Sequential Narrative Imagery- including Duane Michael & mini storyboard task

Today we were introduced to Storyboard photography, otherwise known as Sequential Narrative Imagery. It's quite simple, unlike the artists such as Annie Leibovitz or Tim walker who use just one single image to tell the whole story, sequential narrative imagery in loves images displaying the beginning, middle and end of the story.  We looked at the inspiring work of Duane Michaels, his work involving sequence in a way that i have never come across with any other photographer I know. Duane was the first photographer to cross the boundary in the 1960's and introduce conceptual, narrative imagery to the world where documentary styled photography was the norm. As quoted by Michaels 

``American photography`s always dealt with going out and documenting the facade of a building. It`s very seldom dealt with the interior landscape. . . . my kind of photography has really been somewhat of a wolf in a hen house, in the sense that in America it hasn't been accepted that much. It is accepted now, but it`s a relatively new notion, to sit down and think about something and make it happen, rather than looking for it.``

Michaels work consisted of around 9-15 images, with various techniques such as double exposure and slow shutter speed and motion blur to create emotion to add to the story. He later went on to add handwritten headers for each image to ensure the viewers had an idea of the emotion or subject the image was trying to evoke.

My favourite sequence so far by Michaels is Things are Queer 1973, I love his surrealism and in this particular series I like the way the story comes full circle so there isn't really a beginning, middle or end even though it does tell a story, very clever and inspiring indeed!

Another example of sequential imagery was the work of Muybridge. His work is a great example of the basics of sequential narrative imagery, purely for scientific reason, he documented the bio mechanics of the human body and animals etc. 

muybridge: sequential images from single or different cameras; sensation or perception of the surface of the moving body.

We were given a small task to experiment with sequential narrative imagery in class. In threes we were given a name for our storyboard. We then had 15 minutes or so to go out as a team and shoot a storyboard. Our word was suspicion. 

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The storyboard images were taken with my iPhone camera and put together with a collage app. 

Clockwise from top left, image 1 shows a text asking can I talk, image 2 reveals the readers identity as me, image 3 shows another person looking at their phone also, image 4 reveals that we are both in the same room and that another colleague is also suspicious with the simultaneous message alerts from the both of us. The last image 4 is revealing the screen of the phone in image 4, an innocent bank alert text. As viewers we were led to believe that the persons in image 2 and 3 were texting each other and that the text in image 1 was from the person in image 3. Suspicion.

Given the time we had to create a story and photograph and present I thought our storyboard was effective and needed only a little explanation. I thought the title we had was quite difficult. For example a simple quick themed storyboard titled happy could include a series of images consisting of a head and shoulder portrait of someone with a straight face to a soft smile to a big cheesy grin.

This particular storyboard could have been more effective if we had more time but given that it was a half hour mini task we were happy with our results.