Visual Poetry: photographic sonneteer
The sonnet is a traditional poetic form. The name comes from its Italian origins and means, ‘little song’. Originally, sonnets were invented for expressing courtly love; now any subject is considered acceptable. Those who chose to write within the sonnet form were sometimes called ‘sonneteers’.
A sonnet has 14 lines, but these can be broken up in different ways. For example, a Petrarchian sonnet consists of two stanzas of 4 lines and then a further stanza of six lines (4-4-6); whereas, a Spencerian sonnet consists of three stanzas of four lines and then a single stanza of two lines, a couplet (4-4-4-2).
Within any given structure, a sonnet also has to conform to a strict rhyme scheme. Indeed, the structure and rhyme scheme are inextricably linked to each other. For example, an English sonnet, conforms to the following structure and rhyme scheme: ABAB-CDCD-EFEF-GG. The ‘code’ of letters indicates where words at the end of each line must rhyme with each other. For example:
Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, (A)
And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth, (B)
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess (A)
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth. (B)
‘America’ by Claude McKay
The structure of the English sonnet also illustrates another feature of sonnets in general: that a sonnet should reflect upon a single sentiment or idea, but offer a clarification or surprising ‘turn’, in the final lines. So, in the English sonnet, there are three stanzas of the same length and repeated rhyme scheme, with a final couplet that has a different rhyme scheme to the preceding stanzas, emphasising through a change in rhyme a shift in perspective.
These ‘little songs’ can grow into longer, more complicated texts. For example, a sonnet redoublé consists of 15 individual sonnets, where the last line of the first sonnet becomes the first line of the next, and so on; with the final, fifteenth sonnet composed of only those lines that were repeated in the previous fourteen sonnets, all arranged in order and still conforming to the chosen sonnet structure and rhyme scheme. This larger form could become the basis for a photo book, with each sonnet forming a chapter.
The sonnet – and other poetic forms – can also be adopted, adapted and applied to photo essays and other sequences of images. This can offer an alternative or an addition to more commonly used narrative structures, such as the following: Hook, Establishment, Character, Jeopardy Climax and Resolution.
Firstly, the sonnet length (14 lines) is a good fit for many photo essays, based on the assumption that a single line and a single image have equivalence. Secondly, the sonnet structure can provide a practical means for organising images into shorter sequences. Thirdly, the rhyme scheme of a sonnet can also provide ‘productive constraints’ to making, editing and sequencing images. Such constraints can provide a creative stimulus.
However, the idea of a written or spoken rhyme scheme needs some transliteration into the visual language of photography. There are two options for doing this, which are not mutually exclusive. The first focuses on the content of the image and then seeks to repeat particular elements, to create the rhyme scheme. For example: who is in the image; what are they doing; how are they doing it; etc?
The second approach focuses on the form of the image, i.e. the visual elements themselves: colour, tone, shape, pattern, etc. This approach is more subtle but also more flexible. The rhyme scheme can be created through repetition – as with the content approach – but also: alternation, progression and undulation.
Something reasonably common in poetry is to repeat a line unaltered. However, it is rare in photography to reproduce an image more than once. That’s not to say this isn’t worth experimentation. If the preceding and/or following image(s) change, or the layout is altered; then the meaning of the main images changes as well. That is to say, the denoted meaning remains the same but the connoted meaning may change.
Image a sonnet structure: 6-1-6-1, with the following rhyme scheme: ABCDCBA-E-FGHJHGF-E. The E images are not just a visual rhyme but the same image. In this case, you would interpret image E differently each time, based on the preceding sequence of images; and the repetition of the same image would encourage you to ‘reread’ the image.
Care must be taken to separate rhyming from rhythm, which is also used – sometimes interchangeably with rhyming - in descriptions of images (photographic or otherwise). In poetry, they are related but distinct. Rhythm is the ‘beat’ or pattern of stress that exists within a line; whereas, rhyme is the ‘note’ or sound that connects lines together. It is possible to invoke rhythm in photography between images, when they are presented as part of a film or multimedia presentation.
Poetry and music have an obvious connection, through a shared reliance on rhythm. The rhythm of music – such as flamenco – can be played back through poetic form into photography. A ‘flamenco sonnet photo essay’ might have something like the following structure and rhyme scheme (many others are possible): A-BCB-A-CC-DBDB-A-EE. ‘A’ images might be repeats; whereas ‘C’ and ‘E’ images might be visual rhymes, based on content; and ‘B’ and ‘D” images might be visual rhymes, based on form. The photo essay would have a single, unifying idea, first expressed in the earlier CC couplet; with the final EE couplet providing a reinterpretation of that idea.
Ultimately, you will either find the idea of adopting the structures of sonnets into photography an intriguing challenge or an overly formal constraint. Both views are mirrored in the development of poetry itself. Both points of view are valid. What sonnet forms offer is a way to play with deep structure, to bind together a sequence of images, in ways that are different to narrative structures. This may be more appropriate for certain types of projects that are, perhaps, less documentary and more conceptual. It’s up to you whether you want to become a visual sonneteer.