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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

“Magic Lantern” by Gus Nigro

Submitted to Contest #258

MAGIC LANTERN Jan brought along his father’s old Polaroid camera when called to dinner. His father had used the camera just one summer and subsequently confined it to a cardboard box with other relics. The camera still contained unused film; and the box, Polaroid film in its original wrapper. Rain, which had fallen during the time his wife was preparing dinner and he going through the memorabilia, had ended. When dinner and the conversation about the neighbors that attended it were almost over, they looked out the windo...

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“Kodachrome Rider” by VJ Hamilton

Submitted to Contest #258

“Break time’s over,” Mrs. Haggerty yelled out the backdoor of City Central Goodwill. She stared hard at Marty and Nadine, as if wondering who had dripped cheese all over the brand-new toaster oven in the staff room. “Nadine, you’re Check-out. Marty, go to Intake.” The teens whined and were slow to move inside until Marty recalled his probation officer’s advice: “Community hours go by quicker if you cooperate.” So he stubbed out his cigarette, as did Nadine, on a long, filthy snowbank near the backdoor and they went inside to their assigned a...

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“Red Herrings?” by Julie Grenness

Submitted to Contest #258

Sunbeams were shining, birds were singing, bees were buzzing. Charlotte was choosing happy, making her own fun now. Last night, after her day of enjoying her vocation of gardening, she had returned home to her new dwelling in her childhood bedroom. There the mail had included her divorce, which she had been compelled to seek.Charlotte still did not want to think about her ex, Corey. "Maybe all women only get married to get divorced," she thought. Her lips were zipped, as she nurtured, staked and pruned, planting blooms. "I must bloom where I...

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“Molded Metamorphosis ” by Elizabeth Pena

Submitted to Contest #258

I did not mean to self-sabotage. I did not intend to cleanse my life of everything that is good. I did not realize you don’t feel the same, but I guess I am to blame. You are still here, but I am not. The reflections that stare back at me through the mirror lack the density of character that I once had. I keep looking to find a resemblance of the girl I once was, but she is nowhere to be found. Just a jaded, less likely version of myself that I don't recognize. As I examine myself, a strange sensation cascades through my body, a weirdne...

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“The Last Page” by Natalie Cadena

Submitted to Contest #258

Margot Anne Marie Cromwell sat heavily in her favorite floral-print winged chair, running her knobby, crooked fingers over a hardback book. She knew that was her name on the cover, and the weight of this book had something comforting about it. There was a sense of familiarity that she just couldn't place. Many things were slipping through Margot’s metaphorical fingers these days. She knew the book was hers. It was her handwriting scrawled on the inside cover. Wasn’t it? How could she have forgotten signing this book, which sits on a shelf in...

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“Decompression” by James DeMaio

Submitted to Contest #258

I was a science teacher for four years at a charter school in Philadelphia during the late 2000s. As I look back on it I feel like the job was a complete failure, because I never was able to control the classroom. I envied other teachers who seemed to be having a better time in their careers. One “old head” of a math teacher on the first floor had scores of snapshots of his students covering his whiteboard, along with birthday wishes. Another teacher took her students skiing, and another was the school’s lacrosse coa...

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“Black and White Echoes” by Raluca Vințan

Submitted to Contest #258

It was Sunday and I was rummaging through one of those endless boxes of photographs and postcards, in a second-hand store, as I often did on my free days. This is, in fact, how I decorated most of my walls. I was now living in my dream city, Edinburgh, and I filled my tiny, old but charming one-bedroom apartment with “junk” as my mother would call it, or “little treasures” as I liked to think of it. The furniture was old, patiently hunted (and probably also haunted) at flea markets or in shops like the one I was in now. My walls were adorned...

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“Hunting Grounds” by Jermaine Packer

Submitted to Contest #258

The wind became stagnant under its wings as the keen sight of a hunter watched in anticipation for the flight pattern to conclude. A gentle breeze exits the hunter’s lips as he prepares his trap. The target then unknowingly plants itself right where the hunter desires. Everything in the universe freezes as the hunter launches his net to capture not the perceived visual target, but to capture the once uncatchable target, time. The wind returns as the wings flutter away, not knowing that a piece of her was caught in the hunter’s trap. The hunt...

