An emotional and nostalgic story inspired by a seat? I love creating visual stories that allow the viewer to use their imagination. In an earlier blog I talked about my intentions behind my photo art. I describe how I can sometimes see the story behind an image before I even take the photo I am going to work on. But what catches my eye and how is the story developed?
How I Create An Emotional And Nostalgic Story Inspired By A Simple Seat
Alone in Beauty
My image ‘Alone in Beauty’ suggests loneliness and a story behind the image. I was standing taking photographs of the mist on Lago Trasimeno near Castiglione del Lago in Umbria, Italy. I saw a man walk very slowly across the road and sit heavily on a bench in the shade. He seemed to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders and it triggered my imagination.
A man sits alone on a bench staring at his mobile phone. Though it is sunny, he sits in the shade. The view is beautiful but a fog is rolling in off the lake. What news has he received that makes him sit alone staring at his phone instead of the view? Why is he sitting alone on the bench, isolated from everyone? Has he received bad news? Has he been ill and enjoying the fresh air on the slow road to recovery?
With Your Back Against The Wall
This image ‘With Your Back Against The Wall’ is based upon a photograph I took in town called Panicale in Umbria, Italy. The stone bench is actually just outside the main entrance of the local health administration office. What first caught my eye was the juxtaposition of the surfaces, the cracked pavement with moss growing in the cracks. The old wall with peeling plaster and signs of water damage. The weeds growing underneath the bench.
But, just imagine how many people have sat on that bench. A child once sat on that bench with her mother, swinging her legs in the air as her mother talked to her friends sitting in the shade out of the sun. An old lady now, as she has grown the world has changed. But the stone bench remains the same, a place of refuge from the hot sun, and a place to meet friends.
The Seat Among The Iris
I used this image to develop an emotional and nostalgic story for a jigsaw puzzle site on which I guest blog. At first glance this is an ornate wooden bench sitting in a garden in front of a bank of iris. Surrounded by trees and plants, the area is quiet and out of the way. The seat is a wonderful place to sit quietly and breathe in the fresh air, meditate and listen to the sounds of nature. The view down to the valley below is breathtaking.
Just relax and imagine, for a moment, you are sitting on this bench. Feel the warm sunshine on your back. Be aware of the movement of the trees as the leaves rustle with the slight breeze. Listen to the birds singing in the trees and the buzz of bees and insects as they search for pollen. A wind chime can be heard faintly tinkling in the distance. And just be in the moment.
Take A Seat
Hidden in an olive grove lit by dappled shade from an old oak tree, I came across two seats. One an old stone seat that has been there for many years. The second, a seat carved out of the remains of an old oak tree that came down in a storm.
In years past, the laborers working on the olive grove would sit on the seat in the shade. They would eat their lunch together companionably, sharing a bottle of red wine and eating large pieces of bread, meat and cheese. In olive picking season they would sit mending their nets, getting them ready to stake out below the trees. Sometimes their wives would sit and help them as their children ran around playing among the trees. The laborers worked hard, they used sticks to beat the trees so the olives would fall into the nets. Some of them climbed up wooden ladders so they could reach the higher part of the tree.
Now there are fewer people employed to work on the olives. Their jobs replaced by machinery including a tractor with retractable olive nets and a mechanical arm that holds and shakes the tree. But the seats and the memories of those who have sat there still remain.
Before you go
My name is Dorothy Berry-Lound an artist and writer. You can find out more about my art and writing at https://dorothyberryloundart.com.
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Thank you for reading!
These are some great pictures with really awesome titles. I also like the stories that come with each of them. What’s a jigsaw site use their blog for? Do they use your images for jigsaws and then the blog posts to provide the stories to the images they’ve used?
Glad you like the stories and images. The jigsaw site is a jigsaw puzzle promotion site where invited guest artist bloggers can promote their jigsaw puzzles by writing an article. I sell puzzles on three art sites so this is an ideal way for additional promotion. I choose the jigsaw puzzles I would like to promote and write an article around them. If you follow the link to the site you will see I have written several articles on different topics.
It’s wonderful the way that you can imagine the stories behind your beautiful photos. Sometimes I struggle with storytelling in my art. I used to have more imagination but now I just like to make pretty pictures. LOL. I think viewers do prefer to have a narrative to connect with.
Thanks Linda. Do you know they wrote in one of my school reports that I lacked imagination? I didn’t understand it at the time because the fiction stories I wrote when I was 9 and 10 were really very imaginative. I still have my old exercise books with all the stories. At the time I just thought I didn’t know what ‘imagination’ meant.
This is a lovely post, Dorothy. It’s nice to imagine all the happy, sad, lonely, or peaceful souls that have passed through a location.
I am glad you like it Mary, thanks for your comment.