Parallel Lives A Graphic Biography

description

With the combination of global usage of the internet and the constantly growing popularity of social media and platforms, the way people read and learn about one another has drastically changed over the last ten years. Digital photography and printing has opened up a wide spectrum of new forms of communicating. Words are in many instances no longer the main medium to communicate and preserve stories. As we are becoming a more and more visual culture able to read and interpret visual information, the traditional way of biographic story telling might no longer be the best way.

Parallel Lives is a graphic biography about Mary Schendlinger and Stephen Osborne. It is an attempt to re-define the traditional way of biographic storytelling, using mixed media, in a non-linear approach. Each visual used throughout the books, are meaningful objects to Mary or Stephen. The goal with these objects is to not only create a reflection of their personality, but also create room for interpretation and imagination. Telling their story in such a format, allows the viewer to become the author by seeing his own interpretation of the story.