Frame Tale

A frame tale, or frame story, is a narrative approach that subverts the typical end-to-beginning, conflict-to-resolution plot line. Though the diegesis of these recordings is at times harder to pinpoint and follow, a frame tale more accurately describes the human condition and history, in terms of understanding our connectedness to that history. A scattered network of passed down tales fabricates the realities and understandings around us, framed by the ever oscillating present moment—the past is a bad metaphor. When time is concerned there is only the continual shift from one story teller to the next, and many versions of stories all at once, and many versions of version of more of the same, and different interpretations of those stories. We frame our own stories and experiences so they make sense to others, while leaving ourselves hopelessly confused.

Historical Fallacies

Unreliable narration is commonplace in all history recordings. Each person carries a series of tales, some reliable, some not so much. Some of our understanding of history is inevitably fabricated. We attempt to decipher the ever complicated fractal-like present expanding before us based only on perceptions of fleeting present moments, recorded and reordered to make us all make sense to each other. Though the moments recorded will never return in a literal sense, they have a tendency to line up in such tidy ways to explain themselves omnipresently. Our human experience of sensation is eternally driven by colossal universal forces acted out on a minute, self-similar scale. We are more or less trapped in a Venn Diagram of perceptions. Even in the grand scope of human possibility, we are unable to see beyond where we have already been looking.

Acknowledgments

The wonderful people featured above invited me to come do a shoot for them on some farmland near the Blue Ridge Parkway. As always, I got a bit distracted reading between the societal lines and created a separate series to explore some of those ideas. In order of appearance the models are Angelica Ernst, Ella Kepple, and Hanna Kepple. You may recognize Hannah for her portrayal of Moon in the 2018 YouTube Red series Cobra Kai. Angelica has worked with me a few times before in my home studio space.

Above are a couple of the props we used, and the photos of the frames alone are what I used as an overlay image. The mirror was a three dollar thrift store find and has been an integral part of my shoots this year. The frame was a gift from Minna Honkakoski. You may recognize her from Word Salad and Looking Glass. Below is one of the many cow pals that showed up to watch our shoot!