creative writing school
Module 9: Text & Visual Arts
Welcome to our online creative writing course exploring the captivating intersection of text and photography. Throughout this course, we will delve into the theoretical framework of vernacular photography and its profound influence on contemporary art and literature. From the insightful narratives of renowned authors such as Arthur Rimbaud, Jacques Roubaud, and Annie Ernaux to the innovative techniques of contemporary artists worldwide, we will unravel the intricate relationship between visual imagery and written expression.
Vernacular photography, with its focus on everyday life and ordinary moments, serves as a treasure trove of inspiration for artists and writers alike. Through the lens of these found images, we will examine how artists repurpose, reinterpret, and reimagine the visual narratives captured within them. From recontextualization to narrative reconstruction, social commentary to archival preservation, we will explore the diverse ways in which vernacular photography informs and enriches creative practice.
In addition to our theoretical exploration, we will engage in hands-on creative exercises designed to replicate the effects of photography in our writing. By experimenting with techniques such as polishing, expanding, cutting, reframing, and zooming, we will discover how to convey the texture, depth, and emotion of visual imagery through the written word. Through expressive writing and narrative reconstruction, we will explore the power of storytelling and the evocative potential of language in capturing the essence of a photograph.
So join us on this immersive journey into the captivating world of text and photography. Let's unlock the secrets of visual storytelling, ignite our creative imagination, and discover new ways to express ourselves through the art of writing.
Vernacular photography, with its focus on everyday life and ordinary moments, serves as a treasure trove of inspiration for artists and writers alike. Through the lens of these found images, we will examine how artists repurpose, reinterpret, and reimagine the visual narratives captured within them. From recontextualization to narrative reconstruction, social commentary to archival preservation, we will explore the diverse ways in which vernacular photography informs and enriches creative practice.
In addition to our theoretical exploration, we will engage in hands-on creative exercises designed to replicate the effects of photography in our writing. By experimenting with techniques such as polishing, expanding, cutting, reframing, and zooming, we will discover how to convey the texture, depth, and emotion of visual imagery through the written word. Through expressive writing and narrative reconstruction, we will explore the power of storytelling and the evocative potential of language in capturing the essence of a photograph.
So join us on this immersive journey into the captivating world of text and photography. Let's unlock the secrets of visual storytelling, ignite our creative imagination, and discover new ways to express ourselves through the art of writing.
theory
Vernacular photography refers to images captured by amateur or non-professional photographers, often depicting everyday life, personal moments, and ordinary scenes. These photographs are typically not intended for artistic purposes but instead serve as personal mementos or documents of family, community, and cultural history. They often possess a raw, unpolished quality, reflecting the authenticity and immediacy of the moment captured.
Contemporary artists worldwide have increasingly turned to vernacular photography as a rich source of inspiration and material for their work. They explore and repurpose these found images in various ways:
1. Recontextualization:
Artists like Vik Muniz and Martha Rosler may collect and curate vernacular photographs, presenting them in galleries, exhibitions, or publications to highlight their cultural significance and aesthetic value. By reframing these images within an artistic context, they invite viewers to reconsider their meaning and significance.
2. Narrative reconstruction:
Renowned artists such as Duane Michals and Sophie Calle use vernacular photographs as starting points for storytelling or narrative exploration. They create fictional narratives or poetic interpretations based on the visual cues and suggestive elements present in the images, blurring the lines between reality and fiction.
3. Social commentary:
Through the lens of vernacular photography, artists like Carrie Mae Weems and LaToya Ruby Frazier critique societal norms, cultural practices, or historical events. By analyzing the themes, compositions, and subjects depicted in these images, they offer insights into broader social issues or personal experiences.
4. Manipulation and remixing:
Contemporary artists such as Wangechi Mutu and Lorna Simpson digitally manipulate or remix vernacular photographs to create new compositions or challenge traditional notions of authorship and authenticity. By altering, cropping, or combining these images with other visual elements, they explore themes of memory, identity, and representation.
