Enigma Codes

• An ENIGMA CODE controls what the audience sees or knows. It is a question a media text will give to an audience and then proceed to solve whilst gaining the attention and interest of the audience. However in photography the “solve” aspect of an Enigma Code can not be achieved so the audience gets left on a permanent cliff hanger and has to draw a personal opinion based conclusion.

Narrative photography presents a Enigma Code to the viewer, a sort of fill in the blanks of what has happened and is about to happen. Unlike film, or a novel where one can follow the protagonist throughout the story gathering insight into their motivation, there is only one single image, an

introduction to an event or person. The narrative continues beyond the single frame; one has to decipher the information confronting them, make sense out of it, and decide how the story relates to

their own reality.

A genre which allows a narrative allows the mind to operate outside of its general margins; one is not only recounting history, but recreating it into their image using their own experiences. Even with visual storytelling in photography, success is based on the artist’s ability to present an attention-grabbing idea

worth an audience’s time.

There must be a concept, and a point that allows the observer to relate, to discover a reason to care. According to Robert McKee, author of Story, “Master storytellers know how to squeeze life out of the

least of things, while poor storytellers reduce the profound to the banal.” (McKee 28)

A staged narratives concept can be pretty much anything the photographer wishes to express because the whole methodology allows you to produce practically anything.

Staged Narrative

Fashion PhotographyStaged Narrative Portrait

http://inspirationlab.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/gregorycrewdson3.jpg

Izima Kaoru

Peter Lindbergh, movie stills

The Getaway by Jason Lee Perry

The Getaway by Jason Lee Perry

Olga Kurylenko and Greg Williams: a Classic Scandal

Domestic Bliss by Steven Klein

David la chapelle

Pierre et Giles

An enchanted age

Chris Timothy

Chris Timothy

Chris Timothy

Chris Timothy

Chris Timothy