The narrative may be one of the most traditional and established conventions in Western art, developed over centuries of history, myth and legend painting. The viewer was expected to be familiar with the story that was being depicted until the emergence of genre painting, where depicted was everyday narratives. It was a convention that was ignored and often ferociously rejected by twentieth century modernists, whose ideas tended to surround more formalist ideas. To tell a story visually is natural. This does not mean that the art in question references history or literature; but rather it depicts, in a certain way, subject matter that provokes thought on a certain situation that has the dynamics that generate thought on a particular plot-like situation.
So we need not condemn Jennifer Mason’s brave attempt to depict her surreal suburban narratives. Their detachment from conventional narratives is drastic. These are psychological narratives; depicting tense interactions between people who are present and people who may not be; they may be anxious insights into the relationship between people not engaged in communication in the practical sense. Or they may not be interactions at all; they may be seeping insights into the human psyche; examples of inner torment and angst.
These revealing, unforgiving and voyeuristic portraits take place in the most bizarre places. That is, exceptionally middle-class, suburban and protected family households. These are settings so ordinary that they are idiosyncratic. These are families, which normally wear masks, have created personalities and give the appearance of being something else. We are normally so far removed from the secret and internal affairs of these households that we feel like the voyeur. But we have been falsely granted permission of entry and are witnessing something taboo. Somehow we are grateful for having been let in.
Most likely the single most important aspect of cinematography is lighting. Good lighting in either cinema or photography goes far beyond means of basic exposure and enters the realm of visual storytelling; but where film has sound to generate a sense of atmosphere, photography doesn’t. So lighting is crucial for Mason not just in aesthetic terms but also in evoking the emotional and conceptual responses she desires. Lighting is used for the effect of drama, mood, atmosphere, and surrealism. It is used to improve reality, thus evoking a kind of poetic realism.
The difference between traditional narratives and Mason’s narratives is the difference between conventional Hollywood plots and good foreign language European plots (a la Antony Tarkovsky, a la Werner Herzog, a la Ingmar Bergman). So, instead of action we have reaction; instead of the outer we have the inner; instead of clarity we have ambiguity.
Jerome Webby 2009