ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION In this chapter we will address the way photographs relate to words. Photographs appear in many different formats and we will focus on some key examples which will enable you to think more deeply about the way they are used. The chapter questions whether photography is itself a kind of language with its own syntactic structures and powers of communication or whether it is something quite different, with a life of its own outside verbal discourse. Are photographs self-evidently different to other systems of communication? Is language intrusive or an unnecessary constraint upon the purity of the photographic image? Casual reference to photography as a language allows uncertainty: are we speaking literally or metaphorically? Does photography speak to us in a language-like way? Key concepts are explained as we study the way captions, titles and other verbal forms interact with photographs.