5. Archival and preservation:
Artists like Walid Raad and Susan Meiselas engage in projects focused on the archival and preservation of vernacular photography, recognizing its cultural and historical significance. They may digitize, catalog, and annotate collections of found photographs, ensuring their accessibility and longevity for future generations.
Overall, these artists use vernacular photography as a means of connecting with diverse cultural narratives, exploring the human experience, and challenging conventional notions of art and authorship. Through their creative interventions, they breathe new life into these ordinary images, inviting viewers to rediscover their beauty, complexity, and emotional resonance.
Contemporary artists worldwide have increasingly turned to vernacular photography as a rich source of inspiration and material for their work. They explore and repurpose these found images in various ways:
1. Recontextualization:
Artists like Vik Muniz and Martha Rosler may collect and curate vernacular photographs, presenting them in galleries, exhibitions, or publications to highlight their cultural significance and aesthetic value. By reframing these images within an artistic context, they invite viewers to reconsider their meaning and significance.
2. Narrative reconstruction:
Renowned artists such as Duane Michals and Sophie Calle use vernacular photographs as starting points for storytelling or narrative exploration. They create fictional narratives or poetic interpretations based on the visual cues and suggestive elements present in the images, blurring the lines between reality and fiction.
3. Social commentary:
Through the lens of vernacular photography, artists like Carrie Mae Weems and LaToya Ruby Frazier critique societal norms, cultural practices, or historical events. By analyzing the themes, compositions, and subjects depicted in these images, they offer insights into broader social issues or personal experiences.
4. Manipulation and remixing:
Contemporary artists such as Wangechi Mutu and Lorna Simpson digitally manipulate or remix vernacular photographs to create new compositions or challenge traditional notions of authorship and authenticity. By altering, cropping, or combining these images with other visual elements, they explore themes of memory, identity, and representation.
5. Archival and preservation:
Artists like Walid Raad and Susan Meiselas engage in projects focused on the archival and preservation of vernacular photography, recognizing its cultural and historical significance. They may digitize, catalog, and annotate collections of found photographs, ensuring their accessibility and longevity for future generations.
Overall, these artists use vernacular photography as a means of connecting with diverse cultural narratives, exploring the human experience, and challenging conventional notions of art and authorship. Through their creative interventions, they breathe new life into these ordinary images, inviting viewers to rediscover their beauty, complexity, and emotional resonance.
inspirations
Fortepan / Fortepan
"These photographs show me, one standing on a terrace of the house, another standing in a coffee garden, another with my arms crossed in a banana garden. All this has turned white, because of the bad water used for washing. But I will do a better job in the following. This is only to recall my figure, and give you an idea of the scenery here."
Arthur Rimbaud: Letter of May 6, 1883, "Complete Works", 1972.
Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet (1854-1891), known for his groundbreaking contributions to French literature during the late 19th century. Rimbaud's poetry, characterized by its innovative style, vivid imagery, and exploration of themes such as love, spirituality, and rebellion, had a significant influence on subsequent generations of poets and artists.
Arthur Rimbaud's "Complete Works" intersects with the topic of text and photography by showcasing his engagement with visual representation, the evocative power of his poetry, and the interdisciplinary connections between literature and visual art.
The inclusion of Rimbaud's letter dated May 6, 1883, as quoted in the "Complete Works," highlights his engagement with photography as a means of visual representation. In the letter, Rimbaud describes photographs of himself in different settings, indicating his interest in using images to convey aspects of his life and surroundings. His use of striking and evocative language creates mental images that parallel the visual impact of photographs. In this sense, Rimbaud's poetic texts can be seen as textual equivalents of photographic images, capturing moments, emotions, and landscapes with precision and intensity.
Arthur Rimbaud's "Complete Works" intersects with the topic of text and photography by showcasing his engagement with visual representation, the evocative power of his poetry, and the interdisciplinary connections between literature and visual art.
