Stephen,
I meant to comment the other day on your use of images in relation to
text on your blog. I was particularly drawn to "Raised by Ghosts" and
the accompanying text. I can see how the images actually provide visual
clues that span the text.
For quite some time I have been fascinated with "psychic connection"
(as you put it) of certain images evoking strong emotional narrative
responses. What I find really interesting is the act of posting an
image link in an email as if the clicking on the link and viewing the
image is a form of language itself. The viewer then creates the
narrative. Perhaps this is a more subconscious and unadulterated form
of authorship? I like them best as if they were snap poems. Snap image
poems.
Here is one.
The moment I opened the door, I realized that something hideous had
occurred
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/2/1002/1024/The-moment-I-opened-the-doo.jp
g
-Peter Ciccariello
-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen Vincent <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 17:25:45 -0700
Subject: Photo-Text Snaps
Lately, courtesy of an infatuation with Flickr - the internet image
hosting
program - I have been having a kind of mysterious fun going into
dialog with
images - digital "snaps" - I take from off my neighborhood streets.
Unlike
the conventional "picture" poem in which the poet creates an image
(drawn
from a painting, or observation) that is re-invoked entirely within the
context &/or frame(s) of language (without any literal picture), the
cyber-world clearly offers the opportunity to marry, or better, let's
say
juxtapose the mediums and put them into a kind of conversation.
(Obviously,
for the technically more sophisticated, the image can be manipulated
and the
text can be variously integrated, fracture, etc. There is much of this
exploration/experimentation abounding among certain poets). At the
moment I
am frankly more interested in the photo as a way to "pop" or "trigger"
fresh
text - either as narrative or with a somewhat (!) conventional poem.
Something in me, for example, is drawn to take a particular photo and
not
another. The image becomes a means of fishing out the psychic
connection in
the making of a poem - or if not so psychologically bent - the image
just
provokes a language that forms its own trail of exploration. Somehow,
for
example, my photograph of a basketball hoop (a game at which I was
pretty
adept) becomes a means of both reflecting on a life, as well as a
memoriam
for Robert Creeley. Yet, to convolute the issue here - or the newness
of
this form - I don't think, in many cases, that the language can exist
independent of the image (and the images combined with the language are
enriched in terms of meaning or implication, as well)
I know Sebald used those usually in paperback terribly reproduced gray
photos as pretext to segments of his novels. Maybe what this form
offers is
something in that vein - only much more fragment centered.
If interested, this has been the latest boogie on my blog. I will
appreciate
input and comments.
Stephen V
Blog: http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
|