Thanks to Towson U. shooter Patrick Smith’s blog, I recently discovered an excellent example of storytelling photography.  Scott Strazzante’s photo story “Another country”, recently published on the Chicago Tribune’s website, is a tour de force well worth attention.
More after the jump…

“Another Country” struck me for a few reasons:
First, it’s just an excellent set of photography.  There are some great individual storytelling images, but the whole is also far greater than the sum of its parts.

Second, it’s not heavy-handed: it doesn’t drive an interpretation.  You can read these photos and lament the demise of the rural way of life; or you can read these and think about the happiness of the families now occupying spaces they like where this farm used to stand.  Or both.  Via the engagement and dedication of the photographer, the photos manage to be involved and personal, but they still let the viewer form his or her own opinions.  The photographer notes himself that he had no agenda.  That detachment let the story come through transparently.

Third, the side-by-side presentation adds to the power of the set.  Of thousands of pictures taken, the haul was culled to twenty-nine diptychs that coordinate moments from the old world to the new.  It’s a careful and surely laborious edit, though in the end most of the diptychs seem obvious, like twenty-nine little light bulbs going on.

Personally, I recognize this subdivision transition near Chicago because I’ve been out to Naperville several times to play Ultimate on the polo grounds there.  When I first went, there was almost nothing around, and now it is surrounded by subdivisions, strip malls, and golf courses.  Every year someone claims it’ll be the last tournament there because they’ll turn the polo grounds into another subdivision, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Not that Scott will likely see my little post, but congrats to him for this work, and thanks as well.  Inspirational stuff.

Onward.