Details Make a Story

What Story Am I Telling? 

  When I was younger, my mother would read stories to my brother and I before we went to bed.  She would sit between our beds, and we would lay and listen. Usually she read just a chapter or so, but for me, the stories continued until sleep took me. I would create my own endings, placing myself in as the main character and rewrite the story to fit my ideas. Now that I'm older, I see the world in stories. Everyone has a story, mine is boring to me, probably only because I've been living it for 18 years. Other peoples stories fascinate me though. I think its because they are the stories I haven't put myself in yet.

    When I look at my photos I ask myself if they tell a story, if not, I usually throw them away. These two pictures I took one afternoon on campus are some of my favorites. Because it fit the mood best, I took away most of the saturation/color, but I liked the way the red and yellow still popped out. as well as the mysterious background, for all the viewer knows this taken in Oregon and the girl is calling her vampire boyfriend for a ride... The other thing I really like about this pair is how different they are, even though they have the same subject, background, location, tone, mood... they tell completely different stories 

   

The only real difference is what my subject is doing, talking on cell phone, or writing a note... Yet the change in plot is profound.  At least, to me its profound.  I find myself asking completely different questions of her, instead of wondering who she is talking to, whether its family picking her up, or her boyfriend she misses and where she is going next. Instead I ask the second girl what she is writing, is it a reminder of some important task, or is it a brilliant idea for a new poem or drawing? Is it even for her? perhaps its for someone else entirely...

   Unanswered questions are what fueled the stories I made up after my mother turned off the lights. I see that same source of energy in some of my favorite work. The more questions I can ask my subjects the more my imagination has to work, and the better the story I can come up with.