Illustration by Ana Hinojosa.

When I’m reviewing photos or drawings I’ve made, I often find myself sorting things into pre-established categories (by making themed moodboards, for example). It’s interesting to see how I personally sort photos and group them together when I’m unrestricted by the boundaries of traditional guidelines. For this edition of Creative Prompt, carry your camera around or have your phone handy to snap pictures for a whole week. Take photos of anything and everything that catches your eye: expressions on your loved ones’ faces, the room you’re in…anything! At the end of the week, look back on all the photos and follow your instincts to sort them into groups. After organizing them, ask yourself why you put them in the places you did. Here’s the contact sheet I put together:

Taking photos has always seemed super voyeuristic to me. Behind the lens, I feel like an outsider in my own life. These photos capture that feeling. I remember the moments they were taken in, but it’s almost like I didn’t take them—like the camera was in someone else’s hands, freezing and dissecting everything I saw. Why did you put certain images together? What are the common links? Your subconscious will make connections that you’ve never acknowledged. You might just learn something about yourself, or even about the photos themselves.

Send a photo or contact sheet that shows how you organized your images—along with your first name, last initial, age, and city/state—to [email protected] with the subject line “Creative Prompt” by Monday, February 27 at 6 PM ET. We’re curious to see the categories you come up with.

Last week, we asked you to ground yourself in a place. Here’s what you found there…