CLOSAT - I miss you, Charlie

[texxter]

Dallas photographer, filmaker, teacher extraordinaire and dear friend Charlie Freeman died in Dec while I was in Miami. Couldn't even say goodbye to him. I did unearth some portraits I had made of him, printed them nicely and offered them to his widow, who was moved by them.

Now that he's gone he won't be teaching CLOSAT to his students anymore. I wanted to pay respect to his memory by sharing this learning from one of Charlie's classes. I don't have the flair and talent to tell it as Charlie used to, plus I am typing and not speaking, but hopefully his ideas will come across.

The teaching moment is about story telling and narrative photography. Generally we think of photojournalism and photo essays when we mention "story telling" - it's also possible to tell stories with a single picture. We can let our imagination create these stories, using the elements described below, and then bring them to life with our cameras.

What are the elements of a visual story? Charlie used CLOSAT as a mnemonic for these six elements below. A story doesn't have to have all these elements, but, as we develop an idea for an image, it's helpful to keep them all in front of us and think thru each of them.

C - Character - who is this picture about? Who is he/she? What's unique, distinctive, interesting about each character? Or the group of people being photographed? Example: three women isolated in their own worlds, close together, but seemingly unaware of each other. They are young and lovely.

L - Location - where is the action taking place? How does the location relate to the subject? Is it a long shot, medium shot or close shot? Example: an old hospital or institutional ward, with large windows. Light enters thru the windows and fills the ward with sunshine. It's a long shot with three planes, foreground, midground and background.

O - Object(s) - what physical objects are needed to tell the story? How are they connected to the subject and the location? Example: the women are sitting on individual hospital beds, arranged randomly on the ward, and they wear light gowns. Each bed occupies one of three spatial planes.

S - Situation - what is happening? what human or physical interactions are taking place? how does the situation relate to the location, subject and other objects? Example: the women do not seem to be physically sick, and the setting seems more like a mental instutitution than a modern medical hospital. The women are lost in their own thoughts, on the beds, caressed by sunlight, motionless, almost glowing. There is a janitor there also, seemingly unaware of the presence of these young, lovely women around him.

A - Activity - what events, actions, movements are going on? How is the subject engaged in activities with the objects on this location? Example: the woman are quietly resting on the beds, sitting on them, in pensive poses, looking down. The janitor is moping the floor looking down too. Time seems to be stopped here.

T - Theme - what is the mood, feeling, emotion emanating from the interaction of subject, location, objects and the situation among them? Example: another time, in the past, sparse, quiet, beautiful, serene, peaceful but at the same time unsettling and disturbing, as we can't explain exactly where they are and why. Are the women insane? Are they being kept under their will? It feels like disturbing beauty.

Charlie actually told this story, and is one of the images on his website. Go to charliefreeman.com, Portfolios -> Stories, and it will be the 9th image from the beginning.

See ya, Charlie, I'll CLOSAT some for you this year.

[Lexie]

Sorry about your friend Paco. The portraits were a nice gesture and I'm sure his wife will treasure them. The image you pointed out does have a strange beauty to it. Thanks for writing and posting this.