overview
week by week
Week One - the heart
The life lessons
The balance
The power of writing
Vulnerability
Art Loves analysis
Freeshooting
Week Two - the bones
Literary Elements
reading a photograph
audience and feedback
genre and structure
plot
tone & mood
theme
narrator and POV
setting
character
purposeful ambiguity
Week Three - the flesh
Literary Techniques
allusion
imagery
analogy & personification
symbol
hyperbole
repetition
juxtaposition
Week Four - the dance
Productivity as a creative
obstacles
lack of time
paralyzing pursuit of perfection
finding a balance
choreographing your dance
long term writing & shooting prompts
Supplemental videos and readings will also be available - please watch
and read these as they are as much a part of the course as the PDFs.
the life lessons
core beliefs
For your first morning pages, I want you to reflect on your core
beliefs. What drives the way you live? What motivates your
decisions? To get started, it might be helpful to visit
http://thisibelieve.org.
Much of what I share in this workshop, especially this first week,
revolves around my I Believe statement.
In life, finding a voice is speaking and living the truth.
Each of you is an original.
Each of you has a distinctive voice.
When you find it, your story will be told.
You will be heard.
- John Grisham
I believe that everyone has a story and it’s the sharing of those stories
that connects us and keeps us sane. The humor, the fear, the near
insanity or impossibility of this life journey -- I just don’t think any
of us survive it without sharing stories. Without them, we can’t show
empathy, we can’t feel grace, we don’t understand that we are all
going through it unless we tell each other we are all going through it.
Stories are at the center of religion and family and friendships and
the reason art exists. Sometimes the event is too much, too powerful
or just impossible for us to figure out how to put all of that meaning
and feeling into a conversation, so we do it with writing and art. I
believe that our society minimizes the importance of imagination,
art and writing, often shaming those that commit to a creative
lifestyle. I believe that if we put more energy into encouraging people
to feel, observe, reflect, imagine and share that we would be a
healthier world. I believe that the creative people are the ones with
the ability to change the world and that it’s our treatment of them
that determines if they use that power for good or evil.
You do not have to share your I Believe statement unless you want
to. Obviously, I believe that sharing your stories is beneficial, but I
also understand that some core belief statements are too personal
to share.
narrator & point of view
Implying third Person Point of View
Third Person Point of View - the narrator is someone outside the story, who frequently uses pronouns, like ‘he,’ ‘she,’ and ‘they,’ to describe the character
Third person point of view treats the viewer as
an outsider looking in on the story. You can
emphasize this point of view by increasing your
distance from the subject and also by shooting
through things, to imply peeking in on an event.
By moving yourself further back from the scene
and including more of the setting, you are
pulling away from the subject and pulling the
viewer out of the story. Limiting eye contact
from your subject emphasizes this point of view
as well. Once your subject makes eye contact,
even if you are further back, you pull us into the
photo as a participant.
You can further emphasize third person point
of view by adding elements of depth between
your subject and viewer to increase the viewer’s
perceived distance from the story.
This distance does not mean that the story loses its connection. It’s just a different kind of connection, one
more of reminiscence and reflection than involvement. You decide how you want to tell this story, how you
want your viewer to participate in it and then make your shooting decisions based on that.
allusion
Literary allusion is defined as a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing
or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance. It does not describe
in detail the person or thing to which it refers. It is just a passing comment and the
writer expects the reader to possess enough knowledge to spot the allusion and grasp
its importance in a text.
Allusions are useful in the visual arts because you can influence your viewer’s
interpretation of your photo with the connotations they already have about the
elements in the photo. You are limited to one frame with your photo, but you can
use allusions to help build a more complex story for your viewer.
Your allusion can be as simple as including a stuffed animal in the frame to
represent childhood or as involved as a prop and costume-based Where the Wild
Things Are shoot to express the themes of imagination and exploration.
In the photo to the right, I captured the motions of the Itsy Bitsy Spider, a song well
known by most of my viewers, to conjure up memories of childhood through
motion and song.
Morning Writing Prompt
Write about your favorite book or movie, considering all of the literary elements. What makes you connect to the story? Is it the point of view, the
setting, the characters, the plot, the tone/mood, or the theme? Or is it a combination of elements?
Photo Connection (allusion based on a story)
From your writing prompt, consider which of the elements would be most recognizable visually to your audience.
Use that element to build a photo with visual allusions to your story/book/movie.
the creative process
paralyzing pursuit of perfection
It’s difficult to avoid this paralyzing pursuit of perfection,
especially if you are putting your work out into the world.
You are going to be exposed. Your work that is full of your heart
will be placed in front of others who will decide if they like it.
You naturally want that work to be “perfect.”
But, you know what?
Few people really want perfect.
They want relatable and raw and unique and
imperfect, because that is life.
Strategies against the paralyzing pursuit of perfection
Embrace the experience
Define your own rules
Love vs. fear of your work