Long story short:
The Craft's history of
visual storytelling

Warty Pigs

~ 51,200 BCE

Members of the same archaeological team who discovered the ‘warty pig’ painting in Sulawesi, Indonesia, recently found an even earlier example on the same island. It shows human figures around a wild pig. “There is something happening between these figures,” says Griffith University archaeologist Adam Brumm, “a story is being told.”^[1]

Warty pig — the previous record holder — is tipped to be around 40,000 to 45,000 years old. Though Maxime Aubert, a Griffith University professor involved in both archaeological finds, said, “The rock art in this region could very well be 60,000 to 65,000 years old.”^[2]

Paintings are, of course, only part of the puzzle. It’s hard to pick a moment to jump to next, but at the risk of skipping much, let us go to Sumerian cuneiform.

Cuneiform

~ 3200 BCE

Cuneiform is the earliest known form of writing. Used by the Sumerians in Uruq, today Iraq, it is a series of cone-shaped arrows pressed into clay. It was mostly used to tally things like grain transactions, though discoveries made in 2016 suggest cuneiform was also used by Babylonian astronomers.^[3]

Egyptian Hieroglyphics

~ 3100 BCE

This writing system uses images that each represent a single word. The Ancient Egyptians called them ‘Gods’ Words’, which translates to ‘sacred carvings’ by the Ancient Greeks, giving us ‘Hiero glyphs’.

The earliest examples found remain undeciphered; however, between 2650 and 2575 BCE, they are regularised, with around 700 signs that would be used for 2000 years, surviving the Persian and Greek conquests of Egypt, and only becoming extinct with the rise of Christianity, which outlawed their use between 400 and 500 CE.^[4]

Ancient Greece

~480-323 BCE

The Ancient Greeks are inspired by Plato’s idea that art imitates things and events from life, and Aristotle’s view that art seeks to represent the inner essence of its subject. Artists and sculptors take a methodical approach in their works — working with things like balance, symmetry and proportion — and achieve an unprecedented realism in their painting, sculpture, pottery and craft.^[4]

They depict their gods and deities but, unlike predecessors, give them human form, and also record human achievements such as victory at the Olympics or heroism in battle.^[6]

Camera Obscura

~400 BCE

Chinese philosopher Mo-tzu writes about light passing from an illuminated object through a pinhole into a dark room, creating an inverted image of the object. It’s the earliest record of a ‘camera obscura’, which later gives us the concept for the pinhole camera and all of photography.^[7]

The camera obscura has practical uses even before early photography. Eleventh century mathematician, physicist and astronomer Ibn al-Haytham uses the camera obscura to demonstrate how light travels in a straight line, and to safely observe eclipses.^[8]

Later, In the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci describes camera obscura technology in his Codex Atlanticus, and may have used it as a drawing aid.

The Fall of Rome

476 CE

The Ancient Romans continue the Greek traditions of realism and humanism in their art, and invest heavily in it. During the fall of the Western Roman Empire, however, these funds dry up. This is the end of the age of classical antiquity, and artists move to more commercially viable and portable forms.

The Eastern Roman Empire survives the split, and keeps many of the traditions alive, though this Byzantine art eventually takes on its own style, “a continuation of cherished Roman artistic traditions that were infused with distinct Eastern influences”.^[9]

The Middle Ages

500 CE-1300 CE

The ‘dark ages’ misnomer fails to recognise the many creative and intricate visual works that are created in this period in the West. Pagan worshippers tell their stories with ornate stone works, jewellery, wood carvings, and tapestries. All the while, Christianity is growing its wealth and influence, and the Gothic cathedrals, with their stained glass, decadent decor and illuminated texts, pay tribute to their saints, their gods, and their kings and queens.

The Renaissance

~1300 - ~1527

The Renaissance marks a departure from the tenets of mediaeval life. Beginning in Florence and spreading through Europe, the Renaissance is driven in part by an obsession with the wisdom and creativity of antiquity. There’s a return to a focus on form, balance and realism, similar to the art of the Ancient Greeks and Romans, with an added emphasis on perspective. Renaissance paintings are recognisable by their detail, depth and dimension.^[10]

Creatives and thinkers continue to depict gods and divinity, but add cosmopolitan life, and detailed explorations of anatomy, science and technology, to their work.

