Category Archives: Photography in Fiction

Photography occurring as a subject in fiction.

Photography in Fiction (Literature)

Posted on December 13, 2023 by Brian

‘The two most revolutionary technological advances in human consciousness are the invention of writing and then the ability to record life as-it-is in the form of photography and sound recording.’  So argues Ed Simon in his essay The Miracle of … Continue reading →

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Photography in Fiction – Europa?

Posted on November 11, 2023 by Brian

This is more a case of photography and fiction rather than photography in fiction.  Photographs, in the form of ID images, make only a brief appearance, in the story ‘The AK-47 of pick-up Trucks’. ‘EUROPA? is a collaboration between a … Continue reading →

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Photography in Fiction – Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Posted on October 8, 2023 by Brian

Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida — itinerant war photographer, who loves his trusted Nikon, also atheist, closet gay man and high stakes poker player – ‘has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office’. His dismembered body is … Continue reading →

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Photography in Fiction – I Could Read the Sky

Posted on October 8, 2023 by Brian

I Could Read the Sky is a distinctive and rare integration of photography and fiction: it ‘is a collaboration in the shape of a lyrical novel, between writer Timothy O’Grady and photographer Steve Pyke’.  In intense, often searing prose, it … Continue reading →

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Catching the surface

Posted on November 18, 2022 by Brian

My coffee and walking friend, DaveH, knew that I was talking about voyeurism to the U3AC Arts Forum on Wednesday and sent me this poem. I Am A Cameraman They suffer, and I catch only the surface. The rest is … Continue reading →

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Photography in Fiction – Various

Posted on September 20, 2022 by Brian

In the penultimate section of On Photography (1973), ‘The Image-World’, Susan Sontag draws on how photography is treated in six works of fiction in her exploration of the nature of the medium. They are given here in chronological order. Pierre; … Continue reading →

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Photography in Fiction – All Among the Barley

Posted on August 26, 2022 by Brian

All Among the Barley, by Melissa Harrison (2018) is set in rural Suffolk in 1933.  Constance (Connie) FitzAllen a journalist/writer arrives in the village of Elmbourne to collect stories and record traditions that are dying out in the face of … Continue reading →

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Photography in Fiction – Never Anyone But You

Posted on July 18, 2022 by Brian

Never Anyone But You is the fictionalised story of the lives of Claud Cahun and Marcel Moore by Rupert Thomson (Corsair 2019). Cahun was born in 1894 into a provincial, but prominent, intellectual Jewish family; her birth name was Lucy Schwab. When … Continue reading →

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Photography in Fiction: The Dickens Boy

Posted on April 27, 2022 by Brian

The Dickens Boy (Thomas Keneally, 2020) fictionalises the true story of the early years of Edward Dickens (known as Plorn), Charles Dickens’ youngest son, in Australia.  It is set largely on the remote sheep station at Momba, Wilcannia, New South … Continue reading →

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Photography in Fiction: The Photographer’s Wife

Posted on March 13, 2022 by Brian

The Photographer’s Wife (Robert Sole, 1996) is set in the world of late 19th century Egypt.  Three things drive the narrative: the relationship between the photographer and his wife; her emergence as an increasingly creative photographer; and the colonial wrangling … Continue reading →

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Photography in Fiction: My Parents’ Darkroom

Posted on February 13, 2022 by Brian

The darkroom in the title of Reinhard Tenberg’s novel is a metaphorical one.  It is the mystery surrounding the activities of the parents of the narrator Jonas: his mother’s leading role in the BdM (Bund deutscher Madel – League of … Continue reading →

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Photography in Fiction: Around the World in Eighty Days

Posted on January 21, 2022 by Brian

Jules Verne was a writer of fiction about the frontiers of technology and its impact on society, rather than a science fiction writer.  Hence, Around the World is about the potential for the latest technologies in travel and communications to … Continue reading →

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Photography in Fiction: The Tribe That Lost Its Head

Posted on September 4, 2020 by Brian

Browsing through an old diary yesterday, I came across the following entry: ‘Nicholas Monsarrat has just introduced two female characters into The Tribe That Lost its Head, photographers named Clandestine Lebourget and Noblesse O’Toole, would you believe.’ (16th December 1976). … Continue reading →

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