On the narrative potential of photobooks: an analysis of Alec Soth's Niagara's book

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14195/2182-8830_9-1_9

Keywords:

photography, narrative, storyworld, worldmaking, photobook

Abstract

Visual narratives have a long history in the context of human cultural artifacts. In any sequence of images, the juxtaposition of visual signs gives rise to narrative potential. The narrative qualities of photographic images have been explored since its early days through the medium of the book. Borrowing the book artifact from literature, photography has adapted it for its own purposes. Such appropriation invites an examination of the strategies that are employed in photobooks to promote the emergence of narratives. Drawing upon the field of Narrative Studies and the concepts of storyworld and worldmaking, this paper investigates the narrative construction in the photobook Niagara (2006), produced by photographer Alec Soth. The paper demonstrates that certain strategies used in literary texts are analogous to the photobook space. In conclusion, I argue that photobooks are cultural objects that offer invaluable narrative possibilities, especially because they afford agency for the reader’s/viewer’s worldmaking.

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References

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WOLF, Werner (2014). “Framings of Narrative in Literature and the Pictorial Arts.” Storyworlds across Media – Towards a Media-Conscious Narratology. Eds. Marie-Laure Ryan and Jan-Noël Thon. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. 126-147.

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Published

2021-11-17

How to Cite

Brant, Alfredo. 2021. “On the Narrative Potential of Photobooks: An Analysis of Alec Soth’s Niagara’s Book”. MATLIT: Materialities of Literature 9 (1):149-66. https://doi.org/10.14195/2182-8830_9-1_9.

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2021): Literary Photobooks: Theory and History

Section

Secção Temática | Thematic Section

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Alfredo Brant

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