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“My Little Cafe” by Max Gabriel

Submitted to Contest #258

Life is so unpredictable I sometimes wonder how people can take it so seriously. You might think it’s supposed to go one way but then one day, without any warning, someone will walk into it and it suddenly becomes very different. In other words, you can’t control who walks through that door. For better or for worse; someone always enters and changes it. What you really think of them doesn’t even matter because that’s life and from that moment forward your thoughts and beliefs will never be quite the same. There was a moment like that which h...

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“Sight Unseen” by Holly Wild

Submitted to Contest #258

Cecilia often viewed the world through the lens of a camera, believing photographs could capture more mystery and enchantment than reality itself. Even as a small child, she was rarely seen without a camera slung around her neck, her tiny finger poised on the shutter. Her sharp eyes constantly scanned the world around her for an image that needed to be immortalized on film. However, she quickly learned that taking pictures of people could sometimes lead to trouble, especially if they were unaware of being photographed. One sweltering summer ...

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“Please Don't Go” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #258

It’s a Thursday and in its Thursdayness it is grey and unremarked. The daily annotation deconstructs the flow of time, a swamping of cheap custard over the artistry of a pâtissier. The point is drowned out. Meaning is washed away, and few will ever go in search of its bloated corpse. Dan wends his weary way home. Drops his work bag in the porch. That bag haunts his life. Its position as a sentry is a badly thought out mistake. He’s reminded of the work he hasn’t completed each and every time he passes through the front door. That bag stains ...

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“The Prophecy” by Lindsay Flo

Submitted to Contest #258

The prophecy began with a single photograph crammed amongst dozens in a shoebox, their corners bent and frayed. At the time, it seemed like a random choice for my little hand to grasp just that one, the photo of the plane. Later, I would know it was not. I was 8 years old and my mother’s companion for her favorite hobby: thrifting. Long before it was trendy, my mother loved to climb into our 1970 Pontiac Lemans, jetting off to neighboring towns in search of “treasures”. Yard sales, estate sales, and her favorite—thrift stores—were on the age...

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“Right Before Your Eyes” by David F Eastman

Submitted to Contest #258

Right Before Your EyesBy David F Eastman The advertisement read: “Young female models wanted. Local photographer seeks models for a new line of stylish women’s Paris fashions. Please reply to Jonathan Davis, Fashion Photographer at: 503-607-7895” Jennie was still tired from her night out. She rubbed her eyes, jumped out of bed, and slow walked into the bathroom to shower. She had gone to a fraternity party with her girlfriends the night before, met a cute guy named Gavin, who she ended up flirting with and necking in an upstairs bedroo...

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“A diary of polaroid” by Bolaji G.A.

Submitted to Contest #258

For Giuly it wasn’t suicide. It could have been anything, the cause of her sister’s death could have been anything. But Giuly couldn’t accept the fact that it was suicide anymore.Wearing the ink-stained dress Ma brought and the black fascinator covering her tangerine hair, Giuly’s eyes still blurred even when standing ahead of a dozen people. She had forgotten her glasses; so much for getting ready early. The light rainfall wasn’t helping either and the suffocating fog hadn’t quite cleared off since the previous night. As the thick clouds di...

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“Last Mail Call” by Heather Lee Dyer

Submitted to Contest #258

She was never meant to die before me. I stuff the rest of my perfectly folded clothes into the rough canvas sea bag and check the two drawers that held all my belongings to make sure I didn’t forget anything. Satisfied, I cinch up the bag and sit back down on the hard bed to wait for my ride. Reaching into my front pocket, I pull the wrinkled envelope out and open it just far enough to stare at the photograph that changed my life. I sigh and put it back. The picture looks like it was taken quickly, maybe without her knowing. And the photogr...

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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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