Response to Lecture

I'm so sad that we only have one more lecture left :'( In today's lecture we mostly concentrated on sequence/narrative aspects in film, comics, and photographs. I really enjoyed the work that Kip showed by Duane Michals. Although we have already completed our sequence/narrative projects in class, his photographs gave me a new perspective that I had not thought about before. I never considered making my narrative circle back around in the way that he did. My biggest problem was thinking of an original narrative. I guess the way he dealt with that was by choosing topics super broad topics such as life, death, and "the human condition" to start from. It is so amazing to see what he could achieve in photography before the use of any digital effects. As I was looking through some image results, I can say that this one is one of my favorites:

I like this sequence in particular because Michals plays with serious subject matter (life/death, youth/elderly) and what they mean in an almost comical way. The first picture is completely opposite of the third in terms of a shift in tone. In the first shot, the tone is ominous and bleak. By the next photo, we can see the wings attached to the back of the old man so the comical elements start to creep in. The third I think, is extremely funny because you can tell without even seeing the young boy's face that he is confused. The old man seems crazy which explains his action in jumping out of the window in the next frame. By the end, the boy seems to be peering out across and we do not know if the man was successful in his attempt to fly. The child waves to him in the distance and in my mind, the man is flying. Just in scratching the surface of this sequence I realize that I could write a ten page paper on all that is said in it. It reminds me of Peter Pan as a grandfather, escaping death and deciding still to remain a boy forever. I love it's simplicity because it still raises such complex analysis. In this way, Michals tells a story through the sequence which is perhaps where I was confused in starting my own project. I tried to find the story first which made it more difficult. It had not occurred to me before now that the sequence and subject matter you begin with develops the narrative as things are pieced together.