Images Through Observation: Photography
In the poetry course I teach, I lead off the semester with imagery, and I’ve talked in here about how important imagery is to all writing. When it comes to imagery, is there an exercise you can do to improve your own imagery? Yes, one of the best way to write imagery is to observe the world around you.
And photography is one of my favorite ways to do that, especially how accessible photography is to people now. We all walk around with cameras in our pockets, there are tons of point and shoot cameras on the market, and higher end cameras are amazing if you want to dive into photography as well.
One thing about it photography, is it teaches you to you look at the world around you differently. I’ve found that I love looking at the small things. For instance, I noticed this web on our gate made of bamboo a few days ago. I made a mental note of it, and one day when the sun was setting, I went to see how the web looked and snapped this:
The colors, the textures, different materials, warm light… I saw it because I’ve trained my eye to look for things and then wait for them to be the most photogenic .
Most of the writers I know will people watch and eavesdrop. When you do this, you'll be more perceptive of people’s emotions. You’ll see real or imagined stories in their faces and actions You’ll notice lines and expressions, light or the lack of in eyes, cleanliness, dirtiness, clothes, actions… These things build authentic images when you use them in your writing to get dialog, mannerisms, dress, etc. correct.
I don’t use my phone camera often. I should, it’s with me all the time, but I prefer to use a DSLR. But, I would also use a point and shoot if I had one. But… I shouldn’t get lost in taking about cameras and photography! It’s something that replaced writing for me my creative outlet for too many years, but that’s a discussion for a different post.
I realized how related photography and poetry are for me when I started this. Yes, I’ve used the images for some poetry here, but it goes beyond that. When I walk around with a camera, I look at everything: the way the light passes through caterpillar eaten leaves, dying roses, people in the street… Observation gives us a library of images to pull from in our writing.
So, take the time to look around the world around you, even mundane places like sitting at a restaurant table, think about light, reflections, shapes, people, and snap some photos. Walk around things and look from different perspectives, capture the images in a camera… And then write.
