The document summarizes Ed Van Der Elsken's 1954 photobook "Love On The Left Bank" and provides instructions for an assignment where students will tell a story using only photographs. Key points: - "Love On The Left Bank" used only photos to chronicle the life of a fictional woman in 1950s Paris bohemian culture, helping establish rebellious youth culture photography. Each photo advanced the narrative while also standing alone. - The assignment tasks students with planning and taking photos that tell a story using one disposable camera with no editing. Students must consider atmosphere, include portraits and scenes, and have photos follow the story chronologically. There will be no discarding photos. The goal is

1. A2 Photography 2013
Story Telling Project
Ed Van Der Elsken’s ‘Love On The Left Bank’ project was published as a photobook in 1954. In this
book only photographs are used to chronicle the life of Ann, a fictional character living in the
bohemian left bank area of Paris. It is among the first of picture books to capture the birth of
rebellious youth culture across Europe.
The pictures work together to create a Narrativehowever each photograph works on its own. There
is no ‘big event’ in the book and little actually happens but what we see is a story of the life Ann lives
as well as a detailed portrait of the Left Bank and the character of the bohemian lifestyles of those
living there. There is also no conclusion or greater message being communicated- we are left to form
our own conclusion- to work out the characters for ourselves. You will notice when you look at the
images that not every photograph contains the main character, instead they give a sense of
atmosphere or place- it is this sense of atmosphere that is maintained throughout the book and one
of the reasons it works so well.
Your Task
You will now start to tell a story through photographs. Think of a story you could tell- it
could be a journey or a meeting, it could last the whole day/week/year or just a few
minutes. There doesn’t have to be a big ‘event’ but there should be something ‘happening’
(photographing someone watching TV could get a bit dull), there doesn’t have to be any
conclusion or big finale- often the better narratives are ones that the audience themselves
have to decipher.
There needs to be a sense of place or atmosphere- each image should have the same ‘feel’
as the one that precedes it- this is a photoproject after all- however each image should be
considered individually and should be planned and executed as well as the rest.
Your photoproject should contain at least one portrait as well as other images that ‘set the
scene’. Not every photograph should have the main character in.
You will need to thoroughly plan each photograph and may need to take test shoots before
moving on to the actual photographs- all of this planning and reasoning needs to go in your
journal.
There will be no editing or selective discarding- every photo you take for the final shoot will
be included.

2. A2 Photography 2013
How you will do this
Each group will be given a disposable camera that has 27 exposures. They also have a flash
but this may/ may not work.
Firstly you will need to take a photograph of your group- so that we can identify who’s
photos are who’s when they come back from the developers (it’s a good idea at this point to
test out the flash on your camera) - that leaves 26 photographs for you to plan and take.
Every single photograph you take with the camera will be used in your photoproject, without
exception.
The photographs you take will have to be taken in chronological order so that your negatives
follow the story you are telling.
There will be no editing of the photographs when you get them back- what you see is what
we get, as it were.
I will get the negatives processed for you so that you have your ‘story’ ready straight from
the printers.
The idea of this task is to get you thinking about how images work once they are together and how
we can interpret different meanings from places and objects, as well as honing your editing and
selecting skills before you take an image rather than shooting 50,000 photographs and deleting all
but the best 5 that just happened to work.