Image + word + emotion = collaborative alchemy
“The essence of cinema is editing. It’s the combination of what can be extraordinary images of people during emotional moments, or images in a general sense, put together in a kind of alchemy.”
~ Francis Ford Coppola
Alchemy is what we sought through our writing/photography collaboration. Although Coppola omits the screenwriter here, he captures the essence of combining different elements to create something new; richer than just words or images flying solo.
Coppola’s cinematography has much in common with the visual language of the photographer, a reading of the image, a mood conjured by light, shadow, proximity, depth of field — visual composition in all its complexity.
The elements in this Photobook project comprised photographic and print creation and editing, achieved through exploration, suggestion, trial, error and negotiation. The collaborators were both producers and consumers of text, creating images and words in symbiotic relationship. Getting the dynamics right depended on what I came to see as an iterative challenge, image leads to text which leads to design which leads to back to image which leads to new text …
The project
The photographers had to produce 25 high quality photos around a theme or particular subject matter, and our editing role was to support, and in some cases, write the story that accompanied the images. Photographers favour a visual, rather than oral or print language and our task was to see how and where we could complement the photographers’ creativity.
We had four weeks to work together. When we met our co-creators, they had many of their photos ready to format in InDesign. This meant their ‘story’ was already well on its way and we were entering the process at a relatively late stage. In the case of my first photographer, Aki had a clear concept in her mind from the 25 images she had selected from nearly 1000 photos. Jess, on the other hand, was still building her narrative and wanted more guidance around current and yet-to-be-taken photos.
This was not just a collaboration with two photographers, but also fellow Professional Writing and Editing student, Matt. This was a complementary pairing: Matt and I are former teachers (Matt, Media; Julie, English) and are closely aligned in our writing goals. Aki and Jess were expressive, motivated photographers, so communication was productive from the beginning.
“The photobook was unchartered territory; this was their ‘baby’ and I … had to sensitively read the appropriate level of scaffolding and intervention.”
Constraints
Time is always an issue, although not a major one for me as my partners were keen and well organised. Online classes during COVID reminded us of the value of embodied learning — when someone is not physically in front of us, people can be slow to respond via email, written words can be misinterpreted and so on. Meeting in situ positively built relationships; face-to-face collaboration enabled a feel for the creative individuality and processes in play. I already knew Matt but neither of us knew our photographers, so we needed to work quickly and effectively. Early meetings required careful listening to assess what the photographers had achieved, where they wanted to go, at what pace, and what kind of support would be of value. In writing classes, we had many discussions over the language and approach best suited for developing constructive partnerships. I had been used to building writing with students over a year, or editing journal submissions in a transactional manner (‘you want your article published? Then this is what you need to do …’). The photobook was unchartered territory; this was their ‘baby’ and I, independently and with Matt, had to rapidly and sensitively read the appropriate level of scaffolding and intervention.
Getting the writing done
A certain tension always arguably exists between creator and editor, especially in this project where both parties were thrown together for a major assessment task, congenial though relationships might be. This tension might be heightened by differences in age, experience, confidence and so on, all of which require building a layered partnership in the time available. The photographer might appear, for example, politely accepting of an editorial suggestion, but the fact that the original remains unchanged signals their ownership of the final product.
Matt and I saw our job as not only offering help with the rhythms, narrative control and subtext (where possible) of the prose. We also wanted to co-build the story and flesh out its more granular possibilities. Jess, for example, wanted to honour her musician brother — his commitment and creativity. She followed him through his days and a number of nights, capturing his solo gigs and collaborations with others. We saw him out walking with his dog, drinking coffee, recording at home. The additional layer we proposed was to show more of the vacillating energy levels of a creative existence, playing to a disengaged crowd, packing up exhausted after doing a fill, needing time alone to recover his energy. Jess’s additional photos captured this movement and added texture to her portrait.
Aki had her concept in place before I met her; the ‘it takes a village’ notion of raising a child. Baby Sammy and sister Maddie are seen in everyday activities with their parents, sharing moments together as they adjust to a new family dynamic. Aki’s captions captured shifting family perspectives of wonder and vulnerability. Together, we discussed and agreed on which photos needed to be grouped, which spoke more eloquently without captions and so on. Often Aki had caught a tiny detail about a family member and wanted a caption that led the viewer’s eye to its significance. For example, the photos below reflect Aki’s shifting approach to Maddie’s relationship with her baby brother, and our attempt to catch the photographic nuance.
Moving among and across these various textual demands is deep, rewarding work for a writer/editor. There are frustrations and miscommunications of course, but theyare quickly absorbed into the full collective achievement. I felt fortunate engaging with words and images that ultimately emerged as, if not alchemic, a process far greater than the sum of its parts.
Photographic credits: Joel by Jessica Hindmarch; Maddie by Akiha Arai
