Using Photography to Inspire Writing 6

By Hank Kellner

(continued from page 1)

The Case of the Fragmented Photo

Most photographers would wince at the thought of cutting a perfectly good photograph into several parts. And most teachers would wonder how anyone could possibly use a fragmented photo to teach point of view in fiction and in writing.

But that’s not the case with Kelsey Maki, an adjunct professor at Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, New Jersey.

“After I cut an 8 ½ x 11-inch photograph with diverse elements into numbered pieces,” she writes, “I give a different piece to each of several students.” Then Maki asks the students to create a fictional character and write a scene in the first person from that character’s point of view. Maki also directs the students to consider the ways in which a character’s desires color his or her perception of place.

At the conclusion to the exercise the students assemble the parts of the photograph to see the third person, omniscient “big picture” scene. “This activity,” concludes Maki, “helps the students realize that a setting is never an evenly focused, objective portrait, but rather a reflection of a character’s physical point of view and physical state.”

Photo Essays Tell Stories

“Photo essays tell stories with pictures in ways that words cannot,” writes Kathy Miller, a teacher consultant at the Prairie Lands Writing Project. In one of her photo-related writing exercises, Miller directs her students at West Platte High School, Weston, Missouri to select three photo essays from the Internet, study them, and analyze them in terms of written responses to such questions as (1) Do the photos in the essays stand alone? (2) How much narration supports the photos? (3) How does the narration complement or support the photos? (4) What are your responses to the essays? In another exercise, Miller uses Brian Lanker’s I Dream a World as a source of photos of African-American women. “I direct students to select a photo, study it, and relate how the woman in the photo they chose is like them or different from them,” she concludes.

Like, uh, Two Teenagers

What could the two teenage girls depicted in this photograph be discussing? It’s probably true that simply showing this photo to teenage students will trigger enough ideas for them to write many different kinds of compositions.

But if that doesn’t work, you can always conduct a class discussion centered on teenagers. If, for example, you were to ask your students to write about their relationships and/or problems with their parents, their friends, or other important people in their lives, you’d probably generate more ideas than you can count.

Free! Free! Free! Mystery Photo

Marketing experts tell us that one of the most powerful words in the English language is Free. That’s why I’ve used it three times in the subhead (above) and once more in the text box (left).

“Balderdash!” you exclaim. “Nothing’s free. You pay for everything.”

“Not so,” I respond, secure in the knowledge that the Free Mystery Photo I want to send you is really, truly, without-a-doubt, undeniably free. All you have to do to receive my Free Mystery Photo is to send me an e-mail at hankpix@gmail.com with the words Free Mystery Photo in the subject line.

Are you still unconvinced? Do you want to know more about the photo before you send for it…even though it’s free? Okay. This photo has been in my files for more than twenty years. During that time, it appeared on the cover of The Reading Journal and in many other publications. Most recently it appeared in Write What You See. Its center of interest is a teenager. Before I retired, I used it to inspire writing time and time again with great success.

By the way, the Free Mystery Photo will arrive in your electronic mailbox with permission to reproduce it for use in your classroom. Send today! •

Next: Using Photography to Inspire Writing 8

Copyright © 2009 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.

02/01/09