Storytelling is the most ancient and mass-oriented form of communication between people. People really love and will love to listen to stories about other people and tell stories about themselves to others. At this point in time, storytelling can hardly be called a crystallised genre or a separate direction of creative activity; it is rather a method that permeates various spheres of social existence. We are used to storytelling in online advertising and theatrical productions. We are used to storytelling on the university campus, where it works as a pedagogical method that improves the assimilation of educational material. By the way, it is interesting that the Indian 26-volume epic Mahabharata was written in the genre of storytelling, so that through this form (plot-like an endless television series), representatives of the lower castes could become involved in the spiritual truths of Hinduism. Of course, contemporary photography, as one of the most important part of contemporary art, uses the instrumental possibilities of storytelling as a method and absorbs these possibilities for its own purposes. In the end, any photograph is a story, even if it is a work of plotless, non-objective, hermetic anti-communication minimalism. Analysing the work of contemporary photographers through the prism of storytelling tools, we will be able to find answers to very important questions: a) What stories does the photographer tell?; b) What stories are in the zone of conscious or unconscious silence?; c) Who is the addressee of these stories?; d) What effect did the narrator achieve?
We needed this long theoretical paragraph as an introduction to the analysis of the creative practice of the talented and outstanding contemporary photographer Ksenia Rybka. Ksenia Rybka is far from a novice in contemporary photography; she has exhibitions and publications in more than 10 countries in her portfolio and a deep, complexly developed practical philosophy of photography, actively working with various visual and narrative strategies. Her discouraging approach to photography can be called a study of the possibilities of visual storytelling. The main methodological question that the photographer is developing is: to what extent is an image (a snapshot of reality) without a verbal complement able to perform the functions of a self-telling story? The twentieth century, through the efforts of continental postphilosophists, introduced into the public cultural discussion the idea that there are no absolutely hermetic texts and absolutely interpreted texts. Ksenia certainly argues with the above statement in her artistic statements and puts an equal sign between the photo and the text. This makes it possible to significantly expand the capabilities of the photographer because where the concept of “text” appears, ghosts and conventions also appear, which this concept has managed to absorb over the millennia since the invention of written speech, and photography as an exclusively wordless image loses the mythical halo of a purely visual artefact.
Let’s take a look at some examples. ”Back to School” by Ksenia Rybka is a series of paired photo portraits made with a predominance of black and white colours and with masterful use of elements of theatrical sensuality and expressiveness. This series of works uses storytelling elements on several levels, and it’s insanely interesting to analyse! This series best illustrates the possibilities of Ksenia Rybka’s artistic language.
The first level is the setting level. Where does the story of these two schoolgirls unfold? Sterile white room with geometrically flat tiles on the floor. In this room, everything appears in the form of black-and-white or transparent spots: schoolgirls in retro-brutal outfits, open parts of wall clocks, black paper aeroplanes, a game of rubber bands, and so on. The elements of the setting are presented as disjointed as possible, singly, and do not constitute a single interior ensemble. The setting resembles a painful purgatory, where things appear only when we think about them. The rough retro aesthetic refers us at the same time to the image of Christian purgatory and the post-punk fashion of the 80s and 90s of the last century. The setting is a complex narrative construction that is both empty and infinitely filled with objects. This is similar to the settings of the plays of the absurdist playwrights Beckett, Ionesco, and Mrozek, where, as a rule, nothing happens and an infinite number of things happen.
The second level is the level of relationships or emotions. Each photo is a small scene from the life of two surreal schoolgirls, who apparently have to experience a state of endless boredom, which rhymes in a certain way with the setting of purgatory. Each of their interactions is a futile attempt to organise at least some action in the routine of their total plotless existence. Sometimes other non-human agents appear here—rats and mannequins—but in the mythology of this world, these are most likely also just pieces of furniture, like wall checkers or patterned stockings.
The third level is the level of communication strategies. How does this photo series communicate with us? Through a microsecond impression, we connect with this bizarre world and its inhabitants. Through a microsecond impression, we grasp the setting and its basic narrative techniques. The photographer forces the moment of meeting the gaze with photographs; she consciously uses local colours and the most expressive compositional solutions. These are very bright techniques that leave us distraught in front of these types of visual storytelling.
Ksenia Rybka’s visual storytelling is an amazing opportunity to develop her own synesthesia and susceptibility to the most non-banal and revolutionary methods for crossing new media, photography, narrative tools, and the possibilities of a new sincerity.
