Photographs hold personal memories, individual and collective histories, and notions of identity. They are records both subjective and objective. But how do these pictures relate and link to other types of images? Can our personal photographs resist images of power, destruction, violence and war? Are there ways these pictures can activate, inform, or move us to action and generate a new narrative or poem?
This class will focus on delivering a range of idea generation techniques using personal photographs, memory mapping, and writing exercises.
Participants will be guided through a process exploring how personal photographs and image linking can spark new narrative routes, expanded personal meanings, and compelling visual and textual backgrounds. Each session will include a brief unpacking of creative technique, with examples from the instructor’s own work, and the work of others, followed by a prompt for generative engagement.
By the end of this course, students will have:
1. drafted a variety of short form writings generated through mapping personal photographs through time and place.
2. developed an understanding of at least three techniques for idea mapping using photographs as a route for new writing and
3. gained a fuller understanding of the rich possibilities that photographs can play in creative practices of writing.
No photographic experience necessary.
Daniel J. King is an artist and US Air Force veteran making lens-based work with a tendency toward the idiosyncratic human relationship to place, geography, and representation. He teaches studio art and photography courses at Ohio University and Otterbein University, and maintains ongoing community based workshops connecting ideas, people, and place through creative practice. Daniel’s commitment to using the arts as a bridge for community engagement and personal transformation has developed over decades of experiences fostering growth, mentorship, and collaboration in diverse spaces—from cultural centers and college classrooms to veteran and recovery communities.
