Assignment 2: Captioning a Photograph
You’ve
most likely read photo captions in illustrated magazines such as Life, National
Geographic, or Rolling Stone.
In the Webster dictionary “caption” is defined as “a descriptive title,
or legend, as under an illustration.”
For our writing purposes, we will take Webster’s definition and extend
it into a descriptive essay. And rather
than write a “legend,” we will write a personal
reflection. Like legends, personal
reflections also entail the element of “story,” but our stories will not be
ancient or mythical. They will be
nonfiction, that is, based on some aspect or time in our lives. We are, therefore, already experts on the
information needed for this assignment.
Reflective narratives are not necessarily chronological like legends
either. Our memories don’t always come
to us in a neat chronology, but rather, in fragmented images that we put
together in order to make sense of them.
Because
emotion plays a significant role in memory, our process of making meaning of
memory entails a search for it, a journey of growth and discovery. One of the challenges of this assignment is
to describe, narrate, reflect or speculate so that readers go on that journey
with you. This is, after all, like all
the essays you will write this semester, a public one. With the exception of the photograph aspect
in it, the assignment could be compared to writing a “memoir,” which we in composition studies place in the genre
of creative nonfiction. It blends story based in truth with the
literary devices used in creative writing.
This will allow us to play a bit with form and style. Our photo caption essays, however, also like
the rest of your assignments, will entail a central focus. But as with Assignment 1, your thesis will
likely be an implicit one.
The Writing Assignment
Select
a personal photograph you remember particularly well, and write a 3-4 page
“caption” of it based on the description above. Your caption, or response, will combine descriptive features from
the photo as well from your personal experience in order to develop your
reflections.
1. Browse through your photographs, be they in an album, framed, in your billfold or a box and carefully choose the one that interests you. Pick one that you not only could write an essay about, but also that you could let other classmates read. You will need to describe the photograph vividly so that readers will understand what prompted your reflective response. In reflecting on the photo, explore both your own values regarding the image as well as society's dominant attitudes. Reflective writing is like a conversation--you are writing not just for yourself but to share your thoughts with others, to stimulate their thinking as well as your own.
2. Once you have narrowed down the photo for your reflection, do some prewriting to develop your reflections on the subject. We will do some of this in class. Use the following questions, if they help:
GENERALIZE ABOUT IT: Consider what you remember from the day the photo was taken, or what you have heard about that day or experience. What does it suggest about people in general or about the society in which you live?
GIVE EXAMPLES OF IT: Illustrate your experience with specific examples or anecdotes. What does the photo tell you or another viewer? Think of what might help your classmates understand the ideas you have about the photograph—what examples from your experience would best convey your ideas.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST IT: Look at the photo from a perspective of then and now. Explore the similarities and differences.
ANALYZE IT: Take apart your subject. Look at the interactions between the people and/or objects in the photo? How are dynamics of the relationships shown or not shown?