Samuel  Wilkins  12029        Graphics  3000  word  essay  draft    

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How it is possible to tell a narrative in a single image? Within this essay I will look at the question ‘ How it is possible to tell a narrative in a single image?’ What is a narrative? A narrative, also accepted as a story, can be formed into various groups, for example: fiction, non-fiction or fictionalized accounts of historical events. Each group can tell its own different story whether it is true events, made up or even historical events. Within some forms of art a narrative can be found, including writing, songs, film, photography and visual arts such as painting or digital art. Within these creative arts they all describe a sequence of events, which tells a story to the audience. The viewer can then make up their own mind as to what the story is about and get involved with the piece. The word narrative originally came from the Latin verb narrare, "to tell" and has been used in various theatre performances ever since. The word "story" may be used as a synonym of "narrative". A story within a piece of art is used to refer to the sequence of events described in a narrative. A character is embedded into the scene to emphasis the narrative, typically found in noir fiction genre, may tell the sequence of events. The character could be doing whatever the story portrays to get the point across. With this topic I will give points how it can be possible to tell a story in a single image. I will also give examples of artists and storytellers, such as Dara Scully and Paul M Smith, that I think suits this topic. Constructed or digital process The constructed or digital process is the procedure in which you create your work. The constructed process is where you create everything hand made, this can involve many materials and textures to form an image. In many of the constructed pieces you can see the unique way that they have created the design with the material they use and how they put it together. Even something that is handmade in multiples from patterns, cast, etc will still always be a unique and seem as if it is made just for you. Although it takes a lot longer to produce, hand made artwork is much more appreciated than the using the digital process. Within narratives a constructed process can allow the creator to tell a story in the world that he or she lives in. For example the piece may only be objects and materials that he has around his house but this can tell a story as to where he has bought them from and the culture that surrounds the objects. The digital process is the opposite of the constructed process, most, if not everything is computerized. When you make something by computer it can be a lot quicker than hand made artwork due to everything being available on the computer, whereas you would have to go out and buy the objects first then craft every last object. As everything is available, you are able to manipulate your photos to a degree that can look as if it was real. This can have a good effect on narrative works of art as you want the audience to have an immersive experience with your story and if the picture looks convincing on the screen you could fall into the artist’s world. However if this is over done by revealing its cliché attributes then it can remove you from the story and wouldn’t catch your eye. A computerized cliché would be a brush that is used more than once and has become very repetitive. Dara Scully

The series of narrative pieces, created by Dara Scully, called ‘Little Dreamers’ show a strong link with the creativity and imagination that small children can have. ‘The pictures of 22 year old Spanish photographer Dara Scully are just full of imagination, creativity and life. Dara is not just a photographer; she’s a storyteller, narrator and character within her own work, she brings her stories to live in many different ways. She mixes fantasy with reality seamlessly and turns every picture into a dream, hence the title ‘little dreamers’ for her latest series.’ The title ‘Little Dreamers’ gave me the impression of small children dreaming of a fantasy world, creating the surroundings to look like how they want. With this imaginative topic you can get a vast amount of possibilities to create a narrative to what you would like. Dara Scully uses the friendliness of animals to live with her in an abandoned forest, which looks like her home. Creating a dream allows the piece to be very unique to her as this is her own thoughts and dreams, no one else’s. By including dreams, this can also make the viewer imagine as to what their own fantasy world

