4 minute read
ONE-DAY PHOTO PROJECTS
INSPIRATION INSPIRATION
ONE-DAY PHOTO PROJECTS / 20
Advertisement
All images © Eddie Ephraums
WRITING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
Three seemingly simple nuggets of advice from Black+White Photography’s former editor encouraged Eddie Ephraums to undertake a voyage of semantic discovery about his own photography and what really makes him tick.
’ve no doubt that readers
Iof B+W Photography, and contributors like myself, still miss recently retired editor Elizabeth Roberts. In addition to being a wonderful editor, Elizabeth is a highly experienced creative writing teacher, so who better to help with this month ’s oneday project, which focuses on photographic writing? It follows a conspicuous case of writer’s block that I’ve had with my A Photographer at Work online journal.
My hope is that Elizabeth ’s advice will also encourage fellow photographers to write. Writing gives us a fresh perspective and a deeper understanding of our photography, and much as I find writing hard, I have always found it offers useful and often unexpected insights into my image making.
Following a frank discussion about my journal, Elizabeth recommended three simple writing exercises. The first exercise is one I have always
Below The inspiration Photography is a challenge. So is writing about it, especially if we are writing about our own work. But writing has its rewards. It can inspire creative ideas and provide previously unseen insights into our image making. To honour the challenge of writing, I’ve chosen three images from a recent trip to Venice, each on the theme of dealing with adversity.
found incredibly insightful and a great tool for helping other photographers understand what grounds their work. The exercise is to think of three words that describe your photography and your approach to it. Elizabeth’s second exercise is to write a short paragraph about your work, but from the viewer’s perspective. Her third is to describe what you would like the viewer to see in your images.
If I take the first exercise as an example, the three words that always come to mind are: exploration, meditation and revelation. In other words, I consider my photography to be about noticing what’s there in my day-to-day exploration of life. My photography is also about being present, focusing my lens (meditating) on what everyday opportunities and a present state of mind can provide. And it is also about discovering what the picture editing and image sequencing/ photobook-making process can then uncover or reveal. igging a little deeper,
DI like to explore places and situations with my camera nestled in the palm of my hand (especially my Fujifilm X100 compact), feeling its presence like holding a perfectly formed pebble found on a favourite beach. As I wander with my camera, I like to let my mind meander, giving my imagination free rein to play, all the time trying not to let conscious thoughts (or the inner critic) take over. Conscious thought does come into play, but later when I review the images and edit them into a sequence that finally reveals an often unexpected narrative. The subsequent book might be just three images long, or it might be many more. As a useful addition to Elizabeth’s three exercises, I recommend you elaborate on your own three words, as I have tried to do here. Then elaborate some more.
I also asked Elizabeth for some writing tips. First: make sure that your writing is ›
Above The idea As a photographer I am free to make images whenever and pretty much wherever I want, but freedom can become an endless playing field with creatively crippling consequences. Constraints are therefore helpful, if seemingly unpleasant. Having my photographic gaze steadfastly met by a one-eyed cat, confined to a perpetual third floor existence, serves as a sharp reminder of this.
›personal and human. Second: be sure to use both a dictionary and a thesaurus to find the precise meaning of what you are trying to say. Third: avoid all clichés.
In response to Elizabeth’s excellent, suitably challenging advice, I am tempted to proffer a cliché: ‘Easier said than done.’ Writing isn’t easy for us photographers. But who said writing or photography should be easy?
It’s important to remind ourselves, as Elizabeth has done, that in order to avoid written or photographic clichés we need to put in the effort and challenge our thinking, in this case challenging it through the written word.
As creative individuals it is natural that we may feel out of our depth or become blocked as we try to get to grips with writing, as I have found writing a public online journal (and more about that in the journal itself ). What isn’t healthy or good for our photography is to avoid challenges, or to keep quiet about what challenges us, even if that means talking about it publicly to an entire photographic magazine audience.
But, now that I’ve written this, I feel ready to start my journal again, to discover – as I believe we all can through writing – some really useful photographic insights and inspiration.
Above The realisation I sincerely hope this doesn’t sound flippant, but the coronavirus lockdown is an opportunity to reflect on life and what is most important to us all. Through photography we can also reflect on what matters, in a way that words or deeds can not always express. Therefore a contemplative picture is perhaps the best way for me to end this One-Day Project.
envisagebooks.com aphotographerat work.com
