Not only is this photo beautiful, but it is a perfect image of the impact of story.
Susan says, “A good story never works on just one level for either the story-teller or the audience. A good story has many layers. Each layer is deeper than the one before. Each layer reveals more and more of the reason for the story or the lesson if you will. The deeper the story goes the more it impacts the audience. Grimm’s fairy tales are like that. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Ring is like that. A good story is never a joke or an anecdote. A good story has layers of depth that are pealed away as you tell the story. A good story seems at first to be about something simple, but it is really about something much more meaningful. In other words, a good story is a metaphor.”
Lucia says, “I love that Susan used the pealing bark of this tree as a metaphor for the layers in a story. It’s interesting to think of this photo in this manner. As a photographer I was looking at shape and color when I made this photo. I was taken by the random shapes and the different tones of color created by pealing bark. I decided to fill the frame with it, but pulled back enough to include the ‘bigger picture’ to show the larger shape of the crook where the branch meets the trunk. Maybe this is another layer for Susan’s metaphor.”
