Teresa Hugo
ENC 1939: College Writing II
Scarlett Rooney
October 2, 2012
The Photographic Essay
W.J.T Mitchell believes that “Photography is and is not a language; language also is and is not photography.” (Mitchell 510) That would lead one to question where do images end and words begin? Mitchell would answer with the word “ekpharisis” (Mitchell 509), meaning that words give a voice to the photo. Victor Burgin and Ronald Barth have opposing views as to how this occurs. Roland Barth would argue that those words are written or implied, and are put there by the author. Victor Burgin believes that the words are put to the image by the viewer as he examines the photo, and that the images and words will be seen and heard concurrently. In the end, it would be agreed by both, that a reader’s emotions and experiences will guide how they “read” the words of a photograph. Victor Burgin’s idea is that the photo is a “message without a code” (Mitchell 510), and the image and the word are two separate forms of communication. If there is no caption on a photograph, the viewer would inject their own wording based upon on their own life experiences. “A photo is invaded by language the moment it is looked at and becomes an almost relic of the event it portrays.”(Mitchell) A viewer looking at a photo will immediately have thoughts come to mind, and those thoughts become the words of the photo. Roland Barth believes that a photograph has its own language that coexists within it, and he calls this a “photographic paradox” (Mitchell 512). He is saying that there are two messages in every photo: the denotation and the connotation. The denotation is the actual photo in literal form, and the connotation is what is implied or suggested by what is in the images. A photographer could change the message by changing the connotation of the photo. This could be done in many ways, such as changing the presentation, and using different lighting, backgrounds, posing, and other things the photographer can control. That imbedded message can still be interpreted differently depending upon the viewer’s experiences. Mitchell believes the voice of a photo can be unspoken or written, so he agrees with both concepts. The difference being, that a photo with no caption can be deciphered using only the imagination, which is then free to form its own conclusion. Whereas a photo with text attached, directs and constrains our thinking, and works to moves the viewer to a certain conclusion. Regardless, it will still be the reader’s thoughts that will have the final say.
In the essay, The Colonial Harem, Malek Alloula is trying to reverse the wrong he feels was done to the women photographed for a set of postcards that were circulated and exchanged as colonial era pornography. He put an essay together, with the photos, in a book to portray them as art. In the book they are portrayed as something beautiful, instead of something dirty spread around for illicit use. He uses text to refute the images, and in doing so, somehow repossess them. By reclaiming the images as pornography, and re-circulating them as art, he is exorcising the women who have been captured in the photos. Freeing them as you will, and to ‘’return an immense postcard to its sender” (Mitchell 533). His mother, being one of these victims, is the driving force behind this essay and the image he most wants to reverse.
Ronald Barth would suggest that Alloula is changing the connotation of the photo. Barth believes that the connotation is the message the author is trying to convey by the way the picture is presented. The original photos were printed on small cards, with no captions, that were traded around for the purpose of men ogling at them. They were cheapened and dirty because of the connotation given to them at that time, but Alloula is changing that connotation. By putting them into a bonded book, and using text to guide the reader into a different thought, he changes the photo into more of an artistic element.
One could imagine the shock at seeing a photo of one’s own young mother on a trading card and imagining her being passed around by men many years ago. Malek Alloula had one thing in mind after that, and it was to take it all back. Reverse the victimization of all those women, but his mother most of all. That was personal. He used the writing in his essay to guide the reader to the message that these postcards were not a good thing, and that they needed to be refuted. He said we all should understand because we all have been victimized at one time. ”What I read on these cards does not leave me indifferent. It demonstrates to me the desolate poverty of a gaze that I myself must have been the object of at some moment of my personal history. Among us we believe in the evil eye (the evil gaze).We conjure them with our hand spread out like a fan. I close my hand back upon the pen to write my exorcism, this text. ” (Mitchell533) Aloula felt that together, the writer and the reader, can work together and rid the negativity from the photos.
In his book Alloula keeps the images and the text separate. The photos have no captions and no description, and in doing so he did not give individual life to the photos. Instead, they were kept as a collection, a group of artworks. He wanted the work to have a seriousness to it that would be sustainable. That is also why he did not just shred the postcards; he felt that would be a cover up. Mitchel would call that “anestheziaction”. As an alternate, Alloula wanted to reclaim and redeem the images, and release them from the spell that has held them captive all these years.
Rachel Carson was an environmental writer who had a special connection with the Earth. She really wanted people to understand the connection between themselves and nature, and wrote The Sense of Wonder to renew a person’s interest in that connection. In doing so, she hoped people “would have less appetite for those activities that threatened the living world”(Carson). It is a children’s book that an adult could read with them, and then they both could go outside to experience what is written about. She felt that children are born with an inherent ‘sense of wonder’ and love of nature, and by sharing this book with a child it will help adults to rediscover a freshness of wonder and love for nature that had been forgotten.
Carson understood that people respond to the visual pleasures of nature, and included the photos to highlight the beauty that is all around. In one part of her essay she wrote of a particular night that she spent looking at the stars, really seeing them, when she realized “that if this were a sight that could be seen once in a lifetime, this little headland would be filled with spectators, but because they could see it almost any night perhaps they will never see it.” (Carson 69) This book encourages a reader to spend more time outdoors to experience all the things she describes so well.