Before Gutenberg

1377

Gutenberg is credited with the invention of the printing press around 1440. The oldest preserved piece of storytelling made with metal movable type, however, is the Korean book Jikji, printed in 1377. Mass printing has existed in the region for centuries, with China and Korea recording their histories on wood block type. The addition of movable metal means they can print different works quickly.^[11]

Leaps forward, such as movable type and the printing press, are touted as sparking the dissemination of information and mass literacy, though these will take hundreds of years, and even today are by no means universal.

The Nuremberg Chronicle

1493

This German text is a history of the world as it is known at the time, from the Garden of Eden and Noah’s Ark, right through to the bustling Renaissance cities of Europe. It is one of the earliest books to mass publish illustrations with text. With more than 1800 woodcut illustrations, and a large print run, it is no surprise that copies have been treasured and preserved.^[12]

Kibyōshi

1775

Japanese books from the Edo period, kibyōshi are considered to be one of the original forms of graphic novels or comic books. Peaking as a genre between 1775 and 1806, the short booklets are written and printed by authors and woodblock artists. They feature black and white cartoons and text, often of a satirical nature.^[13]

The Times

~1806

An illustration of Horatio Nelson’s coffin is the first illustration in The Times, an early example of pictures appearing in a newspaper.^[14]

Heliography

~1822

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce applies lavender oil and bitumen to lithographic stone. After exposure to sunlight, areas on the sketch dry quicker than areas left plain, and the solution can be wiped away to reveal the reproduced image.^[15]

First photo

~1826

Niépce takes the first successful photo, View from the Window at Le Gras, by projecting onto pewter plates using a camera obscura. The exposure time is eight hours.^[16]

Daguerreotype

1835

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre invents the first effective method of photography, in partnership with Niépce. The Daguerreotype generates a direct positive image on a sheet of copper plated with a thin layer of silver. The process reduces exposure time to 30 minutes.^[17]

Ben-Day process

1879

This process, invented by Benjamin Henry Day Jr, creates detailed images using a series of dots.^[18] It makes reproducing images in newsletters a much cheaper and quicker reality. It is later used in comic books and immortalised by US pop artist Roy Lichtenstein.

Celluloid

1882

Chemist John H Stevens dilutes celluloid with amyl acetate, allowing the material to be made into a clear, flexible film. Researchers take it a step further, processing it into film for still photos and, later, motion pictures.^[19]

Kinetoscope

1891

The Kinetoscope, invented by William Kennedy Laurie Dickson for the Edison company, makes its debut. Viewers watch a 20-second moving picture through a hole at the top of a wooden box. Viewing centres open up in New York and London in 1894.^[20]

Cinématographe

~1894

The Lumière brothers, Louis and Auguste, debut the Cinématographe, a camera, projector and film printer all in one. It shows films to paying audiences in Paris — the birth of cinema.^[21]

Stop motion

~1898?

The claimed release date of The Humpty Dumpty Circus of 1898 would make it the first stop motion animated film. Huge volumes of early animations and films will be later lost, including The Humpty Dumpty Circus, so the release date, and whether or not it actually uses stop motion, are impossible to verify.^[22]

Other filmmakers are toying with special effects at the time and, while there is no agreed ‘first’ animation, other contenders start appearing around 1906.

Mechanical and Electronic Television

1926-1928

John Logie Baird successfully demonstrates mechanical television, to an audience of 40 in London. A Times journalist reports, “Through the ‘Televisor’... it is possible to transmit and reproduce instantly the details of movement, and such things as the play of expression on the face.”^[23]

In 1928, Philo Farnsworth successfully demonstrates his fully electronic television to the press. The quieter and lighter version soon surpasses the mechanical TV. ^[24]

Colour photography

1935-1936

Leopold Mannes and Leopold Godowsky complete the Kodachrome colour photography method. It’s a 28-stage process, and photographers need to post their negatives to the Kodak laboratories for development.^[25]

In 1936, Agfa makes colour photography much easier with its own colour film, which enables users to develop their own colour shots.^[26]

Comic Books

1936

The golden age of comic books begins. Publishing illustrations coupled with text is not new, but the practice explodes in popularity in the US during World War II, as superheroes battling Nazis become popular entertainment. After the war, superhero comics drop in popularity again, but this time new genres and titles emerge.^[26]

