As part of the suggested reading, I have been looking at the work of some photographers who have produced some important narrative work. The first of these I have looked at is Darcy Padilla, who over the course of a number of years photographed and documented the life of a woman with aids. The project was called 'The Julie Project'. I have made some notes to refer back to for my final assignment which is also a photographic narrative.
1. Mood.
The project has been shot entirely in black and white. The first thing that strikes the viewer is the perception of time of the images. Darcy started his project in 1993, that's 18 years ago at the time of writing this post. The very first image gives the impression that the photographs were taken a lot longer ago than that, the black and white re-enforcing the 50's look of the old building. This combination has set the tone for the rest of the images that follow.
2. The journey
We are not distracted from the journey by the shape of the photo's either. All are presented in landscape format which here leads you from one image to the next without any 'awkward' jumps in the process.
3. Information
Each shot shows enough information to put it's subject in context. Interestingly, this mostly seems to have been achieved by focal length and by light on the subject. Depth of field is used to direct the viewers attention but nowhere near as much as other artists make use it. take for example the year 2008. The attention of each shot is grabbed by the lighter main subject with DOF playing much less of a role. Note also that as well as showing enough of the surrounding of the subject, the images have been carefully crafted so as to not show too much.
4. Narrative.
The occasional insertion of a newspaper article or some other document gives a break in the images.I do find the written notes a bit distracting though.
