ADDITIONAL NOTES:
Athens, Greece: When I was in college, I took a class about visual communication that focused specifically on narratives. In one assignment, we had to bring in 7-10 images that we liked. We then were asked to pick a random quote out of a hat and visually sequence our chosen images in a set to communicate that quote. In this process, each image, and how it was changed by the images before and after it, had to embody the quote's meaning. We could omit no more than 2-3 images from the original picks. It took hours.When we'd "successfully" achieved this, we were asked to pick another random quote out of a hat -- one that mostly likely meant something completely different -- and had to do it again. This time, these exact same images had to tell a completely different story based on how they were arranged.
We had to do this a few times, each time with a new quote, within an increasingly condensed time period (the last session being just one minute).
My process for assembling photo sets is influenced by this experience -- I choose shots quickly from serendipitous moments, strong single images, groups that tell a story, and touristy snaps. I try not to spend much time. After initial processing, I group them -- again, quickly -- by different themes that occur to me. When I'm done, I review. While some are obviously gathered by event or by a clear theme, other sets (like the one above) appear random. That's when it gets interesting...
Sets that lack an obvious associations between images are often grouped by my subconscious associations between them, and it takes some study to see their common threads.
In this case, it occurred to me after a few days that the above photos all looked sunny and innocuous, but editorially, each one gave me the feeling of foreboding or instability. This is a juxtaposition in each that I wouldn't have seen had I not grouped them without conscious preconception.
