Photo-text art

Photo-text, also written as photo/text, is a hybrid form of artistic expression that combines photography and textual elements to convey a message or create a narrative.

Notable examples of photo-text art include Martha Rosler's The Bowery in two inadequate descriptive systems (1974/75);[1][2] David Askevold's Muse Extracts, exhibited at Documenta 6 in 1977; Carrie Mae Weems' Family Pictures and Stories (1983);[3] Lorna Simpson's installation Guarded Conditions (1989); and Martha Wilson's I have become my own worst fear, first presented in 2011.

Photo-text has been classified as a "bimedial iconotext,"[5] wherein both photographic images and textual elements coexist, forming a cohesive body of work presented in the context of a gallery space[6] or book.

The continuous shift between observing the images and reading the text results in the development of a conceptual entity known as a "third something," which exists solely in the mind of the reader/viewer.

This process involves the viewer incorporating or devouring the content, temporarily blurring the line between the written and visual components.

The head and shoulders of a black woman in a simple white cotton shift, taken from the back leaving the subject unknown. The black and white photographs are alongside six engraved text plaques and fixed directly to the wall. One text plaque hangs above the photographs and five are placed below.
"Twenty Questions", by Lorna Simpson. An example of photo-text installation, in which a series of black and white photographs are shown alongside six engraved text plaques.