Linear vs. Non-Linear Photography

1. Tableau photography that relies on “specific imagery and cultural codes for their narratives” function best with linear storytelling. Many of the images discussed within the chapter tell a very specific story; Jeff Wall’s Passerby is the story of a man being hunted or followed by another man, and Taylor-Wood’s Soliloquy describes the suicide of a 18^th century poet. These images contain the entire narrative within the frame, and really don’t strive to create an air of illusion. The viewer isn’t supposed to interpret the image except for the way the photographer intended. This type of photography wouldn’t be nearly as effective if the photograph was ambiguous or left to interpretation; there is a very specific story being told that is meant to be construed.
2. As the book describes ambiguous tableau photography with people, a photograph shot in this style “can carry intense but ambiguous drama that is then shaped by the viewer’s own trains of thought.” In Five People Thinking the Same Thing, there is a definite story described in the title, yet the photograph itself only contains one person, leaving the viewer to concoct a story that would fit the title. In this style of photography, things are purposefully not explained, to allow the viewer to interpret and create the narrative being hinted at.
3. Tableau photography without people can utilize either style. In the beginning of the section, Katherine Bosse’s Classroom contains an empty room, but the description of the room as a sort of sex hotel room allows some of the mystery to dissipate. The room is sad, and almost bare, and that tells the story in itself. Other photographs, like James Casebere’s Pink Hallway #3 has the ambiguity and mystery of non-linear photography, in that the image is nonsensical in subject matter. The image of a flooded hallway in what looks like a normal house does not look natural, and so invites the viewer to invent a reason for the scene. Landscapes and spaces can have just as much personality as a person if shot correctly, and so can provide the same amount of mystery or story as an image with a figure.