Interpreting the photographic essay

Mitchell starts off his essay by asking three questions with which he uses as his standard for interpreting all four case studies. He asks about the relationship between photography and language. In response to this question he uses a paradoxical phrase by saying that “photography is and is not a language; language also is and is not a “photography” (Mitchell 510). This

The fourth case study interpreted and analyzed by Mitchell is Exile and Return: After the Last Sky by Edward Said and Jean Mohr which shows the effects of bias on photographs and the photographic essay as a whole. Said provides text for Mohr’s photographs taken in Palestine. Exile and return actually refers to the life of Edward Said. He was a native Palestinian and knew the culture there. With the many years of conflict between Israel and Palestine, Said was forced in exile. Mohr is the foreigner in this duo having no previous experience with Palestine or its hardships. Many of Mohr’s photographs allow for excellent interpretation based on the fact that he was in the same situation as we as viewers are. Mohr’s inexperience helps substantially in the forming of the photographic essay. His photos are taken with no bias and with no influence for Said’s text. This separation yet equality are the foundation for what Mitchell uses as one of his interpreting points when analyzing the photographic essay. The faces of all Mohr’s photos were important to Said because they captured a time and place that he could relate to and in turn he could provide adequate text. An interview between Said and Mitchell relates back to importance of the faces to Said. Said says

The third essay of the four case studies is Voyeurism and Exorcism: The Colonial Harem by Malek Alloula which theorizes the idea that photos supersede text. This book is similar to Barthes interpretation on Camera Lucida in that Alloula takes no photographs but uses text to describe the meaning that is not initially implied. Alloula dedicates his book to Barthes and his usage of basic vocabulary. In that, Barthes and Alloulas works are very similar in style yet they have differences that makes each one unique. Alloula’s book encompasses all aspects of the photographic essay by portraying an independence of text and photos but also showing supremacy in illustrations. His final aspect of the photographic essay displayed is his collaboration of text and photographs. This allows the reader to create a separate meaning from what is implied and accept first impressions created when separation of the text and photos occurred. Alloula takes explicit pictures and provides text to them for post cards. These pictures are of mysterious and serene Algerian Women yet exposed and revealed. By interpretation of the photographs alone, simple connotations begin to form and it is only with the text that the true meaning meant to be implied can be revealed. A socio-economic argument states “Images of these women chart the dynamic of social struggle in the impact of socio-economic change on women, revealing a constellation of factors at work: geography, class, religion, and ethnic community” (Coombes and Edward

Some topics in this essay:
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