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Distributed for Reaktion Books

Spoken Image

Photography and Language

Distributed for Reaktion Books

Spoken Image

Photography and Language

Language has always been central to the meaning and exploitation of photographic images. However, the various types and "styles" of language associated with different photographic genres have been largely overlooked. This book considers the nature of photography, examining the language used in titles, captions and commentaries, particularly as they relate to documentary photography, photojournalism and fashion photography.

The Spoken Image addresses the question of how the photograph communicates its message, with or without the aid of language. The book looks at the work of film-makers such as Antonioni and Greenaway to contrast filmic methods of narration with those of photography. Scott concludes that photography has arrived at a level of communicative sophistication equal to that of modern textual narratives, in conjunction with which it often works.

Distribution by the University of Chicago Press only to customers in the USA and Canada. Customers elsewhere should visit the UK website of Reaktion Books.


360 pages | 6 x 9

Art: Photography


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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART ONE: TITLES AND CAPTIONS
1. The Nature of Photography
2. Title and Caption: Projecting the Photographic Image
3. Listening to the Documentary Photographer
4. The Behaviour of Captions in the Press
5. The Language of Fashion Photography
PART TWO: PHOTOGRAPHY AND NARRATIVE
6. Narrative and Time-lapse Photography in Peter Greenaway’s A Zed & Two Noughts
7. The Magazine Photo-story: The Rise and Decline of a Genre
8. The Narrative Resources of the Photograph
9. The Other Way of Telling John Berger and Jean Mohr
10. In Conclusion: Modern Narrative in Photograph and Film
References
Select Bibliography
Photographic Acknowledgements
Index

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