What is the meaning of a

narrative? 1. A story or account of events, experiences, or the like,

whether true or fictitious.

2. A book, literary work, etc., containing such a story.

3. The art, technique, or process of narrating

Representing stories or events pictorially or sculpturally.

A narrative can be most things it can be song, speech and even a film.

Stories have been told since the beginning of time some ending happily others ending sadly. A story is like a life form as each time it’s told it can be changed in many different ways things can be added to it and things can be taken away.

Some stories have a purpose behind them some have morals some have something to teach us and others are simply told for amusement and to make

A narrative can also refer to aspects of a person’s psychology, a personal

narrative can occur in a time go by. person’s sense of personal identity and in the creation and construction of memories. It is thought by many professionals that a coherent or positive narrative has been implicated in the development

of psychosis and mental disorder.

Narrative can also be found in music, narrative music is music which tells a story

narrative music is completely unique due to the fact that it is completely

different to any other types of music such as background music and songs.

Narrative music sets a mood it tells the person how to feel, it makes you think

and reminisce , for example if it was used in a film it wouldn’t be used with

dialog as it would played quite loudly as to make you focus upon it. People have

different views on the concept of narrative music and the kind of role that it

plays. One theory is that the music is supposed to recite itself a French

musicologist by the name of Jean-Jacques Nattiez has his own definition and

maintains that ‘the narrative, strictly speaking, is not in the music, but in the

plot imagined and constructed by the listeners’ his argument is that referring to

music in terms of narrativity is simply metaphorical. While there are many

theories to the purpose of narrative music and what it represents much is yet to

be discovered.

Narrative art

Narrative art is artwork that tells a story either at a specific moment in an

ongoing story or as a chain of events taking place over a period of time. Since

the earliest days of humankind evidence has been found that suggests they told

stories through pictures. Unfortunately, without the general knowledge of the

story, it is very hard to read the ancient pictures our ancestors drew because

they are not organized in a specific way, instead they are placed randomly. So

we have to interpret them in our own way. Examples of this are cave paintings

which depict the humans and the animals that lived during that time.

This particular cave painting was found in a cave in Sabha, Libya and is believed

to be more than 13,000 years old it is interesting to look at and try to decipher

what our ancestors were trying to tell us but unfortunately it will remain a

mystery.

Examples of famous narrative art

A good example of narrative art is the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci

called the Last Supper in this painting Leonardo has depicted Jesus Christ and

his disciples having the last supper before Jesus tell his disciples that someone

will betray him. This is a perfect example of narrative art as we all know of the

last supper from the bible this one painting tells the whole story of the last

supper I’d like to think that this is where the phrase a picture worth 1000 words

comes from narrative art. Another reason why I think this a good example of

narrative art is because it is almost like Leonardo was there while this was

taking place as everyone is in conversation. A reason why this painting is so

famous is because Leonardo has painted Jesus Christ and his disciples to appear

very human given that Leonardo had painted this is in 1495 it really emphasises

his talent.

Another good example of narrative art is by Mark Tansey

This painting is entitled ‘Forward Retreat’

The painting depicts four horsemen sitting in opposite direction of which you

would normally sit and are seen in the reflection of water in terms of

composition I like the placement of the vases and broken frames and the sepia

colour of the painting itself. Through some research I have discovered the

horseback riders are a representation of the Western Powers (American, French,

German, and British) a good indication of this is if you look at the rider 2nd from

left he has a spike on his helmet these are the helmets that German soldiers wore

during WW1.

Narrative Photography

Narrative Photography is the telling of story through a sequence of images or a

single image. Narrative photography is basically narrating the world when you

take a picture of something there is always a story behind it. In photography,

narrative is related to the idea of context. Narrative photography is also the idea

of a picture worth 1000 words.

A narrative photographer I have chosen to study is Paul Smith. He uses a variety

of different media in work such as combining different images of him into one via

photography. He takes multiple pictures of himself in different clothing doing

different actions. This is a very intriguing and unique way of telling a story

through narrative photography. The images he has created are perfectly edited

so the natural and realistic. He is a very British artist, and what is meant by this

is that he includes the stereotypical Britishnes in his work such as the album

entitled Robbie Williams depicting the British public love of football. My favourite

of Paul Smiths is the album entitled the make my night where he presents the

idea of his perfect night out through narrative photography and the technique of

dressing in different clothing representing a different person. Personally I really

like this particular album because I find it humorous also it is very genuine you

can tell that Paul Smith enjoys his work, and it makes you reminisce about

personal experiences which brings back either happy or distressing memories.

Although the images are of the stereotypical English youth and public of being

drunk and acting frivolous they are relatable to allot of people who have

indulged in those activities under the influence of alcohol. It’s these two albums

in particular which make him relatable to the British public. What also makes his

work very relatable is that even those who are not as cultured and have a good

understanding of art can appreciate it as it is indeed humorous and very well

done in terms of editing as the composition does look very natural.

The picture on the left if from the album ‘Robbie Williams’ and the picture on

the right is from the album ‘make my night’.

