Using Photography to Inspire Writing 3

By Hank Kellner

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This photo is a good example of a photo that reveals little but says a lot. Almost in silhouette, a uniformed police officer wearing a helmet stands near a display window. Part of a shadow appears behind the officer.

A headless mannequin clothed in white stands framed in the window to the officer’s left.

Some students will want to discuss the contrasts between the officer and the mannequin; the similarities between the positions in which the two are presented; and the helmeted officer as opposed to the headless mannequin. Other students will want to create narratives featuring the two figures. For example, what would happen if the headless mannequin somehow morphed into a living person? How would the officer respond to such a startling event?

Photographs that feature people involved in some form of activity always elicit interesting verbal and written responses from students. In this photograph, a woman leans forward at what appears to be the shore of a lake or river as she trains her camera on something or someone we cannot see. On each side of the frame, several canoes rest on the shore.

Who is the woman? How old is she? Is she married or single? Does she have a companion who’s waiting outside of the scene? Who or what is she photographing? Is she a professional photographer or an amateur?

How Some Master Teachers Use Photographs

After having students respond to several photos in terms of the five senses, Lehigh Valley Writing Project Co-Director Kristy M. Weidner-Gonzalez has the students write short poems in which each line reveals one of the senses. Then the students take a walking tour of the school and surrounding neighborhood during which they photograph their favorite places. Using the images they produced, the students revisit the idea of senses as they write about what they had experienced when they created the photos. “The second time around has much more meaning for the students,” writes Weidner-Gonzalez, “because the places they photographed were much more personal and held certain memories for them.”

As a Teacher Consultant for the Illinois State Writing Project and an English teacher at Central Catholic High School in Bloomington, Ann Cox uses photos to teach characterization. After giving her students a magazine photo of a person, she asks them to write a character sketch of the person. Then she provides a scenario and directs the students to describe how their characters would react and why. Finally, students share their writing with the class and discuss their motivation.

At the Prairie Lands Writing Project, Technology Liaison Mary Lee Meyer conducts workshops for teachers at which she emphasizes the use of images to inspire writing. “About 15% of the student population has low verbal skills,” she wrote in a recent workshop handout. “Using images to invoke responses helps that population.” Meyer pointed out, also, that images “…require students to use their powers of critical analysis when writing.”

Among other things, in her workshops Meyer urges teachers to help students (1) write dialogue by using comic characters; (2) discover details by analyzing images; and (3) expand the use of imagery words by studying photos and paintings. You can read one of her workshop handouts here: “Images: Their Impact on Learning.” •

Next: Using Photography to Inspire Writing 6

Copyright © 2008 by Hank Kellner.

About the Author | More by Hank Kellner
Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing by Hank Kellner available from Amazon. Original Edition. Cottonwood Press. I-800-864-4297. Cottonwood Press is distributed by Independent Publishers Group. Includes supplementary CD with photos. 8 ½ x11, 120 pages, perfect binding, ISBN 978-1-877-673-83-2, LCCN 2008938630. Visit the author’s blog at hank-englisheducation.blogspot.com. The author will contribute a portion of the royalties earned from the sale of this book to The Wounded Warriors Project.

12/10/08