This is something I have been experimenting with throughout this course. I have on a few occasions been successful but on the whole I have found it a little difficult to realise.
The step-by-step approach to telling a story in a sequence of images is pretty easy. It is something we have been taught to do - the step-by step narrative - since we started school.
How do we tell a story in a single image?
Well we obviously can't tell the step-by-step kind of story in a single picture but we can tell a different kind of story - one that shows the relationship of things or hints at something happening. Still life tends to open more opportunities when looking to tell a story in a single picture because it offers the photographer more control.
Many books and magazine covers have illustrated that derive from a still life scenario. However, we can look more to documentary photographers and street photography to tell us a story that is real and not contrived.
Henri Cartier-Bresson is seen as the photographer that developed real life documentary or street photography which has influenced many photographers that came after him.
A story in a single image can be seen in the likes of Don McCullin's work on the effects of war. In Shell-Shocked Soldier, 1968 we can see the psychological effects of war on the the subject. His uniform and gun tell us he is a soldier but the fear in his eyes, the distance he is staring into and the grip he has on his gun tells us of the fear and shock and horrors he has seen. In the case of this picture that horror is hinted at.
This image is one I took a few months back. It is of a woman reading the paper beside her beach hut.
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