Month: June 2017

Journey Into A Photograph

Part A

Select a photograph from your album or your computer gallery… any photo at all. Take a moment to contemplate where it was taken, when and by whom. Are you in the photograph? What is your relationship to it and to whatever or whoever have been captured in the shot?

Use your new experience of this photograph as a jumping off point to write something inspired by it. Let your writing take whatever form it falls into…  poetry, prose, memoir, story, essay…

You won’t necessarily write about the person or people in the photograph… or even the place or the event. Your piece may be about how you came to have the photograph, how you came to be in it (or not), who took the photo, how you felt at the time (if you were there), an essay about the mountain in the background, or anything else that springs to mind. Try not to control the content as you get the story down, and you may be surprised!

Keep writing until you feel satisfied the piece is complete.

Read what you’ve written and do a first edit.

 

Part B

Take a closer look at the image and dig deeper. What else in or about this photograph is word-worthy? How many stories can it tell? What were the circumstances surrounding it?

You might consider the scene from different perspectives. For example, you could imagine it from the Point-Of-View of various people (subjects in the photo, the photographer, passers-by, other people in similar situations…), or in the context of history (yours, your relationship with associated people, the place, the event, fashion, world events, and so on).

Think laterally, and above all else let your in-the-moment experience of the photograph guide you.

If inspiration for a second story strikes you, begin writing straight away and continue until you’re satisfied the piece is complete. Read over it and do a first edit.

If several ideas push forward, brainstorm them onto paper and allow one to present itself for immediate writing. Proceed with this (as above) and put the other ideas aside for later.

 

This exercise relates to Point-Of-View Writing Exercise #11 – Part A and Writing Exercise #11 – Part B.

 

Watch for my coming Blog, which will also focus on the relationship between photographs and writing.