Looking into this book Michael Nott’s ‘Photopoetry - A Critical History 1845 - 2015’ really brings out the beauty and power of what photography and poetry together can create. The 2 mediums are powerful enough alone, but together, they create a whole new game. I really love how one can work from the other, but also just how they contrast each other in many ways. One can easily and excitedly go out and photograph whilst being inspired by a poem, or vice versa, one can be inspired and write a poem based on one’s photography. But when they are formed to almost purposely impact one another, it can be so so exciting and alluring.
In my case, I want the text to contrast with the images, the poetry is (hopefully) going to be quite intense, angry and triggering whereas I would like for the images to be quite calming and beautiful. So that when they come together, we can see the good and the bad. The mean and the innocent. The imagery, will in a way, convey me as a child and as a lost young adult, whereas the text will come across as the emotions and problems that I face and will signify the voice I hear in my head. I believe they are very different things, as a lot of the voices are just flashbacks and remembering what people have screamed at me, sort of like an imprint on my brain. So they are very clearly not me.
I want the poetry to feel scary and anxiety-provoking but the images to cause relaxation and joy, these mixed emotions everywhere, never knowing what is going to happen next, one minute things are great and the next they are terrible. Showing the idea of mood swings and not knowing how to feel, or what is normal and what is not.
This book has a really powerful way of conjuring up the meaning and strength behind the two mediums and even though they are quite different in themselves, they are also very similar in conveying messages and thoughts to an audience.