the bleed
A held breath.
One picture runs to every edge of the screen, with words in its calmest corner.
see it drawnThirty-eight ways to set pictures and words on a page
The moves
Every move stanza knows: thirty-eight ways to set pictures and words together on a page. Each is drawn here from Todd Stabley’s pictures and Walt Whitman’s poems. Click a picture to see the move full size.
I
One picture
A single picture, given the whole stage.
8 moves
the reveal
Remembering.
A small window onto the picture opens to the whole screen as you scroll.
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the scale jump
A jolt.
The same picture huge, then tiny.
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the detail
Looking closer.
A picture again, cropped close. Drag the close-up to choose what it shows.
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the island
Solitude.
One small picture alone in a wide field of the page.
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the vignette
A memory.
The picture’s edges fade into the page, as in an old engraved book.
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the arch
A doorway.
The picture seen through an arched window, with words beside it.
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the panorama
Looking out.
A long band across the screen; the picture slides sideways as you scroll.
see it drawnII
Two pictures
Two pictures that answer each other.
4 moves
the pair
A conversation.
Two pictures side by side, the same size; the gap between them says something.
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the offset pair
Casual.
Two pictures at different sizes, their tops not aligned, words in the room between.
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the overlap
Depth.
One picture laid across another.
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the inset
A memory within a place.
A small picture set into the corner of a large one.
see it drawnIII
Many pictures
A handful or more, read together.
11 moves
the scatter
Handled.
Prints dealt on a table, each turned a little.
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the salon hang
Lived-in.
Many sizes at many heights, no one masterpiece.
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the contact sheet
Time passing.
Ten frames on film’s own black, in the order they were taken.
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the filmstrip
A detour.
A sideways strip inside the downward scroll.
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the flipbook
Time under your thumb.
Three pictures change in place as you scroll.
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the triptych
A sequence.
Three tall panels side by side, read as one.
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the stair
Descending.
Pictures stepping down the page, each a little lower than the last.
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the constellation
Far apart, together.
Small pictures far apart on an open field, like stars.
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the plate
A study.
Ten pictures numbered on a printed plate, as the first books of photographs set out a sequence.
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the ovals
An heirloom.
Ten pictures in oval windows on an album leaf, as the first family albums held them.
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the spectrum
A palette.
Twelve pictures in one band, set in the order of their colors.
see it drawnIV
Words with pictures
Words beside the pictures, carrying half the meaning.
10 moves
the line alone
A poem.
A few lines on a screen of their own.
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the drop initial
A book opening.
A poem opening on a large red letter, its first line in small capitals.
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the marginal note
A voice in the margin.
Words beside a large picture, carrying half its meaning.
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the run-around
An embrace.
Words wrapping the round outline of a picture.
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the overprint
A poster.
Words set into the picture itself.
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the pin-and-pass
Lingering.
One picture holds still while lines of words pass it.
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the fracture
An interruption.
A picture breaks into the poem at its first blank line.
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the spread
A book lying open.
Words on the left page, the picture on the right, a gutter between.
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the gloss
Notes in the margins.
A poem down the middle, small pictures in the margins beside it.
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the epigraph
A voice from elsewhere.
A few lines set small and high, with where they come from.
see it drawnV
Turns and pauses
Where a chapter breathes, changes, or ends.
7 moves
the long pause
Silence.
A screen of nothing, holding one printer’s flower.
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the short pause
A smaller turn.
A breath, marked by three stars (⁂).
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the color turn
A new season.
The page takes its color from the next picture, and keeps it.
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the drift
Travelling through.
Pictures float up at different speeds.
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the endpaper
A breath of color.
A screen of plain color drawn from the picture that follows, like the paper inside a book’s cover.
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the turn
Surprise.
The way into the next chapter: its opening picture, small, and its name.
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the colophon
An account closed.
Under a double rule, who made it, ending on a printer’s leaf.
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