Renga

In my musings, photographing, and writing yesterday I was thinking about renga - which is a form of writing poetry that I am really interested in.

It consists of a sequence of poems which are normally written by a group of people, often when they are in one place together, over a day.

I will be running a renga at College Lake on June 18th, almost midsummer.

Yesterday I was playing with the idea of making a renga that contains both writing and photos.

Here are some of my first attempts with this version of renga that is just written by one person, and includes photos.

It's just a start.

The thing to enjoy with renga, both as a participant and a reader, is the relationships between the verses - or in this case the relationship between the photo and next verse, then that verse and the next photo.

The idea is that they should link in some way, but not all be part of the same story - so there also needs to be a shift between verses.

"Link" and "shift" are key ideas in renga. See if you can see the linking and shifting below.



We Are Here
PhotoRenga One Draft One - Beginnings



1.

2.

by the water, bins filled with a weekend of picnics -

bottles, crusts, napkins, blue carrier bags

3. 

4. 

today’s highlights: 

lapwing chicks on the marsh 

5. 

6.

I come to lose myself

in the seamless, HD, 3Dness of here

7.

8.

tight May blossom buds

soon to let out their sweet scent of piss and pepper

Day Two

I had another fine day at the Lake today - and found a perfect way to arrive, walking along the Grand Union Canal from Tring Station to the Lake. 

A fisherman, quite understandably, asked me what I was taking photographs of. And I told him about the residency. He was a big fan of College Lake.

When I arrived I spent some time talking with Sarah, who manages the visitor centre, and gave me loads of idea for things to follow up.

Then I spent the afternoon writing, and photographing.