Q. What’s the difference between a linear and non-linear narrative?

A. The image “narrative” is basically the story that an image tells (similar in some ways to literary or film narrative). An image with a linear narrative is one that has an accessible story line that often follows a “beginning, middle and end” format. Images (or groups of images) with non-linear narratives are more mysterious and open to interpretation. It can be harder to tell what the story is about or where you are in its progression.

The image above by Lauren Greenfield is taken from a series of before-and-after photographs of girls in treatment for eating disorders. They are gripping portraits and serve to document a very specific kind of personal struggle and transformation. They are linear in the sense that we can quickly grasp the storyline. The photograph below, by William Eggleston, is a little harder to decipher. It is also of a teenage girl, standing on a street corner at night, but that is really all that we know. In fact, the only distinguishing visual in this photograph is that the pattern on the girl’s dress is remarkably similar to the brick wall behind her and she is possibly being illuminated by a headlight. This is part of Eggleston’s genius. We are intrigued by this person – her dress, her posture, her gaze – but we essentially have no other information about her (is she a deer in headlights?). To fully understand the complex narrative of this photograph, we would have to look at the other pictures in this series, Dust Belles.