| Making Portraits with Words

Guided by Jesse Ellison, explore the art of crafting vivid portraits with words, delving into the techniques of making compelling word portraits and enhancing your skills in the powerful intersection of language and imagery.

In every person, there’s a story. Written portraits, or profiles, are ubiquitous: personal memoirs, newspaper and magazine articles, obituaries, op-docs, and essays that accompany collections of images. Profiles can be the most straightforward way to tell a story, and yet they can also be the trickiest to master. Often practiced, rarely perfected, the profile form is a foundational way to tell stories of all kinds, across many mediums. 

Guided by Jesse Ellison, in this workshop, we will examine successful (and less successful) stories about people, drawing from photo books, magazines, newspapers, and literary nonfiction; we will discuss and explore elements of storytelling and journalistic craft, including who to talk to, what to ask, the art of the interview, learning to listen, and letting silences hang; we will look closely at structure and form, from engaging ledes to satisfying kickers; we will practice killing our darlings, making hard choices, and writing tight, sharp prose.

This class is small and interactive enough that it’s appropriate for both beginning and experienced writers. Students can come with a profile subject in mind, a piece of writing in process, or nothing at all. During the week, students will be asked to either embark upon or delve more deeply into a profile project of their own, on any subject — a self-portrait, a relative, a stranger, a celebrity they will never meet. The week will include time for writing and research/reporting, one-on-one meetings and critiques, and reading and workshopping projects together in class.

Header image copyright Cig Harvey.