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Think about this scenario:

A teenager has to make the difficult choice of which parent to live with as they are separating.

There are various ways of exploring this issue using naturalistic still imagery. You could focus on communicating the characters’ emotions accurately through use of facial expression and body language. Is eye contact made?

Consider how proxemics (distance between characters in the space) and levels could be used to indicate family relationships. Ask yourself if the parents should stand far apart and if one should be on a higher level than the other, suggesting a higher status?

Create a sequence of still images exploring events, from the parents breaking the news of their separation to being told a choice must be made. This is a good way to explore the emotional journey through a scene. Putting images together in this way to tell a story is called a montage.

Using abstract still imagery

Exploring the issue through abstract still imagery you might:

• Communicate the emotions of the scene in a representational or symbolic way without any realism but focusing on physicalizing the emotion.
• Represent the act of having to choose by showing the teenager literally pulled in two opposing directions by the parents to symbolise being torn between them.
• Move from an archetypal image of a happy smiling family to another where the family have physically fallen apart in the space, to represent the break-up of the family unit.
• Use levels to show how trapped the teenager feels, kneeling on the ground caught between two parents.