If your photos could illustrate a novel, which would you choose?

johannielscom

johannielscom

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A while back I picked up my writing again. I have always had the ambition to write a larger story and through an event not disclosed here, I now have a story to write, as well as time and dedication to do so.

Dutch novelists W.F. Hermans and Bordewijk, but also Milan Kundera, Kafka and Jack Kerouac are among my favorites to read. I can relate to the often solitary and displaced protagonists in their novels, it connects with my own theme of people barely being able to truly live together, if not failing at it.


If your pictures could accompany a novel or a novelists work, which novel or novelist would you chose and why?
 
Almost anything by Murakami, but especially his more surreal works like the Wind-up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84, or Wild Sheep Chase. Something draws me to the thought of documenting the minutiae of life in Japan with my M6, probably because I'm not likely to ever have the chance to do it.

Also, I really like Kafka, Kerouac, and Kundera as well, so in the spirit of the letter K also suggest Kadare (Ismail Kadare from Albania).

Cheers,
Rob
 
I'd choose any book, author, and publisher willing to pay me for the photo. Here's a novel that did use one of my photos, and I was paid very well for it.

oldghosts.jpg


Here's the original photo:

feighner-farm4.jpg
 
^ Wonderful photo Chris. You posted it somewhere on RFF many moons ago. I can't remember the topic but I must admit that the image has remained in my mind all of that time!

Cheers,
Rob
 
'Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas' ... I like the way Hunter S Thompson thinks. I gave my father that book to read on his eightieth birthday and he loved it!
 
"The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler (my avatar). It's been done as film noir. I'd like to illustrate the book in a similar manner.
 
What a Wonderful Creative Thread Johan...got me thinking ;)


As a Native New Yawker what could be better
Lawrence Ferlinghetty : 'Coney Island of the Mind'
 
I'm always amazed buy new threads like this one, after thinking that nothing really new can be posted here. Thanks Johan!

for me: Catch 22, Voyage au bout de la nuit, Kapputt, The trial.
 
Off the top of my head I'm thinking Chuck Palahniuk's Stranger than Fiction for a non-fiction novel or Joe Haldeman's Forever War for fiction.
 
Thanks people for the kind words.

The idea is to make a connection between 'a land of the mind' as it is created by a writer in any readers mind, and the photos that people take. In my recent experience, the photos that photographers take and the literature or poetry they like, often are extensions of their views, themes and beliefs as they are.

In my case, realizing this was a help in deciding where I want my photography (and my writing!) to go and I would like others to profit from this approach so I thought I'd share.

Also, get to know new books and writers and read why people like them!

I love the suggestion of shooting to illustrate Heller's Catch 22!
 
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