Defining a True Photographic Essay -- Photography Photograph Essays

The True picture showgraphic EssayWe stay in a world bombarded by photographs. Whether it is advertisements, news, art, fashion, or propaganda, photographs are astray considered the most powerful form of representation. However, not all collections of photographs can be given the title of a unfeigned photographic essay. Even ocular rhetoric theorists stipulate various requisites for this name. So thenwhat is a certain photographic essay?To rightfully earn this title, the photos need to be attach to by a school text edition. But not just any text. Photo theorist W.J.T. Mitchell agrees with writer James Agee that co-equality is a central formal fatality for the photographic essay (290). The first requirement for the true photo-essay is that there postulate to be a balance between the text and the visual in power, reference, and layout design. In terms of power, n either the text nor the visual can shadow the other. For example, an effective photographic essay would not be a junto of photos taken by Dorothea Lange with a text written by a junior high school student. Dorothea Langes professionalism, developed through a process of technical education, hands-on experience, and multifaceted influences, drastically exceeds the writings of a young student, whose only technical education has been a Keyboarding class, whose hands-on experiences crap been the English teachers book reports, and whose multifaceted influences have been the pressures of his childlike cohorts. Although this example is a rather extreme case, it is used to explain that if either the text or the visual overpowers the other, the imbalance denies it the title of a true photographic essay. Moreover, the same is true when speaking of reference. In several b... ...hat the text can do that the visual could never do, and vice versa, but their quislingism stimulate question and interpretation, creating a dialogue in the viewers mind. There is power in the union of the text an d the visual. Nonetheless, we live in a high-speed, technological age where time equals money, and taking the time to show is expensive. So we must adapt. For photo-essays to be effective in the contemporary world, the text and the visual have to balance power, reference, and design. They have to be able to reject independently, and at the end collaborate in perfect synergy to throw the true photographic essay.Works CitedBlakesley, David, Collin Brooke. Visual Rhetoric. Enculturation 32 (2001) 2-4.Mitchell, W.J. Thomas. Picture Theory Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation. scratch The University of Chicago Press, 1994.