Kenlee Danner

A little book of Big Bad Things

Class of: 2022

Major: Integrated Design BFA

Medium: Booklet / zine

Faculty: Elizabeth Harney

Prompt: For this project, we were asked to take a single photo and make a narrative out of it in the form of a booklet. We were told we could leave some pages blank or play around with the picture's size and placement, but that it should be the same photo over and over telling a story that "animates" the photo and makes it look different depending on the accompanying text.

I chose to take a still shot from a video I made for my prior Time project. The photo is of my friend smoking a cigarette inside her bedroom. I wanted the booklet to read like a children’s book – using simple sentences, repetition, and rhythm. Even though I wanted the tone of the book to emulate a children’s book, I wanted the topic to focus around whats deemed “bad” or “taboo”, especially when it comes to being a woman. I noted these criticisms by placing quotation marks with what I think the world always expects girls to comply with: no smoking, wearing makeup, letting others make their choices – most of all being controlled. The girl in the book then apologizes and says that she’ll “smoke outside next time” and that she will “take control in her next life.” In the end, she is holding her ground and still living her life by her own rules. She also recognizes that there is a societal role she is supposed to fill, but she’s hopeful she won’t have to live with these expectations forever.