Lunch Time Chat
with A Thousand Word Photos’ Ben Lambert and Alexia Singh
Friday 7th June 1:30pm - 2:15pm @Space Studios - FREE entry for the Portfolio Reviews ticket holders only
Ben Lambert
Alexia Singh
Alexia Singh and Ben Lambert will talk about A Thousand Word Photos – a project that pairs photographers with writers to create one thousand word short stories.
The idea for A Thousand Word Photos came from founder Ben Lambert’s work with the charity InterAct Stroke Support. InterAct engages actors to read to stroke patients in London hospitals. There is a wealth of evidence that, following a brain injury, reading and conversation stimulates the brain which can significantly improve recovery. Lambert wanted to create original content - words and pictures - that patients could engage with.
The concept of the project is that a photographer submits 3 images from which a writer chooses one and from that takes inspiration to write a short story of a thousand words.
A Thousand Word Photos creates an exciting framework in which to combine images and writing. The image is brought to life in a completely new way through the writer’s imagination and the writer engages in a new discipline by responding creatively to an image. The stories and photos are published on the A Thousand Word Photo website and become an open resource for InterAct to use.
Ben and Alexia will share their experience of working on the project and show some of the photos and some of the 54000 words that have been inspired by them.
Photographers who have taken part in the project include:
Davide Monteleone, Olivia Arthur, Chloe Dewe Mathews, Anastasia Taylor Lind, Kalpesh Lathigra, Sara Naomi Lewkowicz, Guillaume Bonn, Karim Ben Khalifa, Laura Pannack, Finbarr O'Reilly, Laura Hynd, Raphaela Rosella, Phil Sharp, Anton Kusters, Lottie Davies, Poulomi Basu, CJ Clarke
Karim Ben Khalifa
“In the summer between year seven and eight our history teacher was murdered by her husband. He caved her head in with a claw hammer. There were rumours it was a crowbar, or a frozen joint of meat, or maybe all three. She wasn’t well liked, and the first week back at school was full of whispers and rumours. She was abusive, they said. She was a bitch. People made jokes. What time was she killed? Hammer time.” - Dan Dalton
Phil Fisk
“It’s not shingle; it’s honeycomb. The sea can’t stop licking it. Delicious. Each time the tide recedes it takes a trace of honey on its greedy tongue. That’s how it gets its creamy yellow tint. That’s what he tells his girls anyway.
He stares at the water and tells himself that today is the day he’ll be brave. It never is.” - Lydia Ruffles
Laura Hynd
“‘Come on, Damien.’
I stood in the middle of the lawn, grinning. And you walked towards me and laid me down right there and then in the icy grass. Afterwards you mumbled something about a cigarette and rushed inside. But I stayed. I made an angel in the snow and then sat on the stone ledge, surveying my work.” - Jacqueline Ward
Laura Pannack
“That was the problem back then. I didn’t know what I wanted. To not be picked last for the football team maybe, to not have them laughing and jeering when I was put in goal and they discovered I was no good there either, to avoid them noticing me for long enough that I could get home, back to the quiet stillness of my room, just me and my headphones and my books. Cocooned. Safe.” - SJ Watson
Phil Sharp
“That’s her!
I know it is. I can feel it.
I turn away and pull up my hood.
My cheeks are burning. I’m blushing. It’s stupid. It’s not like she’ll know who I am. I hold my breath as she walks by. Her pace is brisk. She is sprightly for seventy. I wait until she’s a few feet away. She’s a blur in the corner of my eye.” - Chloe Esposito
Anastasia Taylor Lind
“She hangs around with us after school even though we make it clear she bores us. We whisper nonsense and pretend to laugh at jokes so she laughs too, and we ask, ‘What’s so funny?’ to watch her squirm. She knows we are mean, and yet still she follows along behind. ‘Like a dog,’ we say, loud enough for her to hear.” - Claire Fuller