Empathetic storytelling in reportage photography by Ryszard Kapuściński: image, text, context
Fotografia reportażowa Ryszarda Kapuścińskiego jako opowieść empatyczna: obraz, tekst, kontekst
Abstract
This article contains a semantic and pragmatic analysis of Ryszard Kapuściński’s
reportage photographs, published in the first editions of his books and in his original
photo albums. The findings of cognitive and cultural linguistics are the methodological
basis for the study (Mandler, Taylor, van Dijk and others), which, in significant respects, correspond to theories from other humanities and social sciences, describing the meaning of visual messages (Baudrillard, Bourdieu, Feininger, Goffman, Lundsen, Sonesson and others). The aim of the research is to describe the course and possible results of the process of interpreting photography, which, in Kapuściński’s case, is a multimodal (verbal-visual) message with storytelling potential. An analysis of Kapuściński’s photographs has shown three main factors influencing the interpretation of his verbal-visual works: 1) cultural context dependency, 2) metatextual determination, and 3) intertextual associations.
The study has also shown the close relationship between his literary reportages and photography in the illocutionary (intentional) dimension and, more broadly, in the way of understanding the most general duties of a journalist.
Keywords:
semantics of photography, contextualization of the image, multimodality, verbal-visual messages, reportage photography, works of Ryszard KapuścińskiSupporting Agencies
References
Alù, Giorgia, Hill and Sarah Patricia (2018). The travelling eye: reading the visual in travel narratives. Studies in Travel Writing, 22, 1–15.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Batziou, Athanasia (2011). Framing ‘otherness’ in press photographs: The case of immigrants in Greece and Spain. Journal of Media Practice, 12/1, 41–60.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Baudrillard, Jean (1999). Photography or the Writing of Light. Transl. Francoix Debrix, [online]. Access: https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ctheory/article/download/14605/5462?inline=1 [05.01.2024]. Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre (1990). The Social Definition of Photography. In: Bourdieu, Pierre, Boltanski, Luc, Castel, Robert, Chamboredon, Jean-Claude and Schnapper, Dominique (eds.). Photography.A Middle-brow Art. Transl. Shaun Whiteside. Cambridge: Polity Press, [online]. Access: https://monoskop.org/images/0/03/Bourdieu_Pierre_Photography_A_Middle-brow_Art.pdf [05.01.2024]. Google Scholar
Bryant, Marsha (ed). (