Reading a photograph

Learning goal

You will grasp the difference between looking at a photo and reading it, and be able to read any photo in four steps: by describing, analyzing, interpreting and evaluating it. Starting from neutrally listing what is seen in the frame, you will analyze formal choices such as line, light, tone, framing and what stays outside the frame, and read the photo in its context by researching when, where, by whom and for whom it was taken. You will see how different captions written under the same photo change its meaning, and accept that a photo can have more than one legitimate reading. You will gather your readings in a short reading note, and ask, as part of the reading, who shows whom in a photo, in which light and under which name.

The question

The older member hands your friend the water seller's card from the box and asks what they see. Your friend looks at the card: "An old photo. The man has a jug on his back." Then they fall silent; they can't find anything else to say. Yet the card stayed in their hand for a few seconds, and in those few seconds they had seen the man's face, his clothes, the painted backdrop behind him, the carpet under his feet. They can't put what they saw into words, or draw a meaning from it.

The older member takes the same card and starts to talk slowly, step by step, and within a few minutes the same frame comes to tell of a studio, a buyer, a period and a man whose name wasn't written. How do you really look at a photograph? How do you get from a glance of a few seconds to what a photo tells?

Context

In the visual literacy lesson you saw the difference between a first and a second look at a photo, and how the gaze is directed (Lesson 2.1). While commenting on your club friends' series, you tried an order that first says what is seen, then discusses its meaning, and finally gives a verdict (Lesson 23.6). In the previous lesson, too, we discussed how the same studio produced a modern empire for sultans and nameless types for foreigners (Lesson 26.5).

This lesson brings those tools together and extends them. In critique the aim was to guide a photographer; in reading, the aim is to understand what a photo shows and what it tells. The missing step in between is analysis: examining the photo's formal choices and its context in detail. This four-step path, widely used in art education, works whether you look at a photo in a museum, on a news site or in a family album.

Simple explanation

Why are description and analysis separate steps?

Description is listing what is seen in the frame without adding judgment or interpretation: a man, a jug on his back, a painted backdrop behind him, a carpet under his feet, an embroidered vest on him. This step looks simple but is often skipped; people reach a judgment at first glance and never return to what they actually saw.

Formal analysis is revealing how a photo's formal choices build its effect, by examining its light, tone, lines, framing, point of view and what was left outside the frame. In the water seller's frame the light is soft and frontal, studio light; the man stands in the middle of the frame, full length and bolt upright; the backdrop behind him imitates a street but isn't a real street; and outside the frame remain the man's real life, his real street and his name. Analysis lets you move from "the man is carrying a jug" to "the man has been staged in a studio, in front of an imitation of a street, in a costume."

Analysis also asks how the light shows a face. The studio light lights the man's face flat and even, but the dark tones of the print have reduced his skin color to a single brown mass; the detail around his eyes can't be made out. How a face is lit and how it is printed affects whether that face will be read as an individual or as a figure.

How do context and caption change reading?

Contextual reading is reading a photo together with the information of when, where, by whom and for whom it was taken and where it was published. The studio stamp on the back of the card suggests the photo was taken in a studio; the profession being written and the person's name not being written suggest it was sold to a foreigner as a souvenir. This information isn't inside the photo; it is found through research. A museum record, an archive credit, a publication date determine a photo's meaning as much as the frame itself.

Where the photo stands also changes the reading. The same card is read as a grandfather's keepsake in a family album, as the document of a period on a museum wall, and as an ornament for sale in a souvenir shop window. A photo printed next to a news story in a newspaper and the same photo hung in a large frame at an exhibition ask different gazes of the viewer. That is why, before starting to read, you also need to ask where the photo stands now and in front of whom; because that place silently decides which questions the viewer will ask.

The caption effect is the way the caption written under a photo steers how the viewer will read that photo, and the same frame gains different meanings with different captions. If "A type from the East" is written under the water seller's card, the viewer sees a costume; if "A man who made his living carrying water in Istanbul, name unknown" is written, they see a person and a loss. A caption isn't neutral; when reading a photo you also need to read the caption, and ask who gave this photo which name.

How are interpretation and evaluation done?

Interpretation is saying what the photo tells, what thought or feeling it carries, starting from what description and analysis have revealed. The water seller's frame on the one hand records a profession and a period, and on the other stages a person according to a foreign buyer's gaze. An interpretation must rest on things that can be shown in the frame; saying "the man is unhappy" is not an interpretation but an assumption if there is nothing in his face and posture showing it. A good interpretation often continues with "because": this frame turns a person into a type, because his name isn't written, because he is in front of a fake street, because he is introduced by the tool of his trade.