PowerPoint

1987

Microsoft makes its first big acquisition of the virtual presentation software developed by Robert Gaskins, Thomas Rudkin and Dennis Austin called PowerPoint. The slideshow option debuts in 1992, and PowerPoint enters the Microsoft Office suite in 2003. With application in business, education and elsewhere, it revolutionises the way information is presented, will dominate the market for years and remain popular for years.^[27]

Camera Phones

1999

The Kyocera VP-210, the world's first camera phone, launches exclusively in Japan, kicking off an arms race by phone manufacturers to perfect phone snapping and sending.

iPhone

2007

Apple releases the iPhone 1. It’s not the first smartphone, it’s not the first phone with a touchscreen, but it sparks a revolution, bringing smartphone tech to the masses. It’s followed by the T-Mobile G1 (the first Android phone) in 2008 and the Samsung Galaxy 1, its main competitor, in 2009.

Instagram

2010

Instagram is launched by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. The app secures one million users in three months. Armed with smartphone cameras and connectivity, citizens become instant visual storytellers, connected to their friends and global community.

Snow Fall

2012

The New York Times publishes ‘Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek’ by John Branch. The long-form article has integrated videos, aerial maps, slide shows, timelapses and scrolling displays. It demonstrates the possibility of online visual storytelling and inspires a Renaissance for long-form, digital-first explorative content.

Shorthand

2014

Shorthand is the first to productise some of the existing visual storytelling techniques like those used in ‘Snow Fall’. Over the following years, the capabilities become accessible to brands, publications, news sites and NGOs.

A Big Year for VR

2014

Facebook bets big on the tech, purchasing Oculus Rift, a pioneer headset manufacturer for US$2 billion. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has plans to take the niche gaming device into a universal experience that friends use to meet and share in virtual worlds.

Google introduces Google Cardboard, a cheap foldout VR headset into which users place their phone to use VR apps.

Pokémon GO

2016

Pokémon GO is released. The app makes Augmented Reality a household name.

Multiway Reveal

2016

‘Multiway’ Reveal, a means of advancing the reader through a story using directional and fade transitions applied to images (and, later, videos), begins appearing in long form stories on the web.

Fun fact: the technical feasibility of ‘Multiway’ Reveal had been hotly contested, so Shorthand co-founder and CEO, Ricky Robinson, writes the code for the first proof-of-concept (pictured here), in an overnight hacking session.

DALL-E

2016

OpenAI introduces DALL-E, its text-prompt image generator. Users type in image ideas of previously unseen and imaginative combinations or situations and wait for the results. Early results are erroneous, especially in the finer details, though the technology progresses quickly, through DALL-E 2, DALL-E 3 and competitors like Midjourney.

It introduces leaps forward in AI art, rapid content creation and deep fake issues, prompting ethical debate around privacy, intellectual property, image theft and straight up trickery.

The Present

Visual storytelling is everywhere, in a fragmented, always-on media, content and social media landscape. From the short and the social – TikTok videos and the massive influencer industry, through to the long-form — immersive storytelling articles by news publications and brand storytellers. The streaming wars see billions poured into producing the latest binge-worthy series.

AI creativity is inescapable, appearing on online feeds, social media and the web. It is favoured, by those who use it, as a cheap or free alternative to paying illustrators or photographers, or for using stock photography. For many, however, it is frustrating, and is no alternative to the work of true creators, some of whom do use AI themselves, and it is derided for the way it threatens creative jobs and for its large carbon footprint.

The Future?

The pace of change in visual storytelling shows no signs of stopping. Creative roles will be redefined or eliminated completely, as AI makes its way further into common use. Social media trends kicked off by Instagram have been picked up by TikTok and will surely accelerate, as a new generation of visual storytellers make fast, snackable and engaging content, and share it with each other in seconds. Aside from entertainment, they share political and social messages, building new communities and catching the concern of institutions and governments — who have lost the ability to connect with them through traditional means, or even modern means that were commonplace five or 10 years ago.

In response to this trend of content getting shorter, a true desire to connect with in-depth, longform storytelling has never subsided, perhaps as an escape from rapid online media… or perhaps there’s a little more to it than that.

For more on how we got here, read A short history of digital storytelling.