The Visual Narrative with Kelly Sutton || February 2017

EXPLORING THE ART OF DOCUMENTARY STORYTELLING
With KELLY SUTTON
February 27th – March 12th, 2017
Registration now open

Storytelling is as old as mankind, and yet remains one of our most powerful forms of art. And over our lifetime, thousands of stories will pass through us, but there are some that stand out above all others. What is it about those stories that keep them with us? Those stories have something special…a special kind of magic, a special kind of truth…a special kind of something that grabs us by the feelings, and pulls us in to stay awhile. These are the stories that make up the fabric of our histories.

Most days, we walk around in those special kind of stories. But how can we remember them for how they feel in that moment of happiness, sadness, quiet, or wild? How can we best use our cameras to document these moments in a way that breathes of honesty and emotion? Whether these fractions of a second belong to you or a client, they are fractions of a second nonetheless, that will at some point have the ability to rewind the hands of time.

During this two week course of study, we will explore writing these stories with our hearts, and our camera, to document beautifully raw portrayals of true life. As a former, Middle School Writing Teacher, I see many parallels between the principles of a strong written story, and a strong visual story. We will begin with looking at the fundamental elements of writing, and translate them into a framework, from which we can develop an understanding of the essential layers of documentary storytelling.

Also during our time together, we will study past and current photographer storytellers, discuss techniques for editing for stronger stories, as well as curating images into a collection or series to tell a larger story. Lastly, we will talk about the potential for creating art and documenting stories through iphoneography. For this course, assignments have been created to help participants experiment with the different components of storytelling. Individual video critiques will be available on assignments for all active members, as well as an invitation to join a private Facebook group to further build community and continue conversation. All students, active and silent, will receive a PDF of materials after the class has concluded.

For more information including the class syllabus and the registration links, just visit the The Visual Narrative workshop page.