Photographer Ryan Schude's narrative panoramas are as informed by the artist's humor as they are by the structures in which they often take place. Consider "The Saturn," a typical Southern California dingbat that is transformed into a tableau of subjects wondering where they went wrong. There's the man whose belongings are being unceremoniously tossed out of a window by an enraged lover to the woman staring out of her kitchen window to the mildly distressed dingbat itself. At least, that's one reading. Look closer: other stories begin to emerge. 

Beginning as an editorial portraitist for a magazine, Schude "wanted to figure out how to do more than just show a documentary aspect of [a subject's] personality. I wanted to tell a story that would be more interesting than the person themselves, and take that concept and apply it to a much bigger scene with actual actors and create another story, depending on the location." The narrative within "The Saturn" evolved as he sought a location. "I had this cliche concept of woman throwing her husband or boyfriend out of the apartment," Schude explains. "I had no idea how to find a location to shoot that: initially I had a brownstone house in mind, the classic New York brownstone. And that's not common architecture for L.A. So the idea sat in the back of my mind for a whole year, and then one day when I was walking home, I realized I could just ask my neighbors if I could shoot it in my apartment building. As soon as I started using that as a framework, the story changed."

In addition to their unfolding, hyperreal narratives, the 103 photographs in Schude's self-titled book are impressive for their rapid set up (most of the photographs in the book only took a few hours to stage and shoot) as well as their captivating quality of light. In "Tube," for example, Schude and collaborator Lauren Randolph were in Bulgaria "without any equipment: we just had a camera. That's one of the few shots we did with mostly available light. We did a lot of exposure for the bulk of the ambient light that was surrounding the building. We had one little light that we popped off in different areas to give it a little bit more of the look I generally like. There's a little one on [collaborator Lauren, the woman in the photo] and a little one on the domed ceiling."

As part of his upcoming book tour, Schude will be staging a new photo at Los Angeles' The Last Bookstore. A few other visually arresting and architecturally prominent sites are also in the works, creating opportunities for even more gorgeous, compelling narratives.