"The photographs are quiet, lyrically poetic, and intellectually provocative."
- Cambridge Dictionary
I was scrolling through my blog posts and found one I wrote back in 2017 about “how to be lyrical". In that post, I gave readers tips on creating lyrical work, mainly focusing on drawing inspiration from music. This involved analyzing personal feelings when listening to melodies or interpreting lyrics if they exist.
Now, 7 years later, I realize that doesn't fully answer the question of how to be lyrical. So, what does it mean to be lyrical? In the past post, I mentioned it as a verb meaning “expressing the creator’s emotions in an imaginative and beautiful way.” While that's one way to describe being lyrical, I want to emphasize the word “emotion.” Expressing a feeling that exists inside and lasts for some time is not easy, especially when creating imagery. To achieve an expressive yet artistically beautiful quality is tricky, particularly with unusual or ambiguous feelings. After years of practicing being lyrical, there are times when I need other sources to guide me in digging deeper into a certain emotion I want to convey. Symbolism helps a lot, but creating that emotion for the audience so they feel it too takes time. I realized that not everyone can feel a certain emotion unless you provide some visual aid or other guidance. Some people with similar knowledge to mine can understand what I'm talking about immediately. However, not everything is based on personal experience, is it?
For example, a few months ago, I created a personal work called “Consciousness.” It was not the same concept of consciousness as Freud’s; it was another concept known as the “spectrum of consciousness” that I found accidentally on the internet.
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| The proposed spectrum of consciousness (S.L. Thaler, 1996d) |
Based on that concept, I needed to create three different images for each stage presented. I had to differentiate each one by using different colors, compositions, or poses. Thanks to Sasa, my talented Hungarian model who is also a professional contemporary dancer, she managed to give me different feels through her movements and expressions. She delivered each stage of “consciousness” effortlessly.
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| Day dreaming |
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| Denying reality |
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| Near-death |
For "daydreaming," I used white boxes and random elements, along with a sky-blue dress, to symbolize an imaginary, relaxed, yet confusing world. It's full of curious things but in a good and happy way. For "reality," I wanted to show how often we deny our reality and how distorted and cruel it can be. I used yellow as the neutral tone to represent human quality. The movements created by Sasa here were more "closed" and "painful" than the first ones. For the final stage, the "near-death" phase, the overall tone was much darker, and Sasa's movements were more violent, creating a blurry effect. It was like a shadow, leaving one's self behind as a representation of regret at the edge of life. On the other hand, the poses were grander and larger than the previous ones, because I believe death is more significant than life due to its eternity.
Selecting the right objects, tone, and other visual elements in a lyrical work is more crucial than choosing the best model, dress, concept, or whatever it is. Focus on the deeper emotions you feel while creating the art and imagine what your audience will see. Keep these two points in mind, or even imprint them in your heart.
Can you now understand what it means to be lyrical from my explanation?