Another album which Paul Smith is the album entitled ‘Heroes’ depicting him

doing actions that you would see in action movies such as the typical scenes you

would except to see in a James Bond or die hard movie. Paul wouldn’t put

himself in the actual situation he would most likely take the picture of himself

doing the action then editing the background in Photoshop then obviously editing

lighting and show to make it correspondent to the lighting of the background

image. These single images basically tell the whole story of a film as you would

see this image and you would instinctively think of action movies and explosions

etc.

Both of these images are from the album entitled ‘Heroes’.

Another photographer that I have chosen to look at is Grace Cherubino his work

is completely different in comparison to other artists in terms of narrative

photography. Grace’s photography consist black and white images placed in a

sequence and is visually reminiscent of comic strip.

This style of presenting his work is what differs him

from other artists and also that he uses inanimate

objects these sequence photos. To the left is a an

example of Graces work showing the sequence of

photos we probably couldn’t tell what the story he’s

trying to tell us but that might actually be his

intention to let us make our own perception.

Here is an example of the sequence photos using inanimate objects I especially

like this piece because what he’s doing is he is personifying these objects and

using them to tell a story. It’s like he’s giving life to these completely random

objects and giving them a purpose. I think he trying to tell us that even random

objects like these have a purpose and have a story to tell. This could be a

reflection on today’s society that even those people to seem to be unimportant

and insignificant to us have stories to tell. Like the people we ignore everyday

such as a homeless person on the street. He’s basically saying that every person

is significant and every person has a purpose.

Dara Scully is another narrative photographer I have chosen to look at her work

because she is also has a very unique style of narrative photography it’s almost

like a children’s book kind of style which makes her work more fun and innocent.

This style is seen in her album entitled Little Dreams a good example of the

story book reference is in the album itself she has created an image where she is

dressed little red riding hood and she’s being chased by a wolf. What I

specifically like about this album is her use of animals in her images which she

has obviously edited in Photoshop but this is a quite a good idea and quite

unique its similar to Paul Smith but using animals instead of other people. It this

reason specifically why I chose to do my actual narrative in her style because of

the kind of story book style I wanted to do the same but not with an single

image instead I chose to make more like an actually story and use pages. In the

album Little Dreams she appears to be very friendly and nice but looking at her

other work it makes you really develop a completely different view of her work in

general so it makes her and unpredictable artist which is good an artist who

includes quite abit of diversity

in the work makes them more

likeable in the way that their

work will continue to interest

you this is another reason why

Dara Scully’s really stands out

to me.

This image in particular stood out for me because instead of using and actual

bear like she has used in her other images she’s has edited a bear head onto a

human which is a really good and unique idea it like the human is an actor

playing the bear and bear head makes him actually look like a bear.

What I thought would

be a creative idea would be to include this type of narrative of putting animal

head on people , so I decided to go to London and take pictures of crowds of

people and edit animal heads on them. In this picture I edited sheep heads on

the people implying that these people are like sheep in the way that all these

business types walk together like a heard and also in the way that their all the

same there is hardly any diversity in them. In the

other picture I have done I thought I would do

something different other than sheep and I thought

of placing meerkat heads on them because meerkats

always move together and you always see them in

groups this is what I’m implying in my work. What

did was use the images of the sheep and place the

heads on the people from the pictured and editing

lighting and using the blur to make the composition

look more natural. In the picture with sheep heads unfortunately I wasn’t able to

find any images of the back of sheep heads so I wasn’t really able to edit those.

So to extended and progress my narrative even further I thought I would like to

include this idea of the kind story book in my narrative extension but I was

originally going to make my narrative extension with one person but, instead of

using just one person with a animal head I would use two to make the story

more interesting and setting myself more of a challenge in the process, also I

thought it was a different idea from my previous narrative plus I thought it

would be more original to create a book instead of just images. I haven’t

included any writing in the book apart from the title because I like the idea of

people looking at my book and making up their or perception of it and kind

creating their own story in a way. But what the main idea is that the bear meets

the lemur and they decide to go on journey to create a story for themselves and

they have an argument.

Richard Vantielcke is another narrative artist that I have briefly chosen to look

but his work is similar to Dara Scully but instead of using animals and editing animal heads he uses a cardboard box with a face on in it, I find his work more

natural as he hasn’t really done much editing except for adding a vignette and lo-mo lighting but Richards work seems more lonely and is like a sad story in comparison with Dara Scully’s work which is more brighter and happier. While

looking at Dara Scully’s and Richards work I chose to combine their work into my own by using the animals heads and making the 1st part of the story happy

with the characters becoming friends and going for adventure and the second part sadder when they have a argument. So basically I have included the best of both artists in my work. But I have included a twist as the 1st part of the

narrative in the forest is darker even though it’s supposed to be a happy scenario and the 2nd which is supposed to be a sadder scenario darker. I was

originally indenting on including more images in my narrative but I didn’t want it to be too much like a story book, now it’s more artistic and makes you think more about it as you try to comprehend what’s going on. I haven’t really got a

moral to my story I have had to choose one to represent my narrative it would be that unlikely characters may become friends but they will always fall apart in

the end.

Here is an example of Richard

Vantielcke’s work as you can see he

has darkened it quite abit using the

vignette and he’s slightly bowing his

head which its these elements which

make a more saddening narrative.