Text and Image, Right in Front of Me

I never thought when I registered for a photography workshop at the Fine Arts Work Center (FAWC) in Provincetown, MA, this year, forgoing my usual fiction workshop, that it would so seamlessly and wonderfully weave writing into our week of shooting pictures.  My first clue that it would be interesting, though, was the pre-workshop assignment, which called for presenting a photograph or a piece of writing (essay/poem) depicting an everyday object or scene in an intriguing way.  Little did I know that our Instructor, Joanne Dugan, was not just open to writing but fully invested in it.

Click on photos for full-size images

"On Seeing What's in Front of You: Photographing Your Own Life with New Eyes," August 5-10, 2012, was meant to show us that projects full of potential were present not just in exotic locales but in our everyday lives, and that transforming ordinary pictures into extraordinary images was accomplished through changing the way we think about and thus see what's right in front of us.  Writing was a tool to both chronicle and discover just how we thought about what we were shooting and to uncover what held the most meaning for us.  (I am only just now fully understanding that purpose!)

Art consists of limitation.  The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.  (G.K. Chesterton)

Most of our daily assignments incorporated writing into the experience, either recording our thoughts or feelings while shooting or writing something to accompany the pictures.  Patti, a fellow student, was already well-versed in marrying text and image, something fully realized in most of her presentations.  This gave me the freedom to do the same, liberating me to write at FAWC again - and in a visual arts workshop!




I was amazed when Joanne used a simple questionnaire to show us how just words (our answers) could inspire new projects.  (Likewise, painting, dance, or even music could unleash ideas to explore.)

You have to milk the cow a lot to get a little cheese.  - Henri Cartier-Bresson

And once a day Joanne offered us her popcorn box, into which we reached and pulled out a strip of folded paper with a quotation on it.  What was quirky on Monday had by midweek become an anticipated little gem of a daily gift; she suggested that the one we pulled out was perhaps meant for us at this specific time.





Reflecting on the week after it ended, I had the idea that it could be promoted to writers as "Pen and Shutter: Photography for Writers."  As my classmate Andrea noted, writing and photography are stronger together.  And I can see how not only the end products, but also the processes can influence and benefit each other. 

Life is once, forever. - Henri Cartier-Bresson

Joanne Dugan has completely changed the way I photograph in giving me both new techniques and a totally different way of thinking.  The ultimate challenge, one we only had time to touch on over the course of four days of shooting, is to take not the documentary "I was there" postcard shot but instead the descriptive picture of how we felt, one that shows the viewer what holds meaning for us.  This is the entire key to understanding why some of my pictures make me go "Yes!" (as Henri Cartier-Bresson would say) and why others seem technically high in quality but lacking in soul.  It is the key to becoming a better photographer.

www.joannedugan.com - little movies, photographs, projects, books, etc.
JOANNE DUGAN Fine Art - photo galleries, information
Joanne Dugan's Photography and Writing Blog - with an entry about this workshop and a photo with yours truly in it :)


Photo credits: Mark Abe