Photo-text art explained

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

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

The juxtapositional nature of photo-texts requires that they be simultaneously read and viewed together — an intentional coexistence.^[7] This dual engagement fosters the creation of new meanings while maintaining separate importance for both the photographic images and the written text.^[8]

In the realm of photo-texts, photographs and words work together, forming a "dialogue" where neither medium can escape the interplay.^{[9] [10]} 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

• Roberta Allen (American, b. 1945)
• Eleanor Antin (American, b. 1935)
• David Askevold (Canadian, 1940–2008)
• Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (Korean American, 1951–1982)
• Willie Doherty (Irish, b. 1959)
• Jochen Gerz^[13] (German, b. 1940)
• Paulina Lavista^[14] (Mexican, b. 1945)
• Laura J. Padgett (American, b. 1958)
• Martha Rosler^[15] (American, b. 1943)
• Allan Sekula (American, 1951–2013)
• Lorna Simpson^[16] (American, b. 1960)
• Carrie Mae Weems (American, b. 1953)
• Martha Wilson^[17] (American, b. 1947)

See also

• Comics
• Documents Series
• Hybrid Artworks
• Visual poetry

Further reading

• Foam International Photography Magazine . Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam. 60 . Glyphs: The Image + Text Issue . Nov 4, 2021.
• Book: Photo Text Text Photo: The Synthesis of Photography and Text in Contemporary Art. January 1, 1996. Andreas . Hapkemeyer. Peter . Weiermair. Edition Stemmle. 978-3908162483.
• Book: It Is Almost That: A Collection of Image & Text Work by Women Artists & Writers. Lisa. Pearson. Siglio. May 31, 2011. 978-0979956263.
• Extension of Meanings: Text and Image in Contemporary Chinese Photographic Works. Yining He. 279–296 . 16 Nov 2022. Photography & Culture

  Theorizing New Photographies in China

  . 15. 3.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Whitney Museum of American Art . 17 March 2017.
2. Blazwick. Iwona. 2008. Taking Responsibility. Art Monthly. 1–7.
3. Web site: Family Pictures and Stories, 1981–1982. March 7, 2015. carriemaeweems.net.
4. News: MARTHA WILSON and the Well-Examined Female Self. Edward M.. Gómez. The Brooklyn Rail. Nov 2011.
5. Book: Lagerwall, Sonia . A Reading of Michel Butor’s La Modification as an Emblematic Iconotext. Writing and Seeing: Essays on Word and Image . 119–129. Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft. 95. Rui Carvalho . Homem . Maria . de Fátima Lambert. 978-9042016989. 1 Feb 2006. Editions Rodopi BV.
6. Chiocchetti. Federica. What Is a Photo-Text Book?. The PhotoBook Review. Spring 2019. 9.
7. Book: Hunter, Jefferson . Image and Word: The Interaction of Twentieth-Century Photographs and Texts. February 5, 1987. Harvard University Press. 978-0674444058.
8. Book: Montandon, Alain . Iconotextes. C.R.C.D. (Centre de recherche en communication et didactique); OPHRYS . Clermont-Ferrand, Paris. 1990. 9782708006201.
9. Book: COMETA, MICHELE . From Image/Text to Biopictures: Key Concepts in W.J.T. Mitchell’s Image Theory. W.J.T. Mitchell’s Image Theory . 1st. 2016. Routledge. 9781315644400.
10. Chiocchetti. Federica. 2021. The Wondrous Life of Photo-Texts. Foam International Photography Magazine . 60. 21–27.
11. Intertextuality and Visual Poetics. Norman . Bryson. Norman Bryson. 22. 2. Visual Poetics . Summer 1988. 183–193. Penn State University Press.
12. Book: Wagner, Peter . Reading Iconotexts: From Swift to the French Revolution. Reaktion Books. 1995 . 978-0948462719.
13. Book: Molderings, Herbert . Foto/Texte von Jochen Gerz". Jochen Gerz: Foto/Texte 1975–1978 . . . 1978. 18. German. exhibition catalogue.
14. Book: Guillermo Tovar de Teresa . Repertory of Artists in Mexico: Plastic and Decorative Arts . II . 1996 . Grupo Financiero Bancomer . Mexico City . 968-6258-56-6 . 244.
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. 10.2307/1358731. 1358731 . 0270-7993.
16. Encyclopedia: Lorna Simpson American photographer. Encyclopædia Britannica. February 28, 2017.
17. News: Art in Review. Cotter. Holland. Holland Cotter. 2008-04-04. Rosenberg. Karen. The New York Times. 0362-4331. 2016-04-14.