I have stash of photographs from my childhood years, a few from the years I was married and progressively fewer as I get older. There were years in my 30′s and 40′s when I wish I’d taken more photos and had more taken of me to record what I was doing, and how I looked.
Memories are embedded in any photograph and that’s why we keep them, never edit or toss out even the really rotten ones because it’s the only one showing a favourite friend or place or the only record of a trip.
So how can we use photos to jog memories loose and write them down?
The short answer is that it depends on your project. If you are writing about a trip you took with your mother, you can gather the mementos and photographs relating to the trip and use them to build your story of the trip. If you are looking for a detail regarding something in your childhood, you will want to search all the relevant photographs in the years you think might yield that information.
If you are trying to access a memory the process is slightly different. First, you will search any photograph that seems related to that time. Do a preliminary search through your photos and make a stack of those you think may be useful. If your photos are all in albums, you will want to figure out how to select them without trashing your albums. This process tends to work better with loose photos. Then take a break, a few days, a month, whatever feels right, but take a break.
When you are ready to look at the photos again, choose a time when you will not be disturbed for a couple of hours, when you are not distracted by other stuff in your life, and without tv or radio in the background. You need a clear mind for this part of the process. Turn your stack of photos upside down. One at a time, turn each photograph upright and look at it closely. If you feel or notice something, a pull, an emotional charge, put the photo to one side. If you don’t feel anything in particular, put that photo on another pile. Your object here is to do a sort through your photos noticing which ones have something to say to you, and which ones don’t. You may change your mind later, but for now, don’t worry about that.
Now you have two stacks of photos. Go through the stack of photos that didn’t seem to speak to you. Are there any that you want to move to the other stack?
Spread the photos that you feel some emotional charge from on the floor (if there are a lot) or on a large table. Do these photos ‘tell a story’? Do you see connections or themes? Are the same people in most of the photos? Spend a bit of time just looking at the photos around you, then gather them up and put them in an envelope or box so they are kept separate from the rest of your photos.
Once the photos are gathered, take 20 minutes and write your impressions of the experience, whatever comes to mind, feelings, memories, ideas, anything at all. Don’t worry if it isn’t a story yet, that will come. Right now you need to capture your more immediate reactions.
Searching through your photographs can be a big emotional event. Take some time to process it, write about it for a week or so, but don’t go back to the photographs yet.
Let me know in the comments how this worked for you…