Visual Poem in the Form of Photography. The Case of Chema Madoz

Abstract

The relations with literature of the well-known photographer from Madrid Chema Madoz are multiple and multifaceted. The article analyzes the tools used by the artist that are drawn from poetry to demonstrate that his works should be defined more as visual poems than as photographs. To do so, the definitions of photography coined by researchers such as R. Barthes and S. Sontag are also used. Among the many stylistic resources present in Madoz’s images, the most frequent is the metaphor which, as in Gracián’s reflection or in surrealist practice, is based on objects that, taken out of their routine destinies, acquire the capacity to show what we do not normally see. The article also analyzes Madoz’s relationship with the concept of mimesis and divides artistic praxis into three elements: poetic praxis, the most important, the praxis of an artist and finally that of a photographer.