The volume explores the possibility of bringing together languages considered distant: photography as an objective, direct reflection of reality, and poetry as the purest and most intimate expression of subjectivity. From this encounter comes the desire to explore, through artistic practice, the tensions and short circuits that emerge in the relationship between image and word. The theme is examined starting from historic examples of American photography, in figures such as Herman Melville and Carleton Watkins in the nineteenth century, Walt Whitman and Edward Weston in the early twentieth, and later the postwar Beat Generation, with authors such as Jack Kerouac, Robert Frank and Minor White. In Italy, the book cites the work of Ugo Mulas dedicated to the poet Eugenio Montale, in particular the collection Ossi di seppia. A central role is played by Mario Giacomelli, who throughout his career often drew inspiration from poetry, engaging directly with poets such as Giacomo Leopardi, Cesare Pavese, Mario Luzi and others, as well as Edgar Lee Masters, Emily Dickinson and Jorge Luis Borges. Other Italian authors emerge who have had a close relationship with poetry in divergent ways: Franco Vaccari, Luigi Ghirri, Giovanni Gastel, Giovanni Chiaramonte and Giulia Niccolai. The project draws on a working method that has characterised the institution since its founding: public commissioning as a form of dialogue with authors and support for experimentation.