Writers Are Like Photographers

"Writers are like photographers," Donald Murray reminds us.

The photographer doesn't snap a picture while scanning an

entire scene. Instead he selects a single focus (239-240).

This analogy was exceptionally powerful to me. The idea of looking through a camera lens out at an event or a topic just has wonderful possibilities. You could do a panoramic photo, including the wide picture, seeing how many pieces fit together. On the other hand, you could use the high-powered zoom lens to get up close and magnify a single element of the photo. Even the photographer's decision to use black and white or color film to make a particular statement can translate into a writer's decision to use sparse exposition or flowery prose to create a desired effect. A question that occurs to me that I might ask my students is this: "If your topic was a photograph, what would it look like?" Would it have lots of characters in it, or just one? Is the physical setting the most important element, or rather the expression on the subject's face? And on and on.

Maybe this speaks to me because I am the yearbook editor, and one of the biggest jobs of the publications staff is to find the right picture to tell the story. From an entire role of film, we might get just one or two usable photos; or none. Or we might have so many to choose from that we have to select the best angle and/or composition. Those words, "angle" and "composition" are writing words as well as visual arts terms. Out of a notebook full of drafts, I might find the same dilemmas -- not enough or too much usable raw material for a piece of writing. I am wondering now why this whole concept has never occurred to me before. I have often looked at photographs and begun to compose stories based upon what I observe, but I have never done the converse.