storytelling

A friend and I were talking recently about storytelling. Specifically, storytelling in photography. I've been thinking a lot the last few days about that conversation, and having big ideas - seeing perfect photographs in my mind. All travel and romance.

My reality lately, however, has been a more tedious affair of printing for a show and living with photos that are pieces of a (yet to be created) whole. My work up north is far from finished, but some days I feel as though it's not even started. Today, though, I'm happy with this edit, and I'm certain this will be a good show. But, I'm seeing ghosts.

Several weeks on, the idea of storytelling has really been stuck in my craw. It's an infinitely difficult endeavor - assembling a group of photos that tell an accessible story, not a group that simply share a common geography. In trying to find answers in my own work (with photos made and yet to be made) I began to think this week maybe it's not possible. I'm thinking to damn much. This happens when I go through stretches of not making photos. Excuses.

Then, today, I was fortunate to see Dough Dubois' ..all the days and nights. I've seen the light. Storytelling. Pure and simple. Everything about this book (except maybe the design which I hope grows on me) is pure gold. Complex, but not heavy handed. Beautiful, but dirty. Dubois just gets it - effortlessly it seems. And the rare gem in the precursor to the photos, of which I finally read after several viewings, is a line from Donald Antrim's words: "It's a collection of 62 photographs taken over twenty-five years, and so already we know we are being provocatively, poetically, mislead.







photos © Doug Dubois