Picture This...

A picture, as the saying goes, tells a thousand stories. (Or does it show them? Hmm.) For our last session we made use of two collections of London photos, and the exercise generated some fantastic results.

Here is a selection of photos taken by Bob Mazzer on the London Underground in the 1980s.

And here is a collection of photos of Hackney in the '80s.

(These were discovered in 2016 in the basement of the Rio cinema in Dalston, and formed part of an exhibition at Hackney Museum in 2019. The image below was taken in 1985, possibly in Hackney Downs.)

Pick a pic from the links above and see where it takes you. For further inspiration, try any of the following prompts:

Your character is in this photo. They are describing the moment it was taken, one week after the event.

Your character is in this photo. They are describing the moment it was taken, thirty-two years after the event.

Your character is the photographer.

Your character is looking at this photo as evidence.

Your character is looking at this photo as a gallery curator.

Your character is an author researching a biography. This picture captures a pivotal moment in the subject's story.

Your character has found this photo in the pages of an old book in a box in the attic.

Your character is being asked to identify someone in this photo.

Your character is travelling to a funeral. They are carrying this photo.

Your character is about to destroy this photo.