Photography Prompt: Broken

Week of 2025-05-10- to 2025-05-16

May 10, 2025

The photography prompt this week is: Broken

Create and share photos inspired by this week's prompt on your Aminus3 website, Substack Notes, or linked in the comments on this post. Substack community can tag

Aminus3 Photography

in your posts. Those of you posting on the Aminus3 community, add tag: #am3-prompt-202520

Be Inspired and Learn Something New

Those of you following along the last weeks might recall that in March I experienced a sudden unexpected life detour in the form of a broken foot.

The backstory is not so exciting though it was a feat of extreme photography so maybe worth sharing. I was running down some stairs to get a photo of a local farmer riding in his tractor with his dog (which I later realized he does several times a day). In my enthusiasm, I came down on that last step weirdly, and snap it went.

All said, it was a decent photo, though surely not worth breaking my foot for.

After the pain and impact of that sudden change settles in, a new thought emerges.

Why?!

We are all fragile creatures who could be thrown into chaos at any moment from the most unplanned of happenings.

Not worth ruminating on that reality, though a healthy appreciation of life when it is flowing freely is a good awareness to cultivate.

This week we are going to think about the idea of BROKEN.

The result of accidents, unforeseen events, or maybe just things that have fallen into disrepair and lost to the ethers of entropy.

(mental note, “The Ethers of Entropy” might be a cool band name)

Photo by cangadoba/PhillipTerryGraham - CC-BY-SA-4 license - Wikipedia

As with any unexpected upheaval or chaotic change, when things get broken, it provides us the opportunity to put them back together in new, and even better ways.

All worth considering this week as you go out to find those broken things to photograph. Don’t forget to share a few pics on Substack or Aminus3.

Last Week’s Prompt Photos for “Shadow”

I find myself drawn to moody shadows which create depth and layers on top of ordinary scenes. Monochrome is often a great choice, though there were several colorful shadows to be found as well.

One of the things I love about these photo prompts is when people share their thought process behind their image selections as they relate that back to something personal. Along with a smattering of stunning images, there were also philosophical and symbolic perspectives around the theme of shadows.

Richard Schulz

wrote:

“I like shadows. They cut in half, they hide away or they partially reveal. However you decide to view them it’s an important part of photography which should be used and incorporated as much as possible.”

One of the more somber shadows was this image from

Julian Hignell

which he photographed at the Auschwitz WWII concentration camp. He writes:

“ I call it “In The Shadow Of Auschwitz”. I think it shows how shadows can evoke memories, good or bad, can bring an emotional response, give some sense of the atmosphere in a place that already has, in this case a very poignant and difficult memory. They cast no names only shadows of remembrance… ”

This photo from

Postcards From Home

relates to a discussion of how older historic buildings like this former Studebaker car dealership are repurposed in sometimes trite ways, only to be torn down to make room for something new and shiny.

“The shadow could be read as the spectre of unthinking, unabashed capitalism disguised as progress”

Cats and shadows make a good pairing as illustrated by this trio of feline fantoms.

Here are a few other highlights from the Shadows prompt this week. You can see the full gallery from Aminus3, along with all of the Substack posts linked below.