Photopoems

In pre-computer times, as student of the artist photographer, I took pictures and wrote poetry. I thought: what would happen if, for example, “gluing” the content of a photo with a poetic text? A visual-literary form, which I called Photopoem for my own use – a short bullseye. I was not based on anyone. I can see that without my participation this form of creativity (as well as other attempts to combine literature with image) appears in the artistic consciousness, although very rarely.

What is a photopoem? The easiest way to explain this is that the content of the poem placed on the photo or next to it is a continuation of the story from the picture or causes a different perception of it. So it differs from the caption under the photo, which only describes it and is not part of the work. It’s about the interaction of word and image. Only their synthesis creates a work. A good example is the photo-poem “End of History”. The photograph enriches the poem with a new content layer. Death on a large and private scale is joined by final death, inflicted by a low-ranking official. It is enough not to pay the “property fee for the grave” for the last physical trace of a person to disappear. As if it never existed. Erased.

After printing, the photo poem can be hung on the wall, read and viewed in a book or on a computer monitor. The condition is also creative cohesion – the photograph and the poem must be the work of the same author.