighbors in Charlottesville, Virginia, and their continual battle to out-do the other in building the greatest Christmas lights spectacle.”)
- Fine art: The Delaware Art Museum, through its The Art of Storytelling site invites visitors to listen to stories, read and view pictures inspired by the museum’s collections created by other visitors; become storytellers by writing and recording stories inspired by works in the museum’s collection; and create their own works of art using objects and characters found in some of the museum’s most noteworthy paintings. At the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum, as reported by Smithsonian.org,
Catherine Walsh, a doctoral candidate at the University of Delaware, is digging through 150-year-old works, diaries, and letters looking for examples of storytelling in art, specifically between 1830 and 1870 — a period, she says, when a flood of storytelling images appeared in popular works. … Walsh also believes that museum visitors create narratives when they view a painting.” (Pictured work is “The Story of Golden Locks.”)
