Telling stories with words and images
[TIL #29] First steps into a vast territory
Welcome back to the Tales of Ink and Light. This is June 2024 and the world appears to be a violent and dangerous place, which means that we need to be intentional about paying attention to beauty, forces of justice and progress, and voices of peace.
In this issue, i’m going back to the choice of a name for this newsletter, which leads to lifting the lid of the alchemic cauldron where texts and photographs are combined. These musings come with a few images of words in public spaces. I wrap up with a short round up of things i found worth sharing.
I crossed out many ideas before i arrived at ‘Tales of Ink and Light”. When it finally popped up in my mind, it seemed obvious — an exact correspondence to what i wanted to do: tell stories with words and pictures. Finding a name that ‘worked’ was the spark that lit the fire: suddenly, i felt ready to launch a newsletter.
« Why do we write? A chorus erupts
Because we cannot simply live. »
(Patti Smith, Devotion)
A few months into the adventure of sending the Tales every week, i think it is time to probe the name a little bit because there is, i believe, more to it than its apparent simplicity. I started with a few thoughts that had accumulated over time, i then followed online bread crumbs and realised that i was only at the beginning of the exploration of a vast territory. This text is thus not a detailed map, i’m simply sharing musings informed by my slow learning of photography — it is the kind of unconstrained conversation you could have on a country walk with friends who share similar interests (or with polite and compassionate friends who patiently listen).
« (…) in one enciphering corner of my mind i believe still that every line in every poem is the orphaned caption of a lost photograph. By a related logic, each photograph sits in the antechamber of speech. » (Teju Cole, Blind Spot)
(When i read this passage in Blind Spot, it felt like the authorisation i needed to launch into my project the stage within.)
So, we have two different languages, each with its own principles of composition, its own grammar and vocabulary — and its own strength. Even if each person reads a text in the light of their own unique history and character, the written word can convey meaning with more precision whereas the image leaves more ‘work’ or more space to the viewer. Photographs communicate more directly: they say more and they do so in an immediate way, but with great power comes great ambiguity.
Here, i do not need to explore the specific nature of each language further. Suffice it to know that they are two different languages: why and how do we combine them?
« (i liked) when the choice and sequence of images threaded through a text seemed almost like a form of writing. My own writing is done this way wherever possible. If I can get the ‘image track’ to feel interesting, to me at least, I can then begin to write. » (David Campany in an interview).
Now, there are situations where one predominates while the other serves as support. A photographer may feel the need to explain their work either to define a project in the making or to communicate it more effectively to an audience: in such case, the text is in the service of the image. And sometimes an image is a mere illustration of a story told mainly in words.
Resorting to the other language may also be a technique that allows the photographed person to insert their own voice into the story. In Dorothea Lange and Paul Taylor’s An American Exodus, we see photographs associated with a short quote from the person represented, and these words add an additional layer of meaning to the harsh situation depicted by the photograph.
« If I continued with still photography, I would try to be more honest and direct about why I go out there and do it. And I guess the only way I could do it is with writing. I think that’s one of the hardest things to do—combine words and photographs. But I would certainly try it. It would probably fail; I have never liked what I wrote about my photographs yet. That would be the only way I could justify going out in the streets and photographing again. » (Robert Frank, commenting his transition to film in an interview).
With the Tales of Ink and Light, my intention has been to consider the two languages as equals: i expect them to contribute their own particular strengths to the story. The metaphor of a folk song seemed the most effective: a guitar and a voice work together to craft a song, the music and the lyrics both play their part in the success of songs. An example of this is the story of falling from the sky, where the text and the images both tell a story of a fall with a peaceful end, but the text is not a description of the photographs, and the images are not illustrations of the words.
Little did i know that this practice can be traced back to the end of the 19th century. In the 1892 novel Bruges-la-Morte, the author, Georges Rodenbach, intended the text and photographs to be both integral parts of the work.
Looking at more recent practice, the works of Sophie Calle are another instance of a combination of words with photographs. I found this commentary on Calle’s Exquisite Pain to be enlightening on the respective roles that each medium could play: « There is something almost Freudian in the way Exquisite Pain articulates photographs and texts. Calle uses images as an emanation of raw feelings connected to the subconscious, while the writing translates them into a discourse in order to make them more acceptable to the mind. »
SLANT, by Aaron Schuman, is another interesting example of how texts and photographs can work together. The texts in the book are press clippings from a local newspaper, police reports that state facts in a manner so dry that it can become humorous or/and weird. The author and his father used to share a laugh reading them. He started to make photographs that responded to the police reports, a project for which the inspiration came from a poem by Emily Dickinson: «Tell all the truth but tell it slant». As Schuman explains: «for this project I tried to negotiate the relationship between text and image via the notion of the ‘slant rhyme’, where two words almost but don’t quite rhyme – a tool that poets, and Dickinson in particular, often use to create dissonance within a rhyme scheme so that the reader is thrown off-balance, but only slightly, and has to pause, reread, refocus and reassess the words and their meanings.»
Nearing the end of this first stroll into a vast territory, and in terms of a temporary conclusion, it seems important to note that the pairing of two languages is in no way an easy exercise. Alec Soth, for instance, thinks that «pictures and words struggle to go with each other.» (On his YT channel, Soth has excellent videos in which he discusses the question of balance in books that associate words and photographs.)
Now, i was largely ignorant of all this when i decided to tell stories in words and pictures. The project i called the drama on the stage within is as much a meditation as a gently ironic look on the way we humans tend to live our lives according to stories that are told in our minds. I wanted the reader to be invited into a conversation between a short text and a photograph: you could start with either element of the pairing, but then by moving from one to the other, you would venture deeper into the story — being told in two languages, the story would resonate deeper.
A few suggestions
Marcel Borgstijn dedicated an issue of his Darkrooms Magazine to showcasing the work of 22 photographers who run a Substack newsletter. Thanks to his generosity, you can now download the Darkrooms Magazine #3 Photostack Edition for FREE.
A new kid on the block is making some noise: the Pentax 17, a brand new film camera, is attracting a lot of attention. Wesley Verhoeve has tested it and shares his thoughts.
Can you sum up your artistic vision in three words, asked Gill Moon, sharing her own responses and splendid images.
Do take a look at the Photocaptionist for lots more on the history and practice of photo-texts.
And as you know, the French version of the Tales now live as a separate Substack newsletter at https://lescontes.substack.com
That’s all for this time, folks. Thank you for being part of the adventure: it’s good to have you on board.
I love this!! This is right up my alley.
Great topic. The combination of words and photographs is such a difficult thing to do. And yes, Alec’s YT channel is an amazing well of information. So sad he stopped making videos.