What’s visual storytelling?

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Visual storytelling is a narrative told through visual media, such as photos, videos, or illustrations. It can be fiction or non-fiction and is used to communicate ideas and values. Visual narratives can take many forms and may include other media, but the emphasis must remain on the visuals.

A visual storytelling is a type of story that is told primarily or entirely through visual media, such as photographs, illustrations, or videos. There are no restrictions on the types of narratives that can be done visually: a visual narrative can be fiction or non-fiction of any genre. Some of these tales are even used mostly for practical purposes to communicate the same ideas to speakers of different languages. In general, there is a lot of emphasis on the quality and organization of visual elements in visual narratives, as those elements are responsible for communicating the story to the “readers”. The visuals may, in some cases, be complemented by text or audio, but the emphasis must remain firmly on the visuals for the narrative to be considered primarily visual in nature.

Visual narrative as a storytelling style allows for great variety in methodology and presentation. That narrative could take the form of a movie, graphic novel or comic book, or simply a series of images. Even within these categories, artists and storytellers have plenty of room for experimentation. The broad category of “visual storytelling” allows storytellers to try to tell stories from many different angles and to use a wide variety of methods to communicate various aspects of the storytelling.

Written narratives and visual narratives have a lot in common as they usually have similar goals. A visual storytelling is always meant to communicate a story of some form, just like a written story. In many cases, a visual narrative, like its written counterpart, is also used to communicate the values ​​and ideals of the artist or storyteller. They also tend to use similar plot elements, such as complex characters, conflicts, and transformative events that lead to further development of the characters.

While visual fiction relies primarily on images to communicate ideas, many of these narratives incorporate other media to enrich the story. Movies, for example, often rely on speech and other audio components, even though most of the action is visual in nature. Similarly, although a graphic novel is a form of visual narrative and is primarily based on images, important elements such as dialogue are presented in the form of text. While many visual narratives incorporate or build on other media, some storytellers and artists prefer to communicate their narratives entirely through the use of images. Such a narrative, well prepared and presented, can be as complex and information-rich as any film or written story.




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