Basic Critical Theory for Photographers

12 Poems by Felix Morisseau-Leroy and George Szirtes

Critics, academics, curators and photographers are not the only people with an interest in photography, and the poems that follow show an equally valid way of reacting to issues raised by photography.

Felix Morisseau-Leroy

Kodak

Tourist, don’t take my picture

Don’t take my picture, tourist

I’m too ugly

Too dirty

Too meager and too thin

Don’t take my picture, white

Mr. Eastman wouldn’t approve

I’m too ugly, too thin

And your Kodak will break

I’m too dirty and too black

Your Kodak will burst

Don’t take my portrait, tourist

Let me be, white

Don’t photograph my donkey

Donkeys here carry too much

Donkeys here are too little

Donkeys here don’t eat

Tourist, don’t shoot my house

My house is a house ...