How does a photograph or a piece of writing hold a place into view for a reader? How can we think about and work with photographs and writing as modes by which we experience a place? The Pondicherry that lies at the intersection of the memory, imagination, and experience of each inhabitant is likely to be different, with no two versions being alike. And yet, there is a sharedness to our experience of places that allows us to recognize them at all. How might we hold the obdurate particularity with which places exist and emerge in our lives together with our shared imaginations of a place in the same frame? This workshop on writing about place would use a series of writing prompts and a selection of archival photographs of the streetscapes of Pondicherry from IFP’s Photo Archives to invite participants to engage their memory and imagination in drawing out their own maps and routes of places through writing.
This creative writing workshop is open to all. However, spaces are limited. Click here to register. This workshop could be of particular interest to those who enjoy and/or are seeking spaces for creative writing in a group setting; who like to read, write, or think about cityscapes; and who are keen to explore the many valences a place can have using archival photographs as a guide and writing as an instrument.
Further details about the workshop are as follows:
Date and time: 12 August, 2023 (Saturday); 10.00 a.m.-12.30 p.m.
Venue: Institut Français de Pondichéry (French Institute of Pondicherry), 11, Saint Louis Street,
Pondicherry – 605 001
Devarati Chakrabarti is Project Coordinator of this Foundation Project, implemented by India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) under their Archives and Museums programme, in collaboration with the Institut Français de Pondichéry (IFP). This Foundation Project is made possible with support from Tata Trusts, with the corpus interest of an earlier seed grant.