Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Can someone help me find a photograph that can be described well enough for the readers to picture it in their mind? Help!a photo that you can...

I assume you're looking for a photograph of something real
or even a piece of artwork from which you can do some kind of descriptive writing
assignment.  I'll give you several ideas, but first there are several helpful things to
consider so you can find your own photo or piece of artwork to
describe.


First, choose something that is
somehow familiar.  In other words, something which quickly conjures up a familiar or
stereotypical image in your readers' minds.  For example, if you say it's a picture of a
pair of hands which might belong to an elderly woman like a grandmother, the image is
automatically set.  From there you can be more specific--ring or no ring, shape of the
fingernails, lines and wrinkles, or whatever.


Second, if
you do choose something unfamiliar, describe it in terms of something your readers would
know.  For example, if it's a building most people haven't seen, explain that it's in
the shape of the Eiffel Tower or the Washington Monument, or whatever other recognizable
element we can readily picture.


Third, be as specific as
you can when you draw the literal picture with words. Utilize the senses (how rough, how
smooth, how fragile are those grandmotherly hands, and how tall or what shape and what
texture the building).  Rather than stringing together a series of adjectives ("a large
gray animal with lots of wrinkles" is not as effective as saying "an old, wrinkled
elephant standing majestically, trunk raised in a trumpeting
call"). 


Finally, though this probably should have been
first, choose something that moves you in some way.  If it does,
your description is likely to be much more effective.


Two
works of art which you might consider are Grant Woods's American Gothic
(better known as the "Corn Flakes" picture) and Norman Rockwell's
Freedom From Want (also known as his Thanksgiving painting). Both
of these are easily found on line.  Gothic is a farm couple (a
father and daughter, actually) who has lived a difficult life and it shows on their
faces.  Lots of good descriptive possibilities here.  Freedom is
exactly how the most pure, old-fashioned Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa's house
must have been. 


Whether you choose these kinds of things
or something from your own photo album, make sure it's something real and which inspires
you in some way.  Best of luck!

No comments:

Post a Comment

How is Anne's goal of wanting "to go on living even after my death" fulfilled in Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl?I didn't get how it was...

I think you are right! I don't believe that many of the Jews who were herded into the concentration camps actually understood the eno...