The inclusion of Rimbaud's letter dated May 6, 1883, as quoted in the "Complete Works," highlights his engagement with photography as a means of visual representation. In the letter, Rimbaud describes photographs of himself in different settings, indicating his interest in using images to convey aspects of his life and surroundings. His use of striking and evocative language creates mental images that parallel the visual impact of photographs. In this sense, Rimbaud's poetic texts can be seen as textual equivalents of photographic images, capturing moments, emotions, and landscapes with precision and intensity.
Fortepan / Uj Nemzedék napilap
"The photograph depicts a schoolyard with plane and chestnut trees. It's autumn; some chestnut husks are on the ground. The photographer has captured children wearing black aprons. Some are playing, others are watching; those who are playing are using the bars. I am in the photograph, my position marked with a cross. I have just begun to run, judging from my position (this is what can be inferred from my stance, if one has even a basic understanding of the game of bars)..."
Jacques Roubaud: "Autobiography", 1977.
Jacques Roubaud is a contemporary French poet, mathematician, and novelist. His work often intertwines text and photography, exploring the relationship between the two mediums. In his "Autobiography," published in 1977, he describes a photograph in detail, providing textual commentary on the visual elements captured in the image. This fusion of text and imagery allows Roubaud to evoke vivid scenes and memories while also reflecting on the nature of representation and memory. Additionally, Roubaud's use of photography within his autobiographical writings highlights the subjective nature of perception and the ways in which images can shape our understanding of the past. Overall, Roubaud's work exemplifies how text and photography can complement each other, offering different perspectives on shared experiences and narratives.
"The black and white photo of a little girl in a dark swimsuit, on a pebble beach. In the background, cliffs. She is sitting on a flat rock, her sturdy legs stretched straight out in front of her, arms resting on the rock, eyes closed, head slightly tilted, smiling.
A thick brown braid pulled to the front, the other left in the back. Everything reveals the desire to pose like the stars in Cinémonde or Ambre Solaire advertisements, to escape her humiliating and insignificant little girl body. The lighter thighs and upper arms outline the shape of a dress and indicate the exceptional nature, for this child, of a trip or outing to the sea.
The beach is deserted. On the back: August 1949, Sotteville-sur-Mer.
She is about to turn nine. She is on vacation with her father at an uncle and aunt's, artisans who make ropes. Her mother stayed in Yvetot, running the café-grocery that never closes. It is usually her mother who braids her hair into two tight plaits and fixes them in a crown around her head, with spring-loaded clips and ribbons. Either her father or her aunt doesn't know how to tie her braids like this, or she takes advantage of her mother's absence to let them flow.
It's difficult to say what she's thinking or dreaming about, how she views the years that separate her from the Liberation, what she remembers effortlessly."
Annie Ernaux: "Les Années" ("The Years"), 2008
Annie Ernaux is a prominent French author known for her autobiographical and sociological writings. Annie Ernaux's 2008 book, "Les Années" ("The Years"), is a memoir that reflects on the passage of time and the changing social and cultural landscape of post-war France. In the book, Ernaux traces her own life experiences alongside broader historical events, capturing the evolution of society and the collective consciousness over several decades.
The relationship between text and photography in "The Years" is integral to Ernaux's exploration of memory and identity. Throughout the book, Ernaux incorporates photographs from her personal archives, interspersing them with her written reflections on various periods of her life. These photographs serve as visual anchors, providing glimpses into specific moments and helping to evoke the mood and atmosphere of different time periods.
By combining text and photography, Ernaux creates a multi-dimensional narrative that blurs the boundaries between autobiography and collective history. The photographs act as visual cues, prompting the reader to reflect on their own memories and associations with the depicted scenes. At the same time, Ernaux's written reflections provide context and interpretation, enriching the reader's understanding of the photographs and their significance within the broader narrative.
Overall, "The Years" demonstrates how the integration of text and photography can deepen the storytelling process, inviting readers to engage with the narrative on both visual and textual levels. Through this interplay between image and language, Ernaux captures the essence of memory and the passage of time in a vivid and evocative manner.
