Ekphrastic

Poetic Photos | Amy Jasek

During April’s National Poetry Month ekphrastic project, I put out a call for our Instagram family to submit film photographs as potential writing fodder, with the invitation for poets to put some words to the images. So far, we have had no takers when it comes to people writing to any of the photographs that were tagged with #fscpoems, but the offer will stand indefinitely, so if you are just seeing this now and the muse hits you upside the head with inspiration, please let us know! A comment here, an email to Amy Jasek, or a message on our Instagram or Facebook is a great way to contact us with what you’ve made towards this!

I wanted to give a shoutout to the photographers who were willing to offer up their photographs to be written about; I know that can be nerve-wracking! Below, I present you with a selection from the hashtag #fscpoems that sing in visual verse even without any words attached.

Please check out the photographers’ feeds for more of their work! Thank you to everyone who submitted!

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Film photographer poetry enthusiast Amy Jasek lives in Texas. Check out her website for more of her work.

National Poetry Month Ekphrastic Project!

April is National Poetry Month

Poster “designed by twelfth grader Bao Lu from Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, New York, who was the winner of the 2021 National Poetry Month Poster Contest.” - Poets.org See more about Bao’s win at this link.

Poster “designed by twelfth grader Bao Lu from Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, New York, who was the winner of the 2021 National Poetry Month Poster Contest.” - Poets.org See more about Bao’s win at this link.

Friends, April is National Poetry Month. Not only that, this particular April, 2021, is National Poetry Month’s 25th Anniversary!

Why does that matter to a film photography collective? Because a picture is worth 1000 words, because our images are poetry, because life itself can be poetry. It also matters because supporting each other is something artists in general do, and many of us get all giggly giddy over the prospect of collaborations.

So thirty of us decided to invite thirty writers to participate in an interdisciplinary bonanza! The poets who generously agreed to play along were each given a photograph, randomly assigned, with no information besides the image, to respond to in words.

iPhone shot by Amy Jasek. Check out Melanie Faith’s other books here - she has a book on Photography for Writers!

iPhone shot by Amy Jasek. Check out Melanie Faith’s other books here - she has a book on Photography for Writers!

HOW DID IT TURN OUT??

We think it’s amazing, and we are thrilled to share it with you! Watch this space: starting April 1st, one photo / poem pair will be shared here on our website, plus on our Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter each day. In May, we will share the project here on our blog in a more retrospective way.

Consider yourself officially invited to our month long ekphrastic film photographic word wizard party!

We - the photographers and the writers - can’t wait to show you what we made!