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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#258: Frame of Mind

What do you think of when you hear the word "photography?" In a general sense, it involves preserving memories or documenting events — and while not everyone considers it an art form, you’ve probably snapped photos of your family, friends, or even food at some point with your phone!

With that in mind, this week’s theme focuses (no pun intended!) on photography and the stories and emotions that pictures can create.

This week's prompts

A forgotten photograph tucked away somewhere is the catalyst for an unexpected journey.

Adventure – 87 stories

Center your story around two strangers who bond over their shared love of photography.

Character – 30 stories

Write a story where a photograph could change the course of history if it’s delivered to the right (or wrong!) person.

Short Story – 32 stories

Start your story with someone who has lost everything but finds solace in photography.

Dramatic – 63 stories

A photographer captures an image of something unexplainable. What happens next?

Mystery – 75 stories

Stories

“Time to face the music” by Omar Scott

Submitted to Contest #258

Grant struggled to fight back the tears as he looked at a faded picture of him and his two boys. They were posing in front of a Christmas tree, surround by open presents. His oldest son, Grant junior, was ten. He was holding a new bike with a smile as bright as the North Star. He always reminded Grant of himself when he was that age. Smooth caramel colored skin and dark brown eyes that were mysterious. The younger son, Robert, name after Grant’s father, was also smiling even though he was missing his front teeth. Robert resembled his mother,...

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“Ashes in Paris” by Terrie Stevens

Submitted to Contest #258

For years, Holly dreamed of visiting Paris, the backdrop of her grandparent’s love story, but the timing was never right. Now, she stood in the City of Lights, not as a tourist, but to fulfill her grandfather’s dying wish.Before her, across the Seine River, the graceful Eiffel Tower swarmed with tourists; no one noticed the American middle-aged woman in jeans and a tank top, holding a battered old black-and-white photograph at eye level.Holly stared down at her wrist as the second hand of her grandfather’s watch counted the minutes. The inst...

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“Wandrin' Evil Spirit” by Joe Smallwood

Submitted to Contest #258

I don’t know how it came to be, so long ago when everything seemed possible.He was my inspiration. That and his photograph. Of what you ask?Oh, a demon! Uploaded it to YouTube, he did. So, a picture was formed in my mind from a video that shouldn’t exist. I can hardly get my mind around it. Its hard to even speak of it.But we all do what we must. And he certainly did what he wanted! Two children, one impossibly older, so ready to accept things…But we’ll have to start at the beginning. A hot summer’s day, so brutally hot. Hot enough to broil ...

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“Being in the Know Makes A Better Version of History” by Lily Finch

Submitted to Contest #258

It was January, and Austria's picturesque beauty was white and wild in its 0–5 °C climatic conditions. I dropped in on Karla Pölzl, Alois Hitler's third wife. She was five or six months pregnant.He appeared and announced himself as "the trekker" from another time. He arrived in time to catch Klara hanging her clothes on the line. She hummed a tune to an opera she loved and knew well; her voice was like a songbird's. "I've come a long way today, and I'm wondering if I might trouble you with a glass of water, please," he said. She jumped....

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“Smile For the Camera” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #258

Shadow Specter whistles along to the sax solo in Junior Walker’s “What Does it Take?” as it plays in the background on the radio. His cheerful chirping abruptly stops when he develops the last four pictures he took at the annual Penn Yan Heritage Festival. Rushing to the telephone, he calls Mayor Ashford Simpson, telling him there’s something he has to see. Penn Yan’s cherubic Mayor greets Shadow with a hearty handshake and an open seat in front of his desk. He pats his toupee, which people in town call the “worst rug in the world.” “So, w...

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“A Picture Changes Lives” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #258

Desmond never learned about the makings of a good relationship between husband and wife when he was growing up. His parents often argued day and night, with their loudest of voices. What he remembered best about that were those occasions when he was lying in bed trying to sleep, and there was a rumbling of voices from his parents’ room. Then his mother would utter the argument crashing words, “Maybe I should have married George rather than you. He would not have treated me as badly as you do.” Then there w...

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“Snap Shot” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #258

There was a well-known, famous and very funny comedian who was always destined for the stage and fame. His energy told you all you had to know about what he was and what he was for. The man was made to grab a crowd by the scruff of the neck and drag them to a better place. A place where people laughed at themselves, and each other, and in so doing exorcised the demons who’d hitched a ride inside them on their rollercoaster ride through life. This man had his own demons. Everybody does, but comedians don’t have the luxury of laugh t...

