Bray School Lab
How to Read an American Photograph A Two-Day Creative Writing Workshop With Paul Hendrickson
Access & Features
- Paid event
- Ticketed event
What to Expect
Over the course of two full days, you’ll learn alongside a small, curious group experiencing a blend of classroom sessions, workshops, and site visits to local museums and institutions.
Activities include:
- Deep reading of photographs, from iconic historical images to your own personal photo
- Facilitated creative writing exercises sparked by visual storytelling
- A visit to a major D.C. exhibition, where each participant will select and present (“docent”) an image to the group
- Workshops to share and explore your personal photograph, with support from Paul Hendrickson and peers
Your Instructor
Paul Hendrickson is a revered nonfiction author and journalist, celebrated for Hemingway’s Boat and the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Sons of Mississippi. He spent nearly 25 years at The Washington Post and taught for over two decades at the University of Pennsylvania, where his course “The Hungry Eye: Telling Stories Out of Photographs” became a student favorite. Paul also wrote Fighting the Night and was featured in William & Mary's Writers of Washington series.
Hendrickson’s poetic, immersive style reveals how images can launch, deepen, or transform a story. His approach is collaborative, warm, and driven by a belief in storytelling as both a craft and a calling.
What to Bring
- One personal or family photograph (original or a digital copy of the photo on your smartphone/tablet/laptop—whatever is accessible and speaks to you)
- An openness to look closely and share freely
- Your curiosity and insight
Why Attend
- Leave with new tools for seeing and storytelling, and a fresh appreciation for the poetic possibilities inside every photograph. No prior experience required-just a willingness to look closely and share.
- Learn to “see” photographs as narrative springboards
- Practice storytelling techniques that translate images into prose
- Connect your personal history to the broader American story
- Leave with new tools—and a paragraph or two of your own writing to inspire future work
- No prior experience needed. Just a willingness to be thoughtful and have fun.
SCHEDULE
Friday evening, July 11, 2025: Informal Reception
5:20 pm - 8:00 pm
Saturday - Sunday, July 12–13, 2025: Workshop Dates:
9:00 am – 3:30 pm (with lunch break)
Registration required. Space is limited to 20 participants.
Fee: $250
Questions? Contact the D.C. events team at [[dcevents]].
Consent to Use Photographic Images
Registration, attendance, or participation in Washington Center meetings, events, and activities constitutes an agreement by which attendees consent to W&M's use and distribution (now and in the future) of the attendee’s image and voice in photographs, audio, video, and digital reproductions of such events and activities.
Sponsored by: Washington Center
Contact
[[dcevents]]