Photography in lyric poetry: artistic modes

In the article, we analyze the examples of photopoetics in lyric poetry through the perspective of artistic modes. In our opinion, the most frequent are elegiac, ironic and heroic, every single of those has its grounding in the theory of literature. In addition, these theoretical wording coincide with what by Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag and Walter Benjamin wrote about photography. Taking such texts, as “Photograph from September 11” by W. Szymborska, “Rachel” by A. Gorodnicky, “Photograph” by A. Kushner, “Someone and the photo” by H. Sapgir, “War photographs” by Yu. Visbor и “On the Photograph in a Newspaper” by R. Kazakova, as an example, we identify the points of intersection of the two theories. Elegiac mode is characterized by the motives of loss, connected with the object on the photo. Heroic mode is characterized by the identification of the subject and the image, and the denial of the subject from his own self. Ironic mode, on the contrary, is characterized by separation of self and image, and, as a consequence, freedom of self-determination. At the same time, there are features of photopoetics, that are not connected with the modes: situations and plot events, resulting from the lyrical subject’s point of view (posing, ekphrasis, examining the picture), and also the temporal organisation of the text.