The relationship between text and photography in "The Years" is integral to Ernaux's exploration of memory and identity. Throughout the book, Ernaux incorporates photographs from her personal archives, interspersing them with her written reflections on various periods of her life. These photographs serve as visual anchors, providing glimpses into specific moments and helping to evoke the mood and atmosphere of different time periods.
By combining text and photography, Ernaux creates a multi-dimensional narrative that blurs the boundaries between autobiography and collective history. The photographs act as visual cues, prompting the reader to reflect on their own memories and associations with the depicted scenes. At the same time, Ernaux's written reflections provide context and interpretation, enriching the reader's understanding of the photographs and their significance within the broader narrative.
Overall, "The Years" demonstrates how the integration of text and photography can deepen the storytelling process, inviting readers to engage with the narrative on both visual and textual levels. Through this interplay between image and language, Ernaux captures the essence of memory and the passage of time in a vivid and evocative manner.
creative exercises
I. IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE
Step 1: Close your eyes and journey back to different moments in your life when you were about to take pictures. Recall the context, the setting, the moment, the people, spaces, scents, the anticipation, the excitement, or perhaps the hesitation you felt before capturing those moments.
Step 2: Imagine a roll of film that failed to advance properly, leaving it wound up and unusable. Reflect on three images that you intended to capture but were ultimately lost due to this malfunction. What were these fleeting moments that no photograph can preserve?
II. EXPRESSIVE WRITING
Consider how you can replicate the effects of photography in your writing. Explore techniques such as polishing, expanding, cutting, reframing, and zooming in your text. Think about how you can convey the grain of a photograph, the variable focal length, aperture settings, and the sequencing of images within a paragraph. Experiment with incorporating the "cut" of editing and the disruptions and variations inherent in both photography and storytelling.
Reflect on the interplay between narrative time and referential time, recognizing that stories may unfold at different speeds than the moments they depict. Imagine your writing as a photography album, pondering what you choose to focus on, in what order you present the images, and how you narratively reconstruct the scenes captured by your words. Explore the juxtaposition of temporal layers and the nonlinear progression of stories within your text, embracing the richness and complexity of the photographic medium in your writing.
Step 1: Close your eyes and journey back to different moments in your life when you were about to take pictures. Recall the context, the setting, the moment, the people, spaces, scents, the anticipation, the excitement, or perhaps the hesitation you felt before capturing those moments.
Step 2: Imagine a roll of film that failed to advance properly, leaving it wound up and unusable. Reflect on three images that you intended to capture but were ultimately lost due to this malfunction. What were these fleeting moments that no photograph can preserve?
II. EXPRESSIVE WRITING
Consider how you can replicate the effects of photography in your writing. Explore techniques such as polishing, expanding, cutting, reframing, and zooming in your text. Think about how you can convey the grain of a photograph, the variable focal length, aperture settings, and the sequencing of images within a paragraph. Experiment with incorporating the "cut" of editing and the disruptions and variations inherent in both photography and storytelling.
Reflect on the interplay between narrative time and referential time, recognizing that stories may unfold at different speeds than the moments they depict. Imagine your writing as a photography album, pondering what you choose to focus on, in what order you present the images, and how you narratively reconstruct the scenes captured by your words. Explore the juxtaposition of temporal layers and the nonlinear progression of stories within your text, embracing the richness and complexity of the photographic medium in your writing.
stay motivated!
As we draw near to the conclusion of our journey through the captivating realms of text and photography, let us reflect on the timeless allure of old photographs. They have the remarkable ability to transport us back in time, evoking nostalgia and melancholy as we reminisce about moments long gone. Yet, as we gaze upon these snapshots of the past, let us remember to keep our focus on the horizon ahead. While it's natural to cherish memories and honor our personal histories, we mustn't allow ourselves to become imprisoned by the past. Instead, let us use these reflections as fuel to propel us forward, embracing the present moment and eagerly anticipating the future that awaits. With our newfound creative insights and the power of our words, let us embark on the next chapter of our journey with renewed vigor and enthusiasm. The possibilities are endless, and the adventure continues.
Photo: Fortepan / MHSZ