The Role of Text

Text was always going to play a role in my final work, but I didn’t realise how many different ways it can be implemented effectively until after a discussion on the usage of text on Monday. As my work is diaristic in nature, I have toyed with the idea of including diary entires or personal hand written notes since the idea for my folio was born. However as I moved into incorporating the idea of technology as a vehicle for intimacy within a relationship, that was soon replaced with the idea of using digital text. 

Below are some of the photobooks that were included in the discussion, and that caught my attention. Due to the current lockdown situation, I am not able to view these in person, but was able to find them on the internet. I have particularly chosen to post these three books as sources of inspiration because of their use of text, which I feel is effective in all three.

First notable mention is Mathieu Asselin’s Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation (1). What I liked about the text in this book is that it adds more information to the images if the viewer wants it, but it is not intrusive to the images if the viewer would prefer just to focus on the visuals. It also suits the nature of the book, as a journalistic approach to the subject matter. It gives the images an additional weight, or truth to them. I also liked how just headlines, or parts of newspapers were incorporated into the layouts.

The second book is were it not for by Michael Ashkin (2). This text usage is fictive, but I think it helps the book flow and work together as a cohesive series, even though the subject matter and the lines of text do not necessarily relate. The the bottom of each page, there is the line of text ‘were it not for …’ with a scenario or noun placed after the ‘for.’ The images do not relate to the sentences, but the interplay between what is written and what is shown in the images sparks the viewer’s imagination and invites them to make connections. I do not see myself using fictive writing in my own photobook, although I am questioning the authenticity of what is written online between couples, so maybe I am writing fiction, posed as fact?

Greys The Mountain Sends (3) also arose as an example of text used only at the beginning of a photobook. Photographer Bryan Schutmaat opens the series with a poem, and lets that set the tone for the body of work without any other text intruding on the images. Although I plan to intertwine text into my work more than this, I like the quiet mood of the images in this series.

Finally, I was drawn to the presentation of Holy Bible by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin (4). Here, the photographers make a direct copy of the actual bible, and plaster images on top of it. This collage style interests me, particularly as the relationship between what is written on each page, and the images that were chosen to stick over the top make strong statements.

After class I did some more research on photobooks in general, and came across the work of Hinda Schuman (5). Her photobook, Dear Shirley, also uses text. This is in the form of typed and signed documents, and also handwritten notes. I felt that this resonated with my work, as the images and text explore interpersonal relationships. I find it interesting that sometimes the text takes an entire page, sometimes it is a handwritten note under an image, and sometimes it is overlaid on top of a full page bleed.

(1) Ashkin, M 2019, were it not for photobook, viewed 22 April 2020, <https://aap.cornell.edu/news-events/ashkin-publishes-were-it-not-0>

(2) Broomberg A & Chanarin, O, Holy Bible, photobook, viewed 22 April 2020, <https://www.lensculture.com/articles/adam-broomberg-oliver-chanarin-holy-bible>

(3) Schutmaat, B 2014, Greys The Mountain Sends, photobook, viewed 22 April 2020, <http://www.bryanschutmaat.com/grays>

(4) Asselin, M 2017, Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation, photobook, viewed 22 April 2020, <https://www.photobookcorner.com/book/monsanto/>

(5) Schuman, H 2018, Dear Shirley, photobook, viewed 22 April 2020, <http://lenscratch.com/2019/02/hinda-schuman-dear-shirley/>