Samuel  Wilkins  12029        Graphics  3000  word  essay  draft    

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could be like, getting them involved with the piece. By introducing the audience’s imagination, it allows them to remember the work much better as their dreams will have a connection to Dara Scully’s work. I chose this photographer as unlike Paul M Smith, Dara Scully allows the escapism to tell the story, whereas Paul’s is more Realism. Dara Scully lets you escape from the real world with her imaginative ideas, which couldn’t be created in real life. I like how the characters interact well with the surroundings, as they are not there I think it is a very clever idea as it allows many possibilities. Dara: ‘Little dreamers’ is about your inside child. About turning the imaginary into real, about imaginary friends and their laughter in the kitchen. It is another world and our own world at the same time, because we are Little dreamers. Me, you and all the big children with a bit of imagination inside their heads.” Within Dara Scully’s work she uses a feminine style of narrative to make the story look interesting at first glance. She creates this by using herself within the photos, sometimes on her own and other times accompanied with other animals such as elephants and birds. This was interesting to me because it shows a child like fantasy world that she may want to live in. By using the presence of animals it can show that she does not want to be around people as she can have just as good relationship with her animal companion. This adds to the tranquil setting that she shows with the quiet green forest and the empty field present in the background. She also seems to hand make different objects made out of cardboard, this allows for many possibilities to what she can make. This idea can link to the theme of a dream, as she imagines different things they come to life, like the airplane and the elephant. I think this idea made me think of a small girl dreaming of world that she would like to live in. Within the composition Dara Scully doesn’t have any white space as usually she fills the background with very complex trees with multiple vines hanging to fill the scene. The colour green and brown is dominate throughout the background and has a large contrast on the girl and elephant making them stand out a lot more. The rough texture on the background in contrast to the girl also has the same effect. In all of her work she provides something that stands out i.e. the whistle in the picture to the right and in the other picture is the airplane, which leads your eye to the elephant. In Dara Scully’s work the time periods that she focuses on I think are of a modern time as she uses the computer a lot to create the effect she goes for. William H Martin and John C. Higgins are possible influences. Both are very similar in the way they manipulate photos and both show aspects that can be seen in Dara Scully’s work. William H Martin (1909) manipulates photos to make ordinary animals a different size, much like when Dara Scully uses

smaller sized elephants. I like this spin on this photo manipulation as he takes an animal everyone knows the dimensions of and re-scaling it confuse the audience. As this picture is so old it proves that this is a constructed process. In the early 1900’s this sort of photograph wouldn’t be seen too often so it grabs the viewers imagination as to what else could be re-scaled to look unordinary. John C. Higgins, much like William H Martin, he manipulates his photos so that life size objects have a different scale. Around the 1700’s bottled messages were used to transfer peoples thoughts or stress signals from the ocean. As there is a person in the bottle, this could resemble the bottled message. This picture could also portray how someone is trapped in a bottle with his or her thoughts and personality stuck so no one can see.

Samuel  Wilkins  12029        Graphics  3000  word  essay  draft    

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Paul M. Smith Paul M. Smith is a photographer; he is also the director for the BA Hons Photography course. During the year 1991 and 1995, Paul M Smith studied Fine Art at Coventry University. He also completed a Masters degree in Photography at the Royal College of Art. Smith has gone through work called ‘Soldier’ via ‘Action Hero’ to come to his current body of work, the forensic vision of death called ‘Impact’. Within his work he mostly uses a lot of narrative pieces to make the image look more creative. He does this by using himself within the photos multiple times to fill in the empty space, adding atmosphere. His work also includes a good bit of photo manipulation, for example he places vampires teeth to make the piece more of a horror. Paul M Smith provides a photorealism feel to his designs however has a twist with the lively characters of himself and story that he uses. I chose this photographer because I like how unique his pictures are and how creative you can be by using this simple method of duplicating yourself many times to create an atmosphere of what you like. The characters that he includes mould the composition of the work forming around the characters. Although the people at first seem a bit random but then once you look at it more it creates a story making you look at every character and possibly what and why they are doing in that position. It seems although they are the same person they all have their own personality. Some of his work seems to be of what is going on in the news. By doing this it allows the audience to realize what is going on in the story much easy than a randomized topic, which Paul M Smith has made up from scratch. For example on release of the soldier’s pictures a lot of war has been throughout the news.

The example photos I have chosen feature in artwork for a Robbie Williams album. The artwork has a young adult theme to them; the characters are shown to be footballers and football hooligans. Like Dara Scully I think Paul M Smith has used the idea of a dream to create his work. The footballers put together could be seen as a young boys dream as they imagine themselves winning a cup for their team and celebrating with their teammates. However unlike Dara Scully, Paul M Smith uses photorealism to show dreams in reality, this is shown with the realistic backgrounds and characters. You can imagine the sorts of photos that he has produced occur at every football game, this is due to the locations that he uses and the iconic way he sets out his hooligans.

