The Story Inside the Photo
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, yet an image doesn’t always tell the whole truth, does it? What better way to right the record than in the voice of the one who knows it best?
One might look at this photograph and see an ordinary stoop and never know the special memories it brings to Maria LaPlaca Bohrer, author of Sofia’s Stoop Story. The focus of her children's book is the tradition of Sunday dinners at her grandmother’s house in Brooklyn, New York, and the special stories her uncle told from the stoop.
Just as Sofia and her cousins listened to Uncle Frankie’s intriguing story about the day he met Brooklyn Dodgers baseball player, Carl Furillo, her grandmother called on her to buy cheese, bread and pastries. When she returned, the story had ended and Sofia was sad.
So many of our "legacy photos" become worthless because the story is lost. Fortunately, with the "Legacy Stories" mobile app, you can add your voice to vintage family photographs to create Pict-Oral Memories". And, you will be loved for it by future generations.
Click the photograph below and listen to a story, entitled, "Dad's Donuts," told by Rader Hayes, a member of LegacyStories.org. A shared reflection, whether it's written or narrated, can offer descendants insight into values, relationships and traditions.
Register of log into LegacyStories.org and Add a Pict-Oral memory to your Legacy Portfolio.
LEGACY MATTERS! PASS IT ON!
Margaret Garone, Legacy Coach and Certified Legacy Planner.
About the author
Comments 2
How timely this Legacy Blog!
The very next entry that I planned to submit has to do with squeezing a maximum of information from photos, as an exercise in developing the content for an accompanying story line. The genre of writers known as photojournalists use words sparingly, perhaps because they are not always intimately familiar with the content of the photos they take; but their added words always adds to the implied story. Legacy writers should be able to do better with personal remarks that are meaningful.
Legacy writers can enhance their photo stories by first asking the basic questions of: who?, what?, where?, why?; and perhaps how?--as elements of the story content. The next step is to include as much of the content in a story that is meaningful to its intended audience.
Dick, you made excellent points here.
When we were children, didn't we look at the smiles or stoic expressions of relatives in the photographs and imagine that life was simple in the "old days?" Then the stories were told about life in The Great Depression, and others of triumphs.
Photographs, as you say, need the "personal remarks that are meaningful." Thanks so much for commenting!
