ABSTRACT
This substantial introductory chapter has at least three main objectives: first, to explain the theoretical basis of the book’s central concept, lamination; second, to outline the book’s main chapters; and third, to situate the concept of lamination within the wider tradition of visual analysis in sociology. The entire argument of the book is indebted to, and inspired by, the work of two of the greatest cultural critics of the twentieth century: Walter Benjamin and Roland Barthes. Benjamin is crucial because of his commentaries on the relationship between the photograph and the caption and its social, cultural and political significance. Building on this essential premise, the concept of lamination explores a range of relationships between text and photograph, going beyond the caption. Barthes, for his part, supplies the central metaphor that enables the concept of lamination in the first place, as a process of association that traps meanings by visual and textual means. The chapter explains the relevance of each of these perspectives, sets-up the case studies to follow and, by way of a brief literature review of theories and perspectives in visual culture and visual sociology, locates lamination within these traditions.
