By CE Hunt
As a writer I love to travel knowing that inspiration can pop up around any corner. The dive bars of New Orleans, waterfronts pretty much anywhere, during storms when humans become humans, Mardi Gras, just random encounters with strangers when their guard comes down, being an expat in a foreign country, you name it. There are inspirations everywhere.
Another source of inspiration for me is photographs. You can see some of my photos on this website. I regularly take photos of places to refresh my memory as I write scenes. I prefer to write in situ because you have the flow of people, soundscape and even odor scape to evoke your best writing, but that is often not possible.
In this blog, I want to use the work of one of my favorite photographers to illustrate this, Charles Blackburn. I will walk through a few of Charles’ photos and how they spoke to me as a writer as I craft a narrative. (The original photos that you can purchase on his site are high resolution. I lifted these from the website with Charles’ permission.)
West Texas Story
With the series of the below photos, I think of a scene involving a road trip. My protagonist is in a dried up town in the Texas panhandle. She stops to get gas and to see if the gas attendant has seen the target of her investigation or his unusual car “for these parts.” She questions her wardrobe decision as she approaches his dungy, air conditioned office. Her short red, polka dotted dress was spot on for the function she thought she was attending at the country club many miles away. But the target of her investigation zagged on her, and now here she was in the middle of nowhere. His response to her inquiry is a mixture of frosty and sarcasm. Zero help.
It being the only source of caffeine around, she considers a soft drink from the decrepit, rust-covered coke machine outside. She goes back to the office and asks the attendant if it works before she deposits the coins squirreled away in the bottom of her purse. The attendant gave her the strangest look before replying, “Huh? Why the hell wouldn’t it work?”
She knows he has to have passed along this dusty highway if he was headed to Clovis. Knowing the range of his car, he will need gas in one of these defeated towns.
She eases by at the next station only to quickly see nobody has bought gas here for decades. The chipped and peeling paint on the station and pumps attests to the long years of neglect. Even the hoses have been removed from the rusty pumps.
It is the same in the next town just before crossing the New Mexico border. A white and abandoned station stands on the edge of town. The lonely blue and red pumps are standing vigil with their hoses also removed. (Somehow, this photo resembles an Edward Hopper painting, another source of inspiration for me.)
The towns she passes through are mostly abandoned. Weeds are often the only sign of life. Sadly, what few humans there are are only found at the Dairy Queens and dollar stores.
The quest continues on into Eastern New Mexico. She spots an open gas station! He had to have stopped here! The young attendant here is nicer but a bit flirty. Sadly, no information on the asshole she’s pursuing. Exasperated, she returns the dog’s somewhat unfriendly look and turns to leave after politely declining the opportunity to dine out with the young attendant later.
As she enters Clovis at sunset, she finally spots the backend of his black Audi sticking out like a sore thumb in the parking lot of a dingy, rundown place, The Shamrock Motel. The once neon sign is now very faded from the once proud green and yellow one that originally adorned the tall sign.
Pay dirt finally! What angle would she use to corner him? He’s never seen her, so she had that going for her…
Okay, well, a spotty story, but I would have never had these thoughts were it not for Charles’ incredible photos. I looked at the photos sequentially and crafted the next part of the narrative. I used his photos even though some were from a different part of Texas to inspire me to describe a pursuit across an arid, remote and almost forgotten corner of Texas into New Mexico. This illustrates how different art forms can inspire others. Doubtless the music I was listening too, colored my writing as well. Here’s a snippet. I love how different fields of art can synergize and take our art to a new level.
If you haven’t read it, check out my latest novel, Twilight in the Quarter. If you love New Orleans or are interested in the complexity of human relationships, particularly one’s relationship with oneself, please check it out.
CE Hunt 