Poetry & photography. A defense of the constructing view: an intermedial dialogue between Alberto García-Alix & Jenaro Talens

This article provides the reader with a comparatist analysis of the dialogic bonds between the photographic work of Alberto García-Alix and the poetry of Jenaro Talens, specifically on their collaboration in the book Lo que los ojos tienen que decir (Cátedra, 2014). Its methodology is grounded in a radical understanding of intermediality and the concepts of imagentext (WJT Mitchell 1994, 2019) and iconotext, the latter being coined by Talens himself to designate a series of his books where the poetic word mingles and interacts with the visual image. Our research identifies a series of poetic (theoretical) common categories, such as the discursive configuration of subjectivity, desire (both in a psychoanalytical and a comparatist perspective) and constructing view (mirada constructora) as creative forces in this collaboration, together with some photographic techniques that the poet imports and adapts to its language (framing, off camera, depth of field, light exposure). As a whole, this book comes out to be an extraordinary case of resistance to the aesthetical dominance of realism, choosing to adopt a shared strong materialist and space stance, open to poetic mistery and compromised with the deconstruction of any possible autobiography or self-portrait in the narrow sense of self and referential coincidence.