Mt. Fuji & Sign, Mt. Fuji, Japan 1977, Gelatin silver print on paper, 13.75 x 11 in. (34.925 x 27.94 cm), 1979, 20th c., 1986.1.1.1, Gift of Lawrence and Carol Zicklin
We reached out to award-winning poet and Dickinson College Poet-in Residence and Professor of Creative Writing, Adrienne Su, to ask if she might suggest a “poetic pairing” for our Soul Food page. In this case, Su picked this work form our collection by Elliot Erwitt, and paired it with the following poem by William E. Stafford.
Traveling through the Dark
On the pairing, Su writes:
“What’s odd about the pairing is that I know the mountain to be in Japan, while Stafford’s poem takes place in the sort of location with a ‘Wilson River road,’ and the mountain in the print looks wintry, while we don’t know the weather in the poem. I take the weather to be mild because there’s no description of it.
Combining the arrow sign with the poem makes the print more ominous – it suggests that a traveler ought to go up there and find a dead but still pregnant deer on a precipice. Why on earth would this experience be desirable? It isn’t, but maybe the realization that follows it is valuable.”
What do you think about this pairing? What do you see between the two, and how does it make you feel?
Let us know @TroutGallery
