In the Photograph

A new collection of prose poems by an acclaimed writer, artist and musician – a master of the surreal and the observational.

The poems in In the Photograph unfold in domestic and suburban settings. They capture the exact moment of writing: how, from it, possibilities branch out into observation, memory, word play, analogy, fantasy, other artworks and other art forms. Cinema, photography, theatre, painting and music all move freely in and out of the poem’s frame.

The writing revels in humour and narrative surprise: twists in syntax, jump cuts in time, jump cuts from one category of experience into another. In the Photograph is intimate, familial, often moving; it is also sparklingly clever and alert to the imaginative possibilities that can open out from the minutiae of days.

SHORTLISTED: Prime Minister’s Literary Awards – Poetry 2024

Luke Beesley’s In the Photograph offers a series of vignettes that capture the poetic imagination in flight. In these prose poems, capacious and playful, the subtle ‘twists in emotional grammar’ inconspicuously ‘concertinaed’ in the seconds of our diurnal existences billow out into surreal and hypervivid epiphanies. Shuttling between the suburban and the sublime, Beesley finds provocations in everything… [T]his book provides conclusive proof of the compatibility between formal experimentation and democratic appeal.
Judges’ comments, Prime Minister’s Literary Awards

What makes this poetry so intriguing is its pétillant wit and unwavering attention to the imaginative possibilities that arise from the minutiae of our existence. A keen eye for detail illuminates the significance of these occurrences, transforming them into poignant and thought-provoking reflections on the human condition.
Justin Cantrell, Readings Monthly

The volume’s exploration of a hybrid poetic prose is characterised by sometimes light-hearted surrealistic gestures that disrupt narrative expectations, along with a pursuit of ekphrastic modes. It demonstrates a sophisticated awareness of the absurdity of domestic and quotidian life. And the best works make the familiar truly strange, asking readers to recalibrate their perceptions.
Paul Hetherington, Australian Book Review

When I did pay them the right attention, I was rewarded with funny and sweet poems, full of careful consideration of the reality of suburban life in Australia, especially the quotidian life of artistically inclined suburbanite adults. The attention is intimate, the care is great. A tone of tenderness has grown more prominent in these new poems.
D. Perez-McVie, Cordite

Praise for Luke Beesley:

As lush or dreamy as the poems sometimes are, there’s a jittery, jokey, upset the image kitsch-cart motive afoot also…This is a poetry of possibility.
Michael Farrell, The Australian

A master of the cropped prism-like phrase…cinematic, photographic, a divider of scenes into moments that come to life through poetry, they dazzle, vibrate and stay.
Christopher Barnes, Jacket Magazine

Stylish, witty, erudite, contemporary, but also personal and close to what one might call home…a visually rich spread of poetry, comprising a hyperreal blend of ekphrasis, absurdist imagery, anecdote, and autobiography, which somehow manages to be as entertaining as it is challenging and profound.
Nick Xuereb, Cordite