THE ART OF SEEING | Story Gives Shape To Chaos

“Story gives shape to chaos”.

 

It’s a line you’ll see throughout my work but Story is everywhere. When we are struggling, a friend might tell us a reassuring Story about how they or someone they knew overcame a similiar situation. When we are children, we are told a Story with a happy ending, to make us feel safe and held, before bed. At a gathering, we share amusing and interesting Stories to connect and entertain.

But have you ever been at a gathering and had someone tell you a Story about someone you don’t know, about a place you’ve never been too, and maybe using unusual words you don’t often hear? You kind of get it, you're really trying to listen, but it really just feels like a bunch of random things. It feels like a list, not a Story. It wont be something you remember and well, the whole conversation likely felt like hard work. 

I think that learning photography (and learning in general) has unfortunatley felt the same for many people. If you can't sense a connection of how this relates to you in some way, your system marks it as irrelevant. So you wont remember, therefore you won't learn. 

On a camera, there's a bunch of buttons and dials, all requiring multiple decisions to be made in a short space of time. There's so much advice out there, told with a language you’ve not really heard before — about aperture or focal length or dynamic range. It’s that same feeling — overwhelming and awkward. Wondering how can you politely leave (and get your money back).

What is missing… is Story.

Story is the invisible connective tissue that connects you with your self, your family and friends, your possessions, the land — the entire world around you. Without it, it would just be seemingly random objects. Story creates meaning in thoses space inbetween — and it's those connections that bring coherence. That's where it all begins to makes sense. 

And this is how I teach photography. 

I build on what you already know, with what you already have. I connect you with all those buttons and dials on this magical light capturing box — so you can tell your own Story that only you, can see.