Photo stories

I love unusual photographs, especially those that when the more I look at them, the more I see. I can also use it as a prompt for a flash fiction piece or just a chance to go into the photograph and let my imagination play around.

One popped up on a Facebook page today taken by Isabelle Richard. I examined and examined it. Three times I went back to it. Each time I say something more.

I'd met Isabelle years ago when she lived in Geneva. We'd reconnected for a great lunch including my daughter in Montreal where she'd moved and we were there on business.

Why do I like it so much?

There's so much in it.

1. A pretty red flower--Amaryllis? Okay, I'm horrible in identifying flowers. I know pink, white, pretty, small, big. From an artistic point of view the red of the flower is balanced by the red chair.

2. Were the flowers a gift? From whom? Did the photographer buy the flower herself, if it was a her?

3. The warmth of the room inside contrasts to the cold of the snow outside. Opposites add depth to writing never mind what it triggers in an imagination.

4. The table is set for one. Why? Does the person live alone, or just alone for that meal? If she (and I think it is a she) does live with others who are they and how many? What relation are they to her?

5. The salad looks good but is that the first course or the entire meal?

6. Why water as a beverage?

7. The snow, is it covering a patio or a garden?

8. In the summer do people eat out there?

9. The yellow napkin matches the yellow in the table cloth. Does the owner care about color-co-ordination and if so how does she feel about the red flowers and chair against the pink in the table cloth?

10. Do the flowers show a yearning for spring? 

11. Does the photographer like/dislike snow?

12. The water glass casts a shadow. 

13. Who lives in the house across the way? 

14. What is the rest of the home where the table is like? An apartment? A big house? A new house? Old?

When I look at the photo, I want to sit down and eat the salad, but I would need to get up to get a fork. There is a homey feel to the photo. I imagine being in sweats and reading as I eat the salad. 

If I were giving a writing seminar, I could use the photo for an exercise, letting each person in the course put their own spin on the photo. Since I have no seminars planned, I am more than content to have found great pleasure in just looking at the photo.