Merging Two Art Forms: Photography and Poetry

Photographs have always had a place of importance in my life. There were the black and white photos of my childhood. Birthday parties and summer events were remembered and kept in small family albums. During my teens, all the girls had a scrapbook with memories. As I married and had children, each child had a beginning of life photo book. Soon after their births, I returned to teaching and the photos were stored in boxes with the idea that later on in life, I would sort them and place them back in albums. Now, the Digital Age is here and photo collections are able to be stored online. Behind each photographs is an underlying story, the backchannel tale of a life event that we want to savor and applaud.

The old saying, a picture is worth a thousand words, has a new face in this digital age. Photos can be easily transmitted now through the instant capture of a single scene with a camera, iPhone, or SmartPhone. Instagram has a one stop, easy access for public viewing of special shots. Digital tools are being advertised via the internet and sites like Pinterest and Facebook store photos with quick uploads. 

While photography tells stories through images, the fusion of poetry with photos creates another layer of storytelling. Vibrant images embedded with poetic expressions or poems are engaging readers on Twitter. Educational chats are posting flyers composed of superimposed wording on photographs or images. Free photos sites like Pixabay and Morguefile are stocking their collections with additional images to supply the demand for topic-centered photographs. 

You can take the process of capturing lasting memories through photos, one step further by adding another layer of creativity. The merging of two arts forms, photography and the written word, allows for the seamless blending of literacy and technology through simple photo-editing tools, like PicMonkey, Canva, and Microsoft Word. The connection becomes a collaboration of the heart and the mind to make public what the voice inside has to say. Multi-sensory feelings are evoked in this process of blending art forms that are transferred from writer to readers and viewers. 

Let's look at the process of how I create one image for public viewing. In this case, I use a screenshot of an antique postcard dated 1910 and turn the artifact into a jpeg for further use.

I decide to create a visual that will enhance the card and have it as a focal point. I use both Canva and PicMonkey to create the following image that I save as a jpeg.

Next, I go to PicMonkey to upload my new image and superimpose the poem that I created from listening to a sound prompt for day 21 of Laura Shovan's Sound Poem Project.

The end result is an attractive visual that enhances my postcard and showcases the poem I wrote.

The combining of photos and poetry creates a striking visual for viewers. I have designed gallery collections using the technique described. Please view the latest one, Finding Fall Gallery here. To the left is one sample from the collection that was a collaborative effort between the photographer, my daughter, and the writer, me.

Photography and writing have always been a part of my life but now this connection is enhanced through digital tools. Join me as I continue to make these connections vibrant messages of positivity in the next gallery of artistic expressions, Winter Whisperings.

The digital age is providing me with many new outlets to merge two favorite art forms of mine: photography and poetry. 

Now travel over to Margaret Simon's DigitLit Sunday site to view her contribution, Shades of Grey.