Multiple readings means the same photo can be read in more than one legitimate way by different viewers, in different periods or in different contexts. A historian sees in this card the economy of a period, an artist the studio light, a grandchild perhaps their grandfather's profession. Multiple readings don't mean every reading is equally right; every reading must show a basis in the frame and the context.

Evaluation, the last link of reading, weighs how strong the photo is within its purpose and context and what it means for us today. A reading note is a piece of writing that records, briefly and in order, what emerges in the four steps while reading a photo. A note of a few lines turns what the eye saw in a few seconds into thought, and lets you rebuild the reading when you return to the same photo months later.

Visual evidence

You put the water seller's card on the table and walk through the four steps out loud. You describe: a man carrying a jug on his back, an embroidered vest, a painted backdrop, a carpet. You analyze: the studio light frontal and soft, the man bolt upright in the middle of the frame, the backdrop a fake street, the face's detail lost in the dark print, his name and his real street left outside the frame.

You research the context: on the back of the card there is a studio stamp and only the name of a profession. You place two different captions under the card in turn; under the type name written in large letters stands a costume, and under the sentence that speaks of a man whose name is unknown, a person. You interpret: the frame, while recording a profession, turns a person into a type. You evaluate: an important document of a period, but a document that also carries that period's gaze.

Your friend gathers the four steps in a short reading note they wrote themselves. Their sentence that began a few minutes ago with "an old photo" has now turned into a paragraph telling of a studio, a buyer and a man whose name wasn't written.

Common mistakes

Summary

Reading a photo is four steps: description lists what is seen without judgment, analysis reveals the formal choices by examining light, tone, framing and what stays outside the frame, interpretation says what the photo tells based on these, and evaluation weighs the photo within its purpose and context. Contextual reading takes up the photo together with the questions of who, when and for whom, the caption effect shows that the same frame gains different meanings with different captions, and multiple readings are legitimate as long as every reading has a basis; a reading note records these steps, and how a face is lit and named is also part of the reading.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will read a photo in four steps and write a reading note.

1. Choose a photo with known credits from a museum or archive source; it can also be a family photo.
2. Describe, analyze, interpret and evaluate the photo; write each step in a separate paragraph.
3. Research the photo's context: who took it, when, where, for whom, where it was published; write two different captions for the photo and note how the meaning changes.
4. If there is a person in the frame, add to your reading note how the light falls on their face, how their skin looks in the print and whether their name is written.

Check yourself

• Can you tell description and interpretation apart?
• Did you add the photo's context and caption to your reading?
• Does every interpretation of yours have a basis in the frame or the context?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. Which step of reading is the sentence "The man has a jug on his back"?

• A) Evaluation
• B) Description
• C) Interpretation
• D) Analysis

2. To which step does the observation "The backdrop isn't a real street but an imitation of a street; the man has been staged bolt upright in the middle of the frame" belong?

• A) Description
• B) Evaluation
• C) Caption effect
• D) Analysis

3. What does writing "A type from the East" or "A water carrier whose name is unknown" under the same photo show?

• A) That the caption steers the reading and changes the meaning
• B) That the photo's sharpness changes
• C) That the photo's color changes
• D) That the caption has no effect at all

4. What is the condition for more than one reading of a photo to count as legitimate?

• A) Every reading being the same
• B) The readings being made only by experts
• C) Every reading being able to show a basis in the frame or the context
• D) The readings ignoring the caption

Answers

1. B — It only lists what is seen without judgment; it contains no interpretation or evaluation.
2. D — It is a formal observation examining how the framing and the scene are built.
3. A — The same frame is read as a costume or as a person depending on the caption.
4. C — Multiple readings don't mean everything is right; every reading must show its basis.

Summary card

• Describe: list what you see without judgment.
• Analyze: light, tone, framing, outside the frame.
• Research the context and the caption.
• Interpret and evaluate: let every claim have a basis.
• Keep a reading note; also read how a face is lit and named.

Bridge to the next lesson

To your friend, who had learned to read other people's photos, the older member this time suggested something else: to spread forty of the photos they had taken over the last year on the table and read them like a stranger's photos. When your friend lined up the frames they noticed something: almost all of them had the first light of morning, in most of them a person stood at the edge of the frame, the colors were always warm and a little faded. They had never chosen these knowingly. How do I find my own style? The next lesson tells how recurring subjects, light, color and gaze form a personal style.