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A Few Ideas for Working with Photos
to Tell Lifestories
Here are suggestions for working with photos, each one a simple step towards crafting a deeper layer of meaning around your photos--and eventually into your albums. Follow them to develop the habits and the skills of a lifestory writer, a confident family historian, a successful scrapbooker. These suggestions are taken from my book . (Available at http://www.turningmemories.com/scrapbooking.html)
1. Take time to be with your photos. Reflect, then write. Allow yourself to return to the era in each picture. Recall the background as well as the foreground of that time: what was happening behind the scenes with family or friends? What the camera didn't capture is part of the story, even though it may not be part of the photo. It sounds so obvious that it's often overlooked: remembering is the key to effective photoscribing.
2. Create a MemoryList. Jot down everyone and everything. Nothing is insignificant. If you remember it, it belongs on your MemoryList. Though every detail may not make it into your final story, it's worth including here because the more you jot down, the more you will remember. Three to five words per item (person, place, event, details of any kind) is usually enough. Like a road map, the MemoryList, whether a work-in-process for the present or a recreation for the past, guides the photoscribe along the way.
3. Choose the most meaningful photos to photoscribe. Drop the unrealistic expectation to write a full story for every photo. Choose ones of the most meaningful times or areas of your life. These can be the ordinary moments as well as the highlight events. Recognize the value of background details. Even photos with poor focus or composition sometimes contain memories you want to keep. Life's most important moments don't always coincide with artificial photo-ops.
4. Write naturally. Sounds easy, right?--it is! Take it step by step. Write whatever comes to mind. Write for yourself, in your own voice. Fire that monkey on your shoulder who criticizes every word. Instead of getting distracted by thoughts of how someone else might word it, imagine a conversation with a friend and write down those words, the words you use every day. Then, read it over and cross out anything you've repeated or anything that doesn't add something new to the memory. Then ask, is any detail missing? If a stranger (your great-great-grandchild!) reads this story, will they understand why this photo is worth writing about? Check your MemoryList for this era or event. Add anything you forgot.
More suggestions like these are featured in The Photo Scribe. You'll find some freebie downloads for photoscribers on our website, too. http://www.turningmemories.com/Photoscribe.html
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