Topic 7 - Words and Pictures - Reflection

-       To what extent has text been part of your practice to this point?

Text has formed some part of my work in the past generally through titles and written communication to support the images. I have also used it to influence project ideas and starting points. This is becoming more important for me as I mature as a photographer as I can interpret text in different ways and then explore it photographically.

-       When have you found it most important or effective?

I have found text to be most effective at the end of a series of photographs, for example a written essay in the back of a book. This usually helps give an understanding to the image and encourages me to look back through the work to see how the words could bring new interpretations.

I think it is also important to have a piece of text at the beginning of an exhibition to set the scene for what an audience will see and experience when walking through a gallery.

-       Can you think of instances where your use of text – titles or captions perhaps – has ‘intimated’ too much to the viewer?

In several examples of my work I have over written titles to try and force the audience to experience the image in a certain way. A good example of this could be social media and the titles or hashtags that accompany and image.

-       Have you ever experienced text undermining your photographs?

During my degree I wrote a disappointing and gushing introduction to a book a created which was a study of a church community in Plymouth.

I also collaborated with an English student who wrote an article that supported images I had created. This was a particularly poor experience because they didn’t represent the image effectively and the article ended up being misrepresentative of the images and the subject matter.

In the future I need to be more selective with the people I choose to write text and consider what I am trying to communicate in my images so I can then write about it effectively.

Topic 7 - Words and Pictures - Activity

Fig. 1 Bruce Adams, 2023. Daily Mail. 5th October 2023. Page 1.

This image is supposed to convey and reinforce ideas of stereotypical gender roles between man and woman. Sunak is closer to the camera and seemingly looks bigger than Murty, which connotes traditional values of males being the dominant or important person in a relationship. Murty is looking at Sunak with support, admiration and pride, reinforcing the previous connotation. They are both dressed in stereotypically gendered clothing, blue for Sunak and salmon pink for Murty.

The text has dramatically influenced this reading of the photograph and further reinforces the negative connotations surrounding relationships, gender, and gender roles. The image caption defines Murty as Sunak’s wife, which suggests she is lesser and an object.

The subheading of the front-page expresses the message of family and stereotypical gender identities, which further explains the image. The term ‘wokery’ comes from ‘woke’ which is defined as: ‘alert to and concerned about social injustice and discrimination’  (Oxford University Press, 1989), but is presented as a negative in relation to the Labour leader Keir Starmer. This further reinforces the stereotpyes presented in the image and text.

An alternative reading could relate to the text above the headline, Barthes doesn’t address the multifaceted nature of newspaper front covers and the potential confusion that could happen when connotations are mixed, for example, whilst Murty looks at Sunak with ‘love’ how do we know she still fancies him?

Oxford University Press (1989). The Oxford English dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press; Oxford.