As it contemplates the nature of photography, the first part of Clive Scott's The Spoken Image examines the language used in titles, captions and commentaries, particularly as they relate to documentary photographs, photojournalism and fashion photography.
The second part of Scott's book explores photography's narrative potential. He looks at the work of film-makers such as Michelangelo Antonioni and Peter Greenaway, contrasting filmic methods of narration with those of still photography. His provocative conclusion is that photography has arrived at a level of communicative sophistication equal to that of modern textual narratives, with which it often works in conjunction.