Found
One of the most successful–and the most popular–exercises in our Poetry & Photography class involves the use of found photographs. Using randomly discovered images as a prompt, students are asked to write poems that somehow elucidate the origins of the photos. Where was this photo taken? Why? What was the context? And how do such images become lost?
I give the students a variety of websites to browse for “found” images, but by far the most popular is a blog/tumblr called Internet K-Hole. I’m still not entirely sure who curates this site or how they manage to come into possession of so many truly amazing, bizarre, hilarious, and occasional tragic photos, but every time I look at the site I can’t help but lose a huge chunk of my day. Prepare to fall down the rabbit hole…
