Most books built around photography ask the images to illustrate the words. Echoes of Light: Images into Writing reverses that relationship entirely, letting 45 black-and-white photographs set the terms and then following wherever each one leads — into memoir, into local history, into a few lines of poetry, into a short piece of invented fiction that never once explains itself.
Written by Tulsa author Steve Gerkin using photographer Sam Joyner’s images as prompts, the collection stands out for refusing to settle into a single genre. One image might trigger a tightly reported piece of historical nonfiction; the next, a stretch of flash fiction with nothing factual about it at all. That range, handled by a single steady voice, is what makes the book feel like more than a coffee-table curiosity.
What Echoes of Light Is About
The project began as a collaboration between two old friends: Joyner, whose black-and-white photographs span global architecture, nature, and people, and Gerkin, who took each image as a starting point and let it determine the form of the writing that followed. The result is a book organized less by chapter than by photograph, with each image functioning as its own small assignment. Some pieces lean into the documentary instinct of creative nonfiction, tracing the real history behind a building or a face. Others swing into short fiction entirely untethered from fact, or settle into a few lines of poetry when nothing longer seems necessary. Running underneath all of it is a quieter motivation: Joyner has been dealing with advancing dementia, and part of what drove Gerkin to finish the project was a wish to preserve his friend’s photographic legacy while there was still time to do it together. That context does not announce itself loudly in the text, but it gives the whole collection an emotional undertow that a simple photography-and-captions book would not have.
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Readers moving through the collection cover by cover will notice how differently each piece asks to be read — some pages reward a slow, attentive pass the way a longer essay would, while others are built to be absorbed in a minute or two, closer to how a poem or a flash-fiction piece is meant to land. That variation in pacing turns out to be a strength rather than an inconsistency: it mirrors how a person actually looks at photographs, lingering on some and moving quickly past others, and the book trusts readers to set their own rhythm rather than forcing a single mode of attention across all 45 images.
What Makes It Work
Genre used as a tool, not a label
Rather than committing to one form, Gerkin lets each photograph dictate whether it wants an essay, a poem, or a short story, which keeps the collection from ever feeling repetitive across its length.
A real collaborative history behind it
The book is not a writer working from stock photography; it is built on decades of friendship between Gerkin and Joyner, and that closeness shows in how specifically each piece of writing seems to understand its paired image.
Recognized, not just self-described, craft
Naming the book a 2025 Oklahoma Book Award winner is an external confirmation of what the writing itself suggests: this is a carefully built, well-executed collection rather than a casual passion project.
A loose, generous process behind the prose
Gerkin has described his own method plainly — “Just get behind the keyboard and let it rip. Revise later” — and that instinct for momentum over polish-first perfectionism gives several pieces a directness that more labored essay collections often lose.
About the Author
Steve Gerkin is a Tulsa-based writer whose work moves comfortably between history, memoir, and invented narrative, and Echoes of Light reflects that range directly. Published by Twin Feathers Ink, the book grew out of his long friendship with photographer Sam Joyner and was recognized with a 2025 Oklahoma Book Award, cementing its place among the state’s notable recent literary nonfiction. His broader body of work has long moved between journalism, local history, and narrative nonfiction, and that range is part of why the collaboration with Joyner works as well as it does — Gerkin is comfortable enough across forms to let each photograph choose its own genre rather than forcing a house style onto all 45 of them.
Who Should Read Echoes of Light
Readers who enjoy essay collections, local history, or photography books will find plenty to hold their attention here, as will anyone who appreciates short-form writing that changes shape from one piece to the next rather than settling into a predictable rhythm. It is also a strong pick for readers interested in collaborative creative projects, or anyone drawn to books that quietly grapple with memory, friendship, and the urge to preserve both before they fade. Book clubs looking for a collection that generates genuinely different conversations from one meeting to the next will find plenty of material here, since no two readers are likely to gravitate toward the same handful of favorite pieces.
Where to Get It
Echoes of Light: Images into Writing is available through Steve Gerkin’s website and through Amazon.
Verdict
Echoes of Light turns a simple creative exercise — writer responds to photograph — into a genuinely moving, genre-spanning collection built on friendship and a shared eye for what a single image can hold.
Frequently asked questions
No, it is a standalone collection, published by Twin Feathers Ink.
It is a multi-genre collection combining creative and historical nonfiction, flash and historical fiction, and poetry, organized around photography.
Older teens interested in photography, writing, or history will find plenty to engage with, though the collection is written primarily for adult readers.
The book is available through Amazon and through author Steve Gerkin's own website.
Steve Gerkin is a Tulsa-based author whose work has been recognized with a 2025 Oklahoma Book Award for Echoes of Light.