Rachel Carson would be categorized as being on the same level of thinking as W.J.T Mitchell in terms of “ekpharisis”. The words she writes give voice to her pictures, but they also have a voice of their own. She has brought her pictures to life with her writing and vice-verse. The language and wording of her passages stir up feelings and emotions that the readers can relate to. Looking at the photographs will bring back a person’s own memories and experiences; they will then merge with the writing to put the reader’s subjective words to the photos. When a reader looks at the photography in The Sense of Wonder they can smell the mist, hear the waves crashing, and feel the breeze blowing off the water. Carson sets the scene with her writing. “Out there, just at the edge of where-we-couldn’t see, big waves were thundering in, dimly seen white shapes that boomed and shouted and threw great handfuls of froth at us.” (Carson 15) All of a person’s experiences will bring something individually meaningful to each photo.
Roland Barth would also be someone who would agree with Rachel Carson’s way of portraying nature. He would say The Sense of Wonder is filled with “the photographic paradox” which he describes as “the co-existence of two messages, the one without a code, the other with a code” (Mitchell). Carson has two parts to her work, the writing and the photo. Barth would go further and say there are three parts: the writing, the “denotation” of the photo, and the “connotation” of the photo. The denotation of the photo is the non-verbal status of the photo and what Rachel Carson evokes from the readers emotions with her writing. The connotation is the actual photo and what it represents. Together, with the writing, these pieces come together to form the experience of The Sense of Wonder(Mitchell).
WJT Mitchell would categorize The Sense of Wonder and as photographic essay. Some would question why not a photo novel or photo storybook, but the personal essay emphasizes a private perspective. A perspective prevalent though Rachel Carson’s work. Mitchell states that a photographic essay has three characteristics. One characteristic being that private point a view, where the photo is “a kind of materialized memory trace imbedded in the context of personal associations and private perspectives ”(Mitchell). This is brought out by the connotation of the photo. A second characteristic, according to Mitchell, is the reality that joins the photo with the essay, or the denotation. A third characteristic is the writing itself, the attempt of the writing to make a point, that is incomplete without the photo. A true photographic essay would not be complete without the photos; the essay cannot stand alone. The Sense of Wonder would not be as wonderful and uplifting without the photos bringing the readers own emotions into the story. That is the true sense of Mitchells definition of the photographic essay and Barth’s description of how the words and photos come together to form that essay.
The photo I chose to take a closer look at relates to Victor Burgin’s point that “even the uncaptioned photograph is invaded by language the very moment it is looked at: in memory, in association, snatches of words and images continually intermingle and exchange one another.” (Mitchell) When looking at the photo, it depicts a situation people have been through in many different circumstances. A black and white photo has a nostalgic quality that will evoke different emotions for different folks. The WWII aspect will bring out an Americana and proud feeling in most who like the photo; a sense of all our county sacrifices to be what it is. The act of saying goodbye, and the love and loneliness that goes with that, is something that all should understand. The amount of love and loss one has experienced will put a different spin on the photo for each viewer. This is a photo that says so much with no words.
The photo can also speak in relation to Roland Barth’s belief that the photo has two messages. One message being the actual photo itself showing people at a ship talking and kissing. That is the denotation of the photo or the readable features. The second message is the connotation of the photo and what the photographer’s motive was in taking the photo. Why he used a particular angle or used daylight instead of night. “The photo is read as if it were the trace of an event, a relic of an occasion”. This photo is evidence to this event, giving it credibility. The viewer inserts the fact that the couples are saying goodbye as the soldiers are going off to war to defend our country. Some are newlyweds kissing for the last time, some are discussing their children and some are just holding each other because they do not want to let go. That information is in the connotation of the photo and will be a bit different for everyone depending on their experiences.
All of these pieces are related in the portrayal of how a photo and language can relate a message, but sometimes in a bit different manner. In The Colonial Harem there are no words attached to the photo at all, and that is done to release a bad connotation to the photo. Malek Alloula wants the reader to see the photos in a way other than how they were originally intended. In The Sense of Wonder Carson uses her writing to set the scene and guide the reader towards a certain message. That being of the wonder and beauty of nature, and she then backs it up with a photo to prove her point. She wants the reader to relate in a joyous way and form an appreciation of what she is portraying. Mitchell would approve of both Barthes and Burgins explanation of how a photo is given words, simply because he believed that words give life to a photo. Carson was trying to make a stand for the environment and wanted to be sure the reader understood her message. Alloula did not want his photos to have life; he wanted them to be strictly a one dimensional art form, so he chose to add no words. Both pieces are great examples of what Mitchell would deem a photographic essay, so different yet so alike. Whether they are read as Burgins “message without a code”, or Barthes connotation, the photos are greatly influenced by a readers perceptions and experiences.

Works Cited
WJT Mitchell, WJT. (2002). The Photographic Essay: Four Case Studies .Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers, sixth edition, (David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky, Ed.) St. Martins, New York: Bedford
Carson, Rachel. The Sense of Wonder. New York: Harper & Row, 1956.