NEW MEDIA & WRITING: Images

First, watch this:  Heaven, Earth, Tequila by Douglas Menuez  (thanks to Anne at Ample Sanity for the link).  It is unbelievably beautiful and moving.

So the question posed to me was, "Can you tell a story with photos alone?"

Of course, I think.  Perhaps not me or not me doing it as well as with words, but others can certainly use images alone without the need for language.  There have been movies made with just music for audio and flashing images to present story.  Cartoons come to mind, strips or even singles without text or dialogue.  But the question goes deeper:  Is there a story?

Maybe it doesn’t always come through as a traditional linear narrative, but I believe a story is always there.  Even better, images leave much to the experiences of the viewer to write the story (Roland, are you there?) and the story will vary greatly.  Think of the Mona Lisa.  Is she married, a mother?  Going down these roads will give us backstory, a past.  Why is she sitting there smiling?  Is it her home?  Why is she happy–and is she really, or is she putting on a show for Da Vinci?  Maybe she’s just glad her spaghetti sauce smells so good.  And where is her story going from here–to pick up her child from it’s cradle?  To boil pasta?  Will she be sneaking out to see a lover tomorrow?  That’s likely to make her smile today–the now of the image.

Just as text often cannot pin down (and more often, shouldn’t try) appearances to allow the reader to dredge up his own imagined visuals from experience and memory, images leave enough mystery and opportunity to develop different paths of story.

While on the one hand I’m anxious to add images and audio (whether spoken or musical) to enhance story, I need to learn the balance of the mediums (as well as the software!) so that each movement, each word or phrase, each action is not only served best by one or a combination of senses, but that there is still plenty left for the reader/viewer to write for himself.