An Investigation into the Methods of Text Function in the Photo-Text Works of Iranian photographers.

Texts has always been an inseparable particle of remarkable a proportion of Iranian photographers’ works. With respect to the lack of an investigation into the position of texts in the Photo-Text works of Iranian photographers, the present study aims at Investigation into the Methods of Text Function in the Photo-Text Works of Iranian photographers and revealing their semiotic relationship. This article,the data of which was collected by descriptive-analytical research method,aims to answer questions regarding the identifiability of a structured relationship in the co-existence of text and photo in Iranian artistic photography, how photographers turned the tension of this relationship into the identity of the Photo-Text,in what groups the works define the Photo-Text identity, in what levels of signification and syntagmatic texts act in Photo-Text works of Iranian photographers, and to what category and what decades most of the works belong.

After a semiotic study of the relationship of the text and photo,among different co-existences of text and photo,Photo-Text was defined as a work with a structure consisting of text and photo in which the text is simultaneously a Part of an artwork and a Component;the text is photographed,or is added to the photo by the photographer with arrangements after photographing, and becomes a visible and possibly readable component of the photo,and visual and textual signs at the same time form the ultimate meaning of the work. Taking this definition into account,photo collections of Iranian photographers were investigated,and their Photo-Texts were identified.By studying the obtained statistical population,and generalizing and tracking the proposed semiotic concepts,the works were categorized,and the common visual capacities along with the characteristics of each category were introduced.

Based on text signification level, and taking into account the photographer’s arrangements in using texts in photos, Photo-Text of Iranian photographers were divided into three categories,namely Idea-Oriented, Text Images, and Added. Text in Text Images and Added photo-texts is readable, and the difference is in the methods of taking and adding texts to the photo;however, in Idea-Oriented photos, the text lacks linguistic aspects, or has the least of them. By studying the collections of each, their common visual capacities were identified and re-divided. Added photo-texts and Text Images have the most number in Photo-Text works of Iranian photography.The text plays a role in them at the level of Linguistic signification and in all levels of syntagmatic by participating in the Locative syntagmatic level.In Idea-Oriented Photo-Texts,the level of non-linguistic signification of the text appears in the levels of syntagmatic in-Time, Simultaneity, Locative and sometimes only in the Locative syntagmatic level. Hence, in most of the Photo-Texts of Iranian photographers,text acts in readable and simultaneously visual levels,linguistic signification level, and in Locative signification level, along with other association levels of it.

Based on the number,Photo-Texts have been created in 1380s, 1390s, 1370s, 1360s, 1400s, and 1350s. Among all, the most works photographed are in the category of Idea-Oriented Photo-Texts and Text Images, in 1380s, and then in Added in 1390s. Overall, most of the Photo-Texts of Iranian photographers were taken in 1380s.