Inspire Your Photos with Poetry
June 14, 2011 
4 Comments
Poetry sometimes takes inspiration from the mundane. Billy Collins’ poem “Fishing on the Susquehanna in July†takes its inspiration from the feeling you get when you are being creative. Billy says, “I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna or any river for that matter/to be perfectly honest.†He says he is “more likely to be found in a quiet room like this one…trying to manufacture the sensation of fishing on the Susquehanna.â€
Copyright Aloha Lavina.
Although poetry is sometimes something you might dislike or are indifferent to, you can take some inspiration from poetry just like the poet can take inspiration from a photograph. “Manufacturing the sensation†is something a photographer does: you create an imagined harmony from something as mundane as a boy with grazing buffalos beside a clear stream; you tell a story with an image. But this descriptiveness of photographs and poetry is just the surface of artistry. There are other poetic devices you can borrow from poetry to inspire your photography.
Poetry has an economy.
Because poems are shorter than say novels or short stories, poets have to pay attention to every word in a poem. Similarly, the economy of a photograph is to include what is essential in the frame, to tell the story. Extraneous stuff that is not essential is discarded, left out.
Poetry is not just sound, it’s also silence.
When poets craft a poem, they pay attention to the space around the words—the silence. The silence, where the lines break and the poem pauses, have just as much meaning as the sounds of the words. A photograph has the same quality—there is the subject, and then there is the space you choose to put around your subject. Like a poet, make that space just as meaningful as the focal point.
Copyright Aloha Lavina.
Poetry uses symbols.
The imagery in poetry is crafted to be symbolic. Sometimes you find an image out of sheer luck, like a vulture hovering over prayer flags for the dead in a Bhutanese hillside. Other times, you have to manufacture the symbol, set up a shot. Crafting your shots so there is a deeper level of meaning in the imagery takes your photography from simple narrative to inspirational insight.
Copyright Aloha Lavina.
A poem uses repetition to create impact.
Repetition in poetry is never accidental. Poets use repetition to bring emphasis to a point they are trying to make. Photographs can use this same technique to create impact, too. Finding a subject that repeats itself has its own message, especially if the repetition is the message itself. A row of Burmese nuns speaks of the selflessness of their lives—all going in one direction, all looking the same, an absence of individuality.
Copyright Aloha Lavina.
Poetry has theme and variation.
Poems begin with imagery, but the imagery soon turns into a theme, a message or story. Around you are these same themes—beauty, joy, hope. Whether it is in the combination of elements you are fortunate to be able to capture with your camera or the ways you fill your frame, the themes you photograph have the unique stamp of your vision. They say that there is no new story under the sun, that we have the same stories told in different words. It may be the same with our photographs. It’s the same theme, but you put a variation in it that’s borne from your own personal vision.
Copyright Aloha Lavina.
Translating an image in your mind’s eye into an image for the eye is what you do as a photographer. Like the poet, you “balanced a little egg of time†in front of people and places and other sources of beauty, and you capture it within a frame, timeless and ready to hatch into someone else’s inspiration.
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When I was twenty I quit accounting to pursue photography and poetry (philosophy of aesthetics and communication) – now at 64 I am still an accountant but love the story telling power of photography – especially when it is done as poetry. Thnak you for this wonderful post – you have put a lot of thought and effort into it.
You have wonderful photograhy too!
blessings
Hi Brian, thanks for the comment. I admire you for finding your passion early and pursuing it. I agree that poetry can only inspire photography, and vice versa. Wishing you good light, always.
Aloha, its beautiful what you have written. This morning I read in someone’s blog how tedious people find poetry. I am glad I read yours on the same day – I love poetry and I love photography. I decided recently that I am going to focus on these two from now on – lets see where I go from here. I still have a job – as an economic policy analyst. But nothing gives me more satisfaction than poetry and photography. Please carry on with your (beautiful) poetry in pictures.
Sanchita
Read the article and also the others in your blog. Simple and excellently you have put the right advise across. Good Luck to you and WISHING a lot of success. Best regards, KGK.