Readers' Club Activity

Photo Poetry

The Department of English of the IIS University conducted Reader’s Club Activity on the20 th of March 2021 at 9:30am via Google meet. The topic of the activity was “Photos like Poems like Photos”. The activity focussed on the symbiotic relationship between poems and photography and gave students a chance to present their self-composed works based on photographs.

The activity was an initiative of Sem IV students of English Honours. The theme was
beautifully defined through the work of poetess Anupama Raju and French photographer Pascal Bernard. Their composition discovered the city of Pondicherry using photography and poetry. With this brief introduction, the stage was opened for students to interact and share their views. Observations like the inter-disciplinary nature of this term, the scope in this field owing to the emergence of digital humanities, were made during the discussion. Photo-poetry does not follow any chronological order which means that it gives more meaning and a wide perspective to the readers. Photo-haiku of Italian poetess, Ann Atwood, was presented which suggested how texts add to the surrealism of an image, thus giving more depthness to it. Photo-poetry bridges the gap between the unconscious ideas and the conscious effort of writing.

With these ideas from students, the platform was given to the teachers of the department where they shared their inputs on the topic. They enlightened the students with literary facts and characters. Students and faculty members also recited their creation based on picture on varying topics. The session was concluded with a little more information on the subject of today’s talk and online and offline sources were provided to the students for further insight. With these final reflections this monthly activity ended.