civilized ku # 2561 ~ poetry / photography
Thursday, August 1, 2013 at 05:16PM 
Some of the stuff above the kitchen sink ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenFor those of you who have been following the progress of the nascent pictures + words project and might be wondering what the point of the endeavor might be, consider this:
Photography has many similarities with poetry. There's not a strong relationship between the disciplines, but there is a tight one between the sensibilities. ~ Larry Towell
That written, if poetry - or in our case, poetic verse - isn't your thing, and, if looking at pictures in the manner as described by Nathaniel Hawthorne is not your thing ...
Nobody, I think, ought to read poetry, or look at pictures or statues, who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed. Their highest merit is suggestiveness.
... or in the manner suggested by Ernst Haas ...
...one of the problems of photography, it tends to be a surface sort of thing if we are not careful ... take a picture and move on. Make a picture of what something looks like, but that's not at all what photography is. We have to learn to photograph not what it is but what else it is.
... then in all probability, pictures + words ain't your thing as well. Which, of course, is fine. Cindy and I are well aware that our project will not appeal / resonate with everyone. In fact, we realize that we are creating something which only a small segment of the picture viewing audience will "get" / appreciate, or, for that matter, even attempt to "get" / appreciate. Which, once again, is fine with us.
And, lest anyone think we are trying to be elitist / arrogant / effete artists, we are just operating under the assumption that, as Julian's grandmother used to say, "every pot has a lid".
Reader Comments (1)
I have a very old copy of a book titled 'Tides and Stone Walls' on my bookshelf, first published in 1986. It's a book of poetry by British author Alan Sillitoe (better known for his gritty prose) with each poem set opposite a photograph by photographer called Vicotor Bowley. Neither the poems or the photographs are exceptional but I think the idea of words and photographs going together is a good one.