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

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Faculty Member of Photography Department, Faculty of Art, University of Neyshabur, Neyshabur. Iran.

Abstract

Text has always been an inseparable part of a significant portion of Iranian photographers’ works. Given the lack of an investigation into the position of texts in the Photo-Text works of Iranian photographers, we aim to investigate the methods of text function in the Photo-Text works of Iranian photographers and to reveal their semiotic relationship. The data was collected by a descriptive-analytical research method, and the aim is to answer the questions regarding the identifiability of a structured relationship in the co-existence of text and photograph in Iranian artistic photography, how photographers turned the tension of this relationship into the identity of the Photo-Text, how the works are grouped to define the Photo-Text identity, in what levels of signification and syntagmatic the text functions in the Photo-Text works of Iranian photographers, and how the works are categorized across different decades. After a semiotic study of the relationship between the text and photograph, among different co-existences of them, Photo-Text was defined as a work in which the text is simultaneously a part of an artwork and a component; the text is photographed, or is added to the photograph by the photographer through post-photographic arrangements, and becomes a visible and possibly readable component of the photograph, and visual and textual signs form the ultimate meaning of the work. Given this definition, 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 photographs, Iranian photographers' Photo-Texts were divided into three categories: 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 photograph; however, in the Idea-Oriented category, the text lacks linguistic aspects, or has the least of them. By studying the collections of each, their common visual capacities were identified and reclassified. Added Photo-Texts and Text Images have the most frequent presence among 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 as both a readable and visual element, functioning at the linguistic signification level and the locative syntagmatic level, along with other associative levels. Based on the number, Photo-Texts have been created in the 1350s to 1400s. Among all, the most photographic works are in the category of Idea-Oriented Photo-Texts and Text Images in the 1380s, and then in Added in the 1390s. Overall, most of the Photo-Texts of Iranian photographers were taken in the 1380s.

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References

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Journal of Fine Arts: Visual Arts
Volume 30, Issue 3
September 2025
Pages 23-39

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