Translating a poem into a photograph

This (maybe strange) thought just crossed my mind. I don't know why

but I just made a poem (damn that sounds cheap). Just three lines,

and know I feel that I have to make a photograph of it, about what it

means or what I think it means. At the surface this process seems

logical, but it also feels impossible : to make the words and the

photograph as an identical twin to each other, with only difference

being that they both where created in two different medium's. I

mean : to make the photograph's feel as valid as the feeling when the

words first popped up and on to the paper.Making a photograph and

then imagine some words or poem or whatever by it feels more natural

than making a poem and imagine a photograph by it. Or isn't it?

I've tried both. If you have a love of photography and enjoy poetry and have a bit of a creative instinct, it really doesn't matter which side you approach it from, as long as either the picture or the poem appeals to you.

I feel that in exploring both mediums, you would be able to face your feelings truely. You would more clearly understand what it is that you are feeling when you attempt to translate from one medium to another.

i've put my writing and photogrpahs together, but they complement more than mirror.

they can be twins in feeling, but that's a personal and creative thing.

If the inspiration is a picture, real or imagined, it is easier to write a poem about it than to create a picture around a poem. That is, for my feeling, because language offers far more flexibility than the tools of visualisation.

....than the tools of imaging. (not visualisation)

I did this also, but no one will let me post the image, not sure why. the poem starts with,"there once was a man from Kentucky.....)

 

:)

to make the words and the photograph

 

The photograph is the poem. The words are just an add on.

Mr. Hughes has added a note of hilarity. Reminds me of all the off color limericks I used to hear. Don't hear many anymore. I know this is a diversion from the topic posted but a little levity is sometimes needed in this sometimes overly serious forum.

little levity is sometimes needed in this sometimes overly serious forum.

 

There's a thought. Most conversations are about some old painter having a influence on Henri or someone.. Yes, we all love Henri bucket loads...can we move on.

 

At least Van Cough cut his ear off, and painted in chromes. Of course he was condemned for not being proper.

I think it might be fun to try Japanese Haiku. Seems like it might be fairly easy to turn the poems into photographs by using the visual things. <a href="http://www.toyomasu.com/haiku/#whatishaiku">http://www.toyomasu.com/haiku/#whatishaiku</a>

Ken, it's "Nantucket." :-)

 

Photography and poetry set out to accomplish the same thing, but their means are so different that I don't think you could create a photograph that expresses what a poem does. It's like expecting the movie of a book to be like the book.

People knew how to see long before they invented language. So I think it's natural that it would be easier to draw words out of an image, rather than an image out of words. Maybe you can approach it like a filmmaker. Your poem is the script.

I can very well agree with the statement of Peter A, and some are even as great as a Psalm. The one I'm thinking of is Michael Ging's Photograph of the little lady walking toward the sunset in Rome that he posted on here a few months ago...Jim