Poetry and Photography: In Conversation

Writer Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan talks to photographers Michelle Moloney and Letizia Lopreiato about the connection between poetry and photography.

Michelle Moloney is a visual artist working in fine art photography and film. Most recently, her photography features in Waking Light, a collaborative project with writers Kerri ní Dochartaigh and Mícheál McCann alongside book artist Éilís Murphy, published by Skein Press. She holds an MFA in Photography and a PhD in Oral History, Archives and Conflict Transformation, both from Ulster University. Her work seeks to answer questions that have accompanied her for much of her life. These questions, often universal, are concerned with the human need to make meaning in our lives, touching on issues of difference, otherness, identity and grief.

Letizia Lopreiato is a multilingual visual poet and film photographer working with 35mm photography, poetry, spoken word, and Super 8 film, to develop her autobiographical and social documentary practice, with an art-photography style. Letizia embraced film photography after her visual impairment diagnosis. She writes and performs her poetry in English, Italian and Spanish. Her work has been published and exhibited across Ireland and internationally. Letizia’s background is in research in International Relations with over a decade in the technology industry. Her interest lays in the application of barrier-free technologies for pluridiversity inclusion, access and equality. Most recently, her art-book Sonia’s Trees was published by The Outside Press. She is an awardee of the Arts Council of Ireland Agility Award, Visual Arts Bursary, and the Connect Award (2020). She has an upcoming solo exhibition, The Timelapse, in PhotoIreland Festival, July 2022.

Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan is a Dublin-based writer and performer from India. Her work has been published by Dedalus Press, UCD Press, Lifeboat Press, Poetry Ireland, Honest Ulsterman, and Banshee, amongst others.

This event is supported by Skein Press whose latest book Waking Light was published earlier this year, by writers Kerri ní Dochartaigh and Mícheál McCann in collaboration with photographer Michelle Moloney alongside book artist Éilís Murphy. Letizia Lopreiato’s pansensorial installation, The Timelapse – From the Front, depicting the artist’s journey of acceptance of her own visual impairment through art, is exhibited at PhotoIreland Festival until 28th August.

Featured Image: from the series The Timelapse, Letizia Lopreiato