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“Caroline” by Eliza Levin

Submitted to Contest #258

It’s strange, the things you remember about those monumental days that come to shape your life. When I think back to the interminable hours I spent beside my father’s hospital bed, I don’t see the grayish, emaciated form of the man whose hot-blooded vitality had loomed so large over me in my youth, nor do I feel the soothing wave of numbness that hit me when he’d finally stopped his wheezing. Instead, my clearest memory is of the grimy hospital floor, and how the tile closest to my feet had been installed upside down, ruining the pattern.And...

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“Smiley Face” by Sierra Kingen

Submitted to Contest #258

“Change is sudden. Change erases what the mind thought it knew about the world and forces adaptation and survival. Out of change, is creation and innovation. In the year 2009, change became inevitable.” -Thomas Francis Director of Project A Earth was as it always had been. It rotated around the sun and turned to make day and night. It provided a thriving environment for those that inhabited it. It was a place millions of beings called home. Earth isn't what changed—the moon was. The moon grew dark and unstable. It began to rock off it...

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“The False Star” by McKade Kerr

Submitted to Contest #258

Captain Finnian, the famous intergalactic photographer, looked at the screen on the back of his camera and frowned. “That’s weird.” He muttered to himself. He held his camera up to the front window of his spaceship and snapped a few more pictures of the countless stars in front of him. Each time he took a picture he adjusted the camera settings before taking the next one. After several pictures he looked at the screen again, this time a look of confusion coming over his face. “Hey Quixly!” He called to his loyal co-captain, who also happened...

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“A Cosmic Photograph” by Joanna Lloyd

Submitted to Contest #258

The day was March 19, 2024. It was the first day of Spring. Being the organizationally obsessed individual I am, I was excited because it could only mean one thing: Spring Cleaning! It was my favorite day of the year. It was time to get rid of the old to welcome in the new. I would go through all of my plastic tubs to get rid of clothes and all the junk I had been hoarding the past year. It was the last box I opened, the one I had no idea would provide me with the most significantly life-changing experience I would have gone through in my th...

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“Burns” by Olivia Green

Submitted to Contest #258

An old man holding his wife’s hand, helping her to the car with grocery bags collected in his other hand. Click. A child running towards their house with their hands over their head, trying to keep the rain from curling their already curly hair. Click. A stray dog happily leaping from one puddle to the next, barking in joy, his tongue hanging from the side of his mouth as water splashed around him. Click. A slender woman standing under an awning, her red hair soaked, clinging to her neck. A phone rested under on...

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“Finding Focus” by Carol Stewart

Submitted to Contest #258

*** CW: contains a description of a panic attack***They were making their way down the steps at the back of frozen food store, Haid’s (the acronym derived from the company slogan ‘Have an Ice Day’) when Louise stopped and pulled out her phone.‘Hold on, a minute, Ree. Just got to get a picture of this.’‘What now?’ Ria turned as Louise held the phone askew, photo taken at an angle to include her own foot.Ria was as many steps ahead of her as there were years between them, but in spite of her being the younger sibling – sixteen to Louise'...

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“Unnamed Voices” by Amanda Stogsdill

Submitted to Contest #258

Warning: This story contains descriptions of abuseUnnamed Voices by Amanda StogsdillThe gates swung open with a heavy creak. I stared up at the gray buildings with their barred windows, like sad eyes gazing out at the world. What's inside? Why so much evil and despair?It began with a photograph. In the closet among the other items of my past, it had lain forgotten for many years. Its edges curled, the black-and-white image faded, it was almost overlooked—except for the faces. ********"No, I won't." Susan screamed, kicking her legs. Her mothe...

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“Blood” by Brielle Miano

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #258

“This one.” Nathan fished a glossy photograph out from the neat lineup spread across the plastic tablecloth. He held it up to face the stout, gray-haired vendor counting the bills in her change-box. “What’s this supposed to be?”“That one?” She hesitated, her wrinkled lips opening and closing ever so slightly. The farmers’ market hubbub—vendors gossiping with their regulars, farmers hawking their late-summer squash, toddlers begging for ice cream—covered over her gravelly Southern drawl. Here, everyone knew everyone…except Nathan had never se...

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$250

Prize money

287

Contest entries

88

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 12, 2024 EST

Won by Rozmarin Ideas 🏆

Title: She Owed Nothing to Ghosts.

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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