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.