- Unit Information
- Photo Narrative
- Illustration
Narrative in Design
In Design our first task was to produce a photo-narrative diptych in which the first photograph sets up the environment and displays an insecurity or issue the photographed character while the second photograph depicted the character facing something that is forcing him/her to make a choice related to their issue, creating a "pregnant pause". For my photo narrative I chose to depict the struggle of a claustrophobic man because I too deal with that issue and I feel I was able to accurately portray my characters struggle. Our second task was to create an illustration that somehow told a story. I chose to take the character of Death from my animation and use him as the focal point of my illustration.
Artist Statement
For my photo narrative diptych I chose to tell the story of a claustrophobic man named Terry McDowell. As a child, a traumatic experience brought on his claustrophobia, which is depicted in the first photograph. This perpetual fear, along with an undiagnosed anxiety disorder, caused him to become a very anxious being who spent the majority of his time alone. In his adult life he, like most people who are claustrophobic, has a very difficult time taking the elevator. The second photograph depicts this man standing anxiously in front of an elevator while his fiance is waiting impatiently inside, showing the strain his anxiety puts on his relationships. Now he must decide whether to sacrifice for the woman he loves or serve his anxiety and further alienate her, possibly to the point of the relationship ending.
The first photograph is darkly lit with the exception of the claustrophobic man as a child, to emphasize the anxiety he felt during his traumatic experience. The many people surrounding him act metaphorically as an ever encroaching ring of fear, slowly closing in on him, causing his claustrophobia. In the second photograph the surrounding environment is calmly lit while the elevator is drastically darker, which shows how frightened he is off it. His fiance is catching a beam of light, illuminating her as a happy part of his otherwise anxiety ridden life. Unfortunately her defeated and impatient expression is meant to show how despite her many efforts to compromise as much as possible, the man's claustrophobia is slowly destroying their relationship.
Even Death Needs a Break Once in Awhile
Both my animation and short story follow the path of Death as he watches a woman named Lydia Holmes commit suicide and hears her thoughts as she falls to her death from the top of her office building. Just before she hits the ground she realizes she has fallen in love with one of her co-workers and quickly reexamines her choice to die, finding it to be a mistake. Needless to say there is no happy ending to this story. As Death slowly pulls Lydia's soul from her fingertips and sticks it in his bowler hat, he cries for the first time. This illustration is meant to be a sequel to this occurrence. Death was so distraught by this particular Death that he felt it necessary to take a quick break to play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and relax for the first time since the Treaty of Versailles. Firstly, this is meant to humanize Death, given that, of our own accord, he has gained an unhealthy amount of power over our lives. In addition to that this is an attempt to possibly dissuade the perfectionism of today's society in which everyone needs to do everything and by God they are going to do it perfectly. This is obviously quite unhealthy. If even Death, the man with the most depressing occupation on Earth, needs to take a break every once in awhile, I think it's fair that you can as well.
The color scheme is fairly drab and dark which allows for a rather morose environment, which, I suppose, Death would be quite accustomed to. Death's bowler hat is hung on the edge of the piano to illustrate a feeling of relaxation. Death is not wearing the traditional black cloak because I feel that if Death were a real person, I doubt he would want his presence to be so easily recognized. The brand name on the side of the piano reads "Steinway & Daughters" because Lydia, a woman, not a man, committed suicide so I felt that to be suitable.