I like how funny some of his work is by including many characters doing funny things, this is because you do not know where to look next as the next character profile may be something totally different. He effectively places the characters so that everyone has their own individual story to tell which suits the composition of the piece. Within his Robbie William collection the background is the surroundings to a football stadium, this creates no white spaces within the composition. This can help tell his story as the surroundings help show its to do with football. He does not only do this in the Robbie Williams collection but he also includes the location well in others to boost its narrative

The time periods that Paul M Smith’s work is set in mainly focuses on around the 2000’s. I can tell this from the hair styles and the clothes his characters wear, although it could easily be modern time. John Wolters and Saint Thomas D’Aquin are likely influences, which Paul M Smith had in mind when creating his work. Both are quite different but both show aspects that can be seen in Paul M Smith’s work. John Wolters shows different characters that seem to have their own story and their own personalities to the picture. In America and especially the early 1900’s using the electric chair was normally carried out in a prison execution. With this picture each character seems to have a different role, like Paul M Smith, doing this it allows you to get many stories out of one picture, not just one. This is due to the amount

Samuel  Wilkins  12029        Graphics  3000  word  essay  draft    

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of character profiles that you can see and each one has a story to tell. This picture seems to be a photograph but if you look closer I actually this picture has be constructed with the use of paint appose to the digital process. Like Paul M Smith Saint Thomas D’Aquin manipulates this photo by duplicating his head many times to create the juggling action. In the early 1900s in many countries the circus was a popular attraction to go to. As you glance at this photo it would amaze you as to how the photographer has taken this photo of the juggler juggling 7 human heads. This would attract your eye and want you to go see this performance. Again as this picture was created so early into the 1900s I think that this process was done constructively. Male And Female Differences Looking at both Dara Scully and Paul M Smith’s work you can tell a slight difference in the way they tell their story. Dara Scully uses more of a fantasy dreamland where she can do whatever she likes, whereas in Paul M Smith’s generally uses himself to create scenes of violence and hooliganism aimed at a young male audience. The narrative seen in both artists may have differed because of their gender that they are transmitting to the viewer. Male and female can have their own interpretations of their own dream, mostly, a male would think of being around friends and having a good time as a dream whereas a female would create her own unique world where she can do whatever she wants. However sometimes the genders do come up with dreams similar to one another depending on what they personally enjoy. An example of this would be the Carling advert where it symbolizes that friends is better together even though they wont be able to get to their destination. This would then make the male audience to want to purchase Carling next time they are out with their friends, as they may want this dream. I think this portrays the young male audience well and would make them want to be like the astronauts. Evaluation There are many ways in which you can manipulate photographs to make them have a narrative. These photos can then be influenced by how you make them and what gender you are. Making them digitally can make you have a truly immersive feeling towards the story whereas if you make them constructively the final outcome will always be a unique even if you create it several times and makes you feel as if it is made just for you. Both Dara Scully and Paul M Smith use narrative within their work (along with many past examples that they may have been influenced by) very effectively by putting their own unique spin on it. For Example Paul M Smith duplicates his characters to make a lot of character profiles within the scene. However both have been influenced by their own gender, as their individual dream is different from one another. As a viewer you can tell that Dara Scully’s work is targeting at young girls whereas Paul M Smith is aiming at young males. Overall I think that a narrative can be used in a way that gets the viewer involved with the picture. It does this by opening up dreams and imagination from the viewer. I think sometimes it is important to make this kind of connection with your audience, as they are most likely going to remember your piece as they are coming up with ideas of their own. Whether you are a girl or boy you can both dream of different things and the story will reflect your dreams. Bibliography http://www.paulmsmith.co.uk/ http://cargocollective.com/darascully    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7AM49svaGQ