If photography is a language, then what's the grammar?
While photography and linguistic language share characteristics, when it comes to actually applying theories and practices between one and the other, it can be hard to remain coherent. This is down to the flaw in thinking that just because a comparison can be made aspects can be transposed between them.
An example I often offer in my lectures is the simple symbol of two intersecting lines, a cross. Anyone who has encountered Christianity knows that this is a significant symbol and that it represents a method of torture and death. However, people may see it as a representation of hope, love, the cosmos, or peace. Some may see it as a symbol of oppression, violence, domination, and control.
Here is a photograph of a cross, taken during a river-blessing ceremony earlier this year. The Shard is in the background, contextualizing the symbol in location, but not offering much more than that. Here are some possible diptychs, where the second image informs the first. Each of these contains a strong visual denotation; a military parade saluting a Minister, a woman hunched in prayer at the back of a church, and a young boy and girl dressed in fine clothing leading a procession.
The internal structure of a single image is usually more ambiguous than the combined sequence of ambiguous structures, which, when taken collectively, refine meaning. Just as you can communicate without grammar in many ways you can present a photograph without clear syntax, but when the objective is clarity then this structure becomes essential to achieving that goal.
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