when stories come alive
Monday, July 20, 2009 by Kate Inglis
I went out there with my camera feeling like a ghost hunter. And I was, in a way. Looking to find evidence of spirits that exist in this very place, or in some other parallel version of it.
Plenty of things make you a medium. Words, a camera, a paintbrush, an instrument. Voices whisper and nudge, wanting to be passed on, and so we do. And hope to god we don't get a tick in the doing of it (IN THE EAR NO LESS).
What you see above is the land where it all happens -- this is where a story was born which became a book, and where Eric, the pirate hunter, lives in that other dimension. That's his farmhouse, which smells like fresh cut wood. His parents bake bread in a kitchen wood oven, a glowing iron hearth that is the pulse of their home. They keep peacocks and they milk goats and yes, Virginia, there are ticks.
Eric and Missy, and Joe, and all the others -- they talk to me, whispering in a way I'd never hear if I didn't know to listen. They tell me how they need things to be. One day the pirate hunter said to me You're going to have to show them. You've got to convince people it's real, just like I had to.
I know, I replied. But I don't know how.
Didn't I tell you? he replied. I've got my dad's old polaroid. That's how I record the evidence that's too big to fit into the sailmaker's chest.
And so on his behalf I became a twelve-year-old boy on a mission. I became my character. I skulked through the woods watching for clues, and I felt watched. What I ended up with was a peek inside Eric's journal, complete with observations, speculation and context.
Photography helps stories to crackle and spark, don't you think?
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Today, show us how you've applied photography to storytelling, or applied it in other mediums. Show us scrapbooks and collages, canvas prints and websites. Or, show us processing that lends a vintage or artistic feel. What about that treatment made your photo feel 'done' -- and what role does photography and processing play in your storytelling life?
Thanks to all of you for bearing me as I pull the trigger, to share this enormous day. It's my birthday, and the day of the book site reveal (in preparation for the release in October). The photographic aspect has been the cherry of the creative process. Pure maraschino joy. Shutter Sisters is my home, and when I'm at home and happy I dance around naked like a fool. And so here you have it.
Reader Comments (22)
photographs seem to pull words like taffy for me. it's just a matter of giving it the time they deserve (being aware that you consciously have to give it). i've learned so much from you through your process. you are an inspiration!
i love to scrap but haven't been doing much lately - here are a few layouts from earlier this year -
http://meadowlarkdays.blogspot.com/2009/04/recent-paper-crafts.html
Here's a story but grounded in reality, not fantasy.
http://lifesignatures.org/wordpress/2009/07/scenes-from-the-4th/
Pirate-Power!
http://orangesalad.blogspot.com/2009/07/unaffected.html
Happy Birthday to you and congrats on the book!
Sometimes a picture will be taken and it just captures emotion and truly a moment in time sparks the imagination...here are a couple I did with my daughters last week...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martyhadding/3734423063/
and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martyhadding/3734420481/in/photostream/
I want to do more photography like this.
A photo in my art space:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40039273@N05/3729972441/
I love utilizing my camera to capture the story as it unfolds before my lens and then reliving it as I upload the photographs to my computer. Some make it to my blog, others do not.
Here are some that made it to my blog.
http://camerapatty.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/potd-thursdays-thirteen/
second, congrats!
third, i am about to launch a blog with the other five members of my family called sawdust and jazz, which will be a place for us all to upload photos and writing about my father who passed three years ago. he was a carpenter and a lover of jazz music—thus the name. but it will be a place for us to put anything that reminds us of our father/husband and will tell the story of his life through our eyes. i'm actually very excited about it.
http://www.photoblog.com/katiesclicks/2009/07/21/telling-a-story.html
Here are some of my collages of stories
One day in Lily's life
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59339563@N00/3745043734/?edited=1
I am not exactly amazing at storyboards and what not. So this was just done through bighugelabs. But in each of the individual photos, I have told her story.