The Pillows of Our Palms

       

         Excerpt from Bachelor's of Arts thesis, "The Pillows of Our Palms", a poetry and photography book that features photographic images and original verse in playful juxtaposition. I am interested in problematizing the ways that these two mediums resist and reinforce each other, as well as the ways that words and images interact in society. “Poetry is a speaking picture, painting is a silent poetry”, quoted the Greek poet Simonides of Keos. By virtue of using devices such as symbolism, irony, repetition, and imagery, I believe that a photograph has the capacity to act much like a poem. Poems bare witness to life and death; both the light and the dark. A series of photographs can behave much like the stanzas of a poem with a unifying idea or feeling that is woven throughout the frames, and the light and shapes within their compositions can become metaphors that transform an image beyond its narrative content.

         Robert Adams once wrote, "that poets write for a single reason – to give witness to splendor ... It is a useful word, especially for a photographer, because it implies light". I hope to use my cameras, and my words to paint with light.