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Photo-text art

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The head and shoulders of a black woman in a simple white cotton shift, taken from the back leaving the subject unknown. The black and white photographs are alongside six engraved text plaques and fixed directly to the wall. One text plaque hangs above the photographs and five are placed below.
"Twenty Questions", by Lorna Simpson. An example of photo-text installation, in which a series of black and white photographs are shown alongside six engraved text plaque.

Photo-text, also written as photo/text, is a hybrid form of artistic expression that combines photography and textual elements to convey a message or create a narrative. This combination allows for a multi-dimensional experience for the viewer.

Notable examples of photo-text art include Martha Rosler's The Bowery in two inadequate descriptive systems (1974/75);[1][2] David Askevold's Muse Extracts, exhibited at Documenta 6 in 1977; Carrie Mae Weems' Family Pictures and Stories (1983);[3] Lorna Simpson's installation Guarded Conditions (1989); and Martha Wilson's I have become my own worst fear, first presented in 2011.[4]

The summer photography festival Rencontres d'Arles gives a Photo-Text Book Award at each annual event.

Overview

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Photo-text has been classified as a "bimedial iconotext,"[5] wherein both photographic images and textual elements coexist, forming a cohesive body of work presented in the context of a gallery space[6] or book.[7]

The juxtapositional nature of photo-texts requires that they be simultaneously read and viewed together — an intentional coexistence.[8] This dual engagement fosters the creation of new meanings while maintaining separate importance for both the photographic images and the written text.[9]

In the realm of photo-texts, photographs and words work together, forming a "dialogue" where neither medium can escape the interplay.[10][5] This dialogue, described as the "interpenetration of images and words,"[11] serves to enhance the narrative potential of each medium. The continuous shift between observing the images and reading the text results in the development of a conceptual entity known as a "third something," which exists solely in the mind of the reader/viewer. Ultimately, it is the viewer who "makes sense" of photo-texts.[12] Before this "third something" takes shape in the observer's mind, the images and text must be assimilated by the mediating organ of the eye. This process involves the viewer incorporating or devouring the content, temporarily blurring the line between the written and visual components.

Notable artists who work with photo-text

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See also

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Further reading

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  • "Glyphs: The Image + Text Issue". Foam International Photography Magazine. No. 60. Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam. Nov 4, 2021.
  • Hapkemeyer, Andreas; Weiermair, Peter, eds. (January 1, 1996). Photo Text Text Photo: The Synthesis of Photography and Text in Contemporary Art. Edition Stemmle. ISBN 978-3908162483.
  • Pearson, Lisa, ed. (May 31, 2011). It Is Almost That: A Collection of Image & Text Work by Women Artists & Writers. Siglio. ISBN 978-0979956263.
  • Yining He (16 Nov 2022). "Extension of Meanings: Text and Image in Contemporary Chinese Photographic Works". Photography & Culture: Theorizing New Photographies in China. Vol. 15, no. 3. pp. 279–296.

References

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  1. ^ "Whitney Museum of American Art". Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  2. ^ Blazwick, Iwona (2008). "Taking Responsibility". Art Monthly: 1–7.
  3. ^ "Family Pictures and Stories, 1981–1982". carriemaeweems.net. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  4. ^ Gómez, Edward M. (Nov 2011). "MARTHA WILSON and the Well-Examined Female Self". The Brooklyn Rail.
  5. ^ a b Chiocchetti, Federica (2021). "The Wondrous Life of Photo-Texts". Foam International Photography Magazine. No. 60. pp. 21–27.
  6. ^ Lagerwall, Sonia (1 Feb 2006). "A Reading of Michel Butor's La Modification as an Emblematic Iconotext". In Homem, Rui Carvalho; de Fátima Lambert, Maria (eds.). Writing and Seeing: Essays on Word and Image. Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft. Vol. 95. Editions Rodopi BV. pp. 119–129. ISBN 978-9042016989.
  7. ^ Chiocchetti, Federica (Spring 2019). "What Is a Photo-Text Book?". The PhotoBook Review: 9.
  8. ^ Hunter, Jefferson (February 5, 1987). Image and Word: The Interaction of Twentieth-Century Photographs and Texts. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674444058.
  9. ^ Montandon, Alain (1990). Iconotextes. Clermont-Ferrand, Paris: C.R.C.D. (Centre de recherche en communication et didactique); OPHRYS. ISBN 9782708006201.
  10. ^ COMETA, MICHELE (2016). "From Image/Text to Biopictures: Key Concepts in W.J.T. Mitchell's Image Theory". W.J.T. Mitchell’s Image Theory (1st ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781315644400.
  11. ^ Bryson, Norman (Summer 1988). "Intertextuality and Visual Poetics". Visual Poetics. 22 (2). Penn State University Press: 183–193.
  12. ^ Wagner, Peter (1995). Reading Iconotexts: From Swift to the French Revolution. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-0948462719.
  13. ^ Molderings, Herbert (1978). "Foto/Texte von Jochen Gerz"". Jochen Gerz: Foto/Texte 1975–1978 (exhibition catalogue) (in German). Hanover: Kestnergesellschaft. p. 18.
  14. ^ Guillermo Tovar de Teresa (1996). Repertory of Artists in Mexico: Plastic and Decorative Arts. Vol. II. Mexico City: Grupo Financiero Bancomer. p. 244. ISBN 968-6258-56-6.
  15. ^ Wark, Jayne (2001). "Conceptual Art and Feminism: Martha Rosler, Adrian Piper, Eleanor Antin, and Martha Wilson". Woman's Art Journal. 22 (1): 44–50. doi:10.2307/1358731. ISSN 0270-7993. JSTOR 1358731.
  16. ^ "Lorna Simpson | American photographer". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved February 28, 2017.
  17. ^ Cotter, Holland; Rosenberg, Karen (2008-04-04). "Art in Review". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
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