Mini-Portfolio: Staged Scene with Narrative

Here's the full description of your next big homework project... 


Mini-Portfolio: Staged Image Narrative

due date: Monday March 29^th

Description: in contrast to the 10x100 series of found images where you semi-randomly found an image and then adapted your camera settings to it, in this series you will create a set of staged images, where you arrange, set-up, organize and light all qualities of the photo according to your artistic vision.  In other words, you’ll adapt the world to your artistry. Furthermore, across the entire staged series, your photos should reveal a narrative. This series requires a set of at least ten photos, staged, that together tell a story. The most successful series will work well together as a group, even though each photo will also work well on its own. This project is not a technical exercise... it will be graded on originality, artistry, and good use of technique to meet the needs of your artistry.

What’s a narrative? A narrative is a sequence of images that reveal a story. It could be a complex plot with many variables, or, a simple progression of an abstract design idea.

How do you stage the photo? Some considerations and questions...  


Main subject matter. What or who is your single most important character in the scenes that you’re creating? Is it the same character in each of the ten images that you create, or does the main character change from image to image? 

Supporting cast members. A prop is a symbol. Everything in your image helps create the meanings and communications of the picture. How do the supporting cast members contribute to the scene? Do any detract from the scene (if so, remove them).   

Background imagery. How complex or how simple should you make the background? Should it be in focus, or outside the depth of field and out of focus? Should it be many, a few, or only one single pattern? Should it be a block of one color, a gradation of one color, or mixtures of many colors? 

The space.  Should the scene's space be tight and claustrophic, or wide and open?

The Lighting. Where is the lighting? What kind of light sources are present? Can you alter the light sources? Can you or should you add or remove any light sources? Should you use direct light, or a combination of direct and reflected light? Adding light: there’s many options, from lighting a candle to bouncing light off a ceiling using a desk lamp, to using a flashlight, to flooding a room with theatre spot lights or specialty photo lights. Additionally, each light could be a gentle or specific color – why not add a piece of blue mylar between the light and your subject? Removing light: you can block a window with a dark piece of fabric, shade, or shutters. You could have a friend hold a piece of cardboard in the way of a light, to set its direction to a new angle. Reflected light: you can soften a lot of shadows by bouncing some light into the scene using a piece of white poster board, a colored piece of fabric, or a mirror

Special Effects. Will you need multiple exposures, color manipulations, or significant retouching? Use your recipe list to keep track of the operations you perform on each image.

The Overall Style. Each of the ten images should look similar enough that they can work together as a series, but different enough that each image stands well on its own. 


Here are some examples of narrative series from professional photographers: 

Exactitudes: composite portraits by Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek


The Veil Project: staged portraits of women with veils, by Erin Mulvehill


Exploded. composites by Adam Voorhes

 
Works by Matthew Albanese. Talk about creating complex staged scenes!!!!! Click on the gallery on the right of the screen. 


Gregory Crewdson. click on the pics on the right for more images. 



Time to start brainstorming! You have this week and the week after Spring Break plus a few more days to create your project.