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| Teachers.Net Gazette Vol.6 No.5 | May 2009 |
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 Using Photography To Inspire Writing VII Reaching into the negative, using photographic icons and other creative uses of images to prompt written reflection. | ||
| by Hank Kellner Continued from page 1 May 1, 2009 |
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 In her classes at California State University at Monterey Bay and at Cabrillo College, Barbara Raney directs her students to read Richard Rodriguez’ essay about a photo display in San Francisco. “In this essay,” she writes, “Rodriguez asserts that anyone with a camera can create meaningful images.” Then Raney shows the students photos of her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other relatives and asks them to write memoirs based on photos of their own relatives. “The students do a good job of speculating about how/why their subjects changed since the photographs were taken,” she reports.  Sometimes you don’t need a written prompt to trigger ideas that lead to written compositions. Here’s an example of how a member of a senior citizen’s writers’ group responded to the photo shown here. “This photo took me back to the days when my kids and I would spend hours searching for sharks’ teeth along the sandy shores of Jacksonville Beach in Florida, or back to any number of beach memories that are strung throughout my early years. How well I remember other days in Atlantic City when they had a horse that jumped off the Steel Pier. But that was years ago.” Free! Free! Free! Mystery Photo Marketing experts tell us that one of the most powerful words in the English language is Free. That’s why I’ve used it three times in the subhead (above). “Balderdash!” you exclaim. “Nothing’s free. You pay for everything.” “Not so,” I respond, secure in the knowledge that the Free Mystery Photo I want to send you is really, truly, without-a-doubt, undeniably free. All you have to do to receive my Free Mystery Photo is to send me an e-mail at hankpix@gmail.com with the words Free Mystery Photo in the subject line. Are you still unconvinced? Do you want to know more about the photo before you send for it…even though it’s free? Okay. (1) This photo has been in my files for more than twenty years. (2) During that time, it appeared on the cover of The Reading Journal and in many other publications. (3) Most recently it appeared in Write What You See. (4) Its center of interest is a teenager. (5) Before I retired, I used it to inspire writing time and time again with great success. By the way, the Free Mystery Photo will arrive in your electronic mailbox with permission to reproduce it for use in your classroom. Send today! Copyright © 2009 Hank Kellner
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Hank Kellner is a retired educator and the author of Write What You See: 99 Photographs to Inspire Writing. Original Edition. Cottonwood Press. I-800-864-4297 