“Order, unity, and continuity are human inventions, just as truly as catalogues and encyclopedias.” – Bertrand Russell
Continuity lies at the heart of the art of storytelling. The types of images selected and the transitions made between images presented in groups can be powerful tools for visual communication. Sequences can provide useful comparisons and contrasts between separate images and their contents. They set a pace and rhythm for looking. Carefully orchestrated, they can create the illusion of moving in time forward or backward, linearly or non-linearly. They can be used in extremely creative ways. The best sequences make both individual images and the journey created by presenting many images in sequence clearer, more meaningful, and more moving.
Continuity is key. Every screenwriter needs to create it. Every storyboard artist needs to interpret it. Every director needs to guide it. Every editor needs to refine it. If you’re a still photographer, you may be called to do all of these things.
Photographers can use continuity to guide and structure initial explorations on site as well as to resolve challenging transitions and find missing gaps while continuing to develop projects.
First, create a storyboard as a checklist to make sure no angle goes uncovered; this will stimulate you to come up with many more creative solutions, so you’ll have more images to choose from. Then, update your storyboard to find out what you’ve got too much or too little and find connections between disparate images.
Photographers also can use continuity to edit, sequence, and present existing work more effectively; use the same skills to fine-tune a story in sophisticated and compelling ways.
Just like composing music, there are specific strategies you can use and many possible ways you can apply them to solve creative challenges. How you apply them may become as much a part of your style as composition and processing.
Here are some classic strategies for sequencing images and creating transitions between them.
Erika Funke (WVIA NPR PBS) lead an inspiring discussion, including curator Heather Sincavage (Sordoni Art Gallery), about my exhibit Landscapes Within Landscapes at Wilkes University on display through May 13.
The physical exhibit is closed now …
… but the online experience continues.
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March 21 – May 14
Landscapes Within Landscapes & Process
Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University, Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania
The gallery is currently open by appointment only.
Email email melissa.carestia@wilkes.edu
Landscapes Within Landscapes
50 large prints survey the artist’s career; this exhibit illuminates how the perception of nature and the nature of perception are deeply intertwined. How we see the land changes how we see ourselves. The artist suggests we are land, not apart from nature but a part of Nature.
Process
25 small prints unveil the artist’s practices in detail, showing how process influences perception.
Enhanced with audio, video, and hybrid texts, the two exhibits combined offer a unique look into contemporary visions of land and changes in photographic practice.
Catalog
A catalog expanding upon the exhibit will be available.
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Sordoni Art Gallery – Wilkes University, Wilkes Barre, PA
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Events
Monday, March 20
3:15 PM – Interview with Erika Funke, WVIA NPR
Tuesday, March 21
11:15-12:45 – How To Be More Creative
5-6 pm – Lecture / Meditations In Nature
6-7 pm – Reception
Wednesday, March 22
1-2:15 – Ekphrastic Writing Workshop
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Clouds roll in.
The sky clears.
Sequence can enhance images and may even change the stories they tell.
Sequence
How you present your images can be as important as which ones you select. It’s the art of sequencing (and it is an art), which involves specific techniques that you can learn. What are some of the guiding principles involved? Here are a few.
Quality
Start strong. Finish strong. Make getting there interesting. Whether a symphony, a novel, or an exhibit, it’s good advice for arranging any creative project.
Identifying your strongest image is essential. It sets the highest level of quality, against which all others will be measured. It alone may help you create an appropriate structure for the rest of your work. This singular image is often used to lead a body of work (in the announcement of your project and possibly as the first images seen in the sequence), becoming the most frequently viewed image.
While you may want to arrange your images from strongest to weakest for your own information, you certainly don’t want to present them to other people this way. Instead, you want to tease out your strongest images along the way, sustaining attention toward a strong finish.
While not every image you include in a project needs to be equally strong, a majority of images included should be representative of your best work. The rest should be almost as good. Use lesser images only when they help illustrate essential points that would otherwise be overlooked or add complexity and dimension.
No amount of arranging will make up for the lack of high-quality work. It may be easier to build mass into a project by including lesser amid stronger works; this is rarely an effective strategy. Quality makes the primary impact. Volume is secondary. Even if taken to an extreme, a large dose of average work is far less impressive than a small dose of high-quality work.
To sequence a project, you can use the metaphor of building a fence. The strongest pieces can be thought of as posts. The less strong pieces can be thought of as rails. You want to start and end with the very strongest pieces to create a strong structure. You want to periodically reinforce runs of less strong units with one or more stronger units. You don’t want long runs of rails without posts, or the structure may fail. A fence made only of posts becomes something else entirely, a wall with no variation or grace. The number of strong pieces you include determines how long your fence can be before it gets weak or falls apart.
Story
It’s helpful to identify the story you’re telling. This will impact not only your selection of images but also your presentation of them. Think of each individual picture as a chapter in a book. Simple phrases and sentences can help you. You can logline the entire story, and you can also logline single images (if not every image, then key images that mark transitions) to better understand the function they serve.