BLIND BOYS (SELECTED IMAGES)

THE MULTI-LEVEL PICTURE STORY
(1962) Contemporary Photographer Volume 5, Number 3

What I call "the multi-level picture story" meets all the requirements of the simple picture story form and the need of journalism to give information, yet somehow transcends this to tell "stories" on deeper levels.

The classic definition of a picture story is a group of photographs with a beginning, a middle and an end -- a narrative structure. The simplest and earliest form was the sequence, pictures closely related in time showing the development of an action.

Then came that plethora of "a day in the life of" stories whose only narrative was chronological. I seem to remember uncounted pictures of hands groping for alarm clocks followed irrevocably by breakfasts, waved goodbys and finally the candlelit restaurants and bed shots.

As picture stories have become more sophisticated, the form has shifted from chronological to dramatic development. The lead spreads state a thesis or situation. The middle spreads show first an antithesis and then the conflict between the two. The final spreads show the change or outcome of the action and possibly make a comment on the outcome.

The multi-level picture story flows primarily from an awareness of the symbolic posssibilities of the subject matter. This awareness may come either during the shooting or afterwards. There's more vitality when it comes later.] The multi-level picture story attempts to crystallize the symbolic implications of the story without doing violence to the dramatic development or journalistic value of the subject matter. It accepts the basic structure of the picture story (the dramatic development), but attempts to insure the development of symbolic levels as well. Thus it is closer to the epic or operatic form than the lyric. Finally, it relies heavily on layout because the deeper and more complex vision it hopes to produce flows as much from the relationships of pictures in size and space on the printed page as it does from the individual images or their sequence.

As an example of what the various levels of a picture story can be and how they have been attempted in a particular story, I have included the Blind Boys story in my portfolio.

1) The Informational level: The simple journalistic requirements of who, what, when, where and why must be handled early in the story. The journalistic goal of the Blind Boys story was to show the total humanness and remarkable physical dexterity of blind children, primarily through the experiences of a single child in a nursery school for the blind. The following facts had to be established early in the story:
a) Who or what is the subject of the story? The white boy and blindness.

b) Where and when does the story take place? In a nursery school during the day.

c) What is happening? The struggle to live life blind -- to live it fully, with gaiety.

2) The Characters: In any story that deals with one or two individuals, some attempt must obviously be made to show what kind of people they are and have the action flow believably from their characters.

In the Blind Boys, the main character is seen as introverted, lonely, frightened, yet searching. The second boy is extroverted, friendly and lines of development must be inherent in the events photographed. They cannot be staged or, to my mind, the essential point of journalism as a true record of events is thwarted. They must be discovered: even toward the end of a shooting when the conscious awareness of themes may occur and especially later when the disjointed events are edited into narrative sequence.

3) The Plot line - Emotional Development: The story starts in sorrow and loneliness, withdrawal from teachers and peers and even victimization by peers as on the second spread. The turning point is the exhilaration and happiness which come as the main character is befriended, led to dance and toot a tentative flute on the third spread. Hope is evoked as he comes to that level of self-assurance that he can begin to give affection and comfort to a third child on the last spread. As a catharsis to this happy resolution (and a more honest ending to the story), the final picture produces the jolting reminder that his life will still be lived out against the blank wall of his blindness.

4) The Plot Line -- Allegorical Development: On this level, the story is the chronicle of an act of kindness, the need for it, the nature of real kindness (it must have substance suited to the needs of its object as well as emotion), what an act of kindness can generate (other acts of kindness, "the diffusion of charity"). And yet there is still the blank wall: one act, many acts may not be enough. The acts of kindness actually took place during the story; the decision to be concerned with charity in the world flows from that awareness of allegory spoken of as an earmark of the multi-level picture story. And, as it should be, the allegorical development actually strengthens the journalistic aims to show "the total humanness" of the blind.

5) The Editorial Level: By this level, I mean the social or political goal one has in mind when doing a particular story beyond simply supplying information. The Blind Boys was originally assigned to encourage people to support the agency which runs the nursery school. However, one reason for narrowing the story to these particular children was the fact of the interracial friendship, and its nature. It enabled the picture story to have relevance to the integration struggle by pointing up the irony that it is precisely the Negro who is helping the white and the white who has something to gain -- the ability to have amicable relations with his fellow men confident. Both are blind.

The only level that is flatly stated is the journalistic, but the layout must have the potential of being read on the other levels. Or put in another way, when I look back at the layout of the journalistic level it must play back to me the other levels. Or, if a different set of captions were written for the same pictures and layout, the allegorical levels should still be apparent. But the precise value of the allegorical level is that it not be spelled out as I have done here; but, at most, barely suggested, at best, left to the viewer to discover.

The multi-level picture story is a very precarious exercise; there is always the danger of overemphasizing the allegorical possibilities and disregarding the primary aim: to produce a series of photographs that show a story development on the journalistic level. This temptation exists at every step in the production of the story but it must be overcome.

First of all, the various lines of development must be inherent in the events photographed. They cannot be staged or, to my mind, the essential point of journalism as a true record of events is thwarted. They must be discovered: even toward the end of a shooting when the conscious awareness of themes may occur and especially later when the disjointed events are edited into narrative sequence.

The first step in editing is to review the entire take for the most moving and telling photographs. These must then be put in a sequence which roughly tells the basic journalistic story.

At this point, the layout as well as sequence becomes crucial. Certain pictures in certain relationships on a page will further all the levels of the story; others, with the same content, will only further the informational level. Certain points made in a picture can be destroyed or minimized by the layout, especially layout done solely for design considerations. This is a particular problem in the contemporary magazine field, at least for those who wish to make picture stories. The antagonists seem to me to be those who see pictures merely as shapes to be organized into further design shapes on the page and those who see pictures as all this, but as having meaningful content which must also be communicated. The latter group also realize that a meaning beyond that implicit in the individual photographs can be achieved by the dynamic juxtaposition in size, place and design of several photographs on a page. At any rate, the multi-level picture story demands a layout for meaning for its very existence.

The multi-level picture story is a rarity in photojournalism. In general, what is published is the collection or potpourri -- pictures related in subject matter or time. The usual news story is composed of pictures made at an event -- there is rarely even an attempt to run pictures that expose the meaning of the event. The pictures at best just show what happened.

Blind Boys went through several layout stages, most of them in terms of simplification or design; two of them for meaning. The original layout was much as you see here, except that the closing photograph was a close-up of the white boy with a broad grin on his face -- a happy ending, but one untrue to the real situation and to the other levels of the story. The second version included the current ending, but had the close-up head which is now on the first spread, full page on the second spread. The layout as presented here is my current and final layout.