"One in 8 Million" story analysis

Looking through the various media sites, I really enjoyed watching videos from New York Time’s “One in 8 Million” collection. The different people’s stories were really captivating. I like the technique of letting the interviewee narrate the story, while showing pictures relating to the mood of what’s being said. The one story I really liked was about a former bar fighter named Steven Marmo, who tells about his past problems with anger and getting into fights. The story takes a turning point when he talks about gets in trouble while drinking at work and turning his life for the better after his taking up bicycle racing.

One of the main reasons I picked this story is that it has a clear progression from a conflict situation to a resolution, and it keeps the viewers on their toes while keeping with a direct storyline. The story that Marmo tells has a clear beginning, high point, and an end, and the photos that accompany the narration do a great job of representing the tone of what’s being said. At the beginning, when Marmo talks about his stored feelings of anger and energy, and wanting to release that energy by fighting, he is shown pulling heavy objects while doing construction work. The “conflict” of the story is resolved when Marmo talks about picking out a bike at a store and realizing that he hadn’t gotten in trouble since bike racing. The photo of him in a bike store is really great—he’s standing in front of a large selection of bikes. Not only is that photo graphically appealing, but it also portrays the feeling of many open possibilities. During the resolution part of the story happens when Marmo starts bike racing and he hasn’t gotten in trouble since.

The style of photography in this story deals a lot with motion and playing with shadows to convey emotion. When the narration talks about Marmo getting drunk at work and doing something inappropriate, the shadow is over his eyes in the photo, showing his guilt, or recalling of dark times. Many of the photos are intimate, making viewers feel like they’re getting to know Marmo as a person.

The photos captivate the viewer by conveying the by presenting intense sensations to the story. The first half of the images present Marmo’s physical struggle at the construction site, and the second half show feelings of speed and freedom through him bicycling. At the beginning, when Marmo talks about his stored feelings of anger and energy, he is shown pulling down heavy objects with rope. From his posture, as well as the angles of the photos, you can really feel the motion of pulling down something heavy, demonstrating Marmo’s struggle. When the images go from construction work to the bicycle, the images convey his feelings of freedom and that nothing can stop him by showing him speeding down the bridge on his bike.

Overall, the story clearly shows Marmo’s transformation from being a troubled, violence-prone kid to finding a better way to channel his energy at the end. In a way, the story shows that people can change for the better even if they have been a certain way for a long time. It shows that emotions such as anger, which might need to be taken out in a physical way, can be channeled through a more positive activity, such as biking.

Here's a link of this story:

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/index.html#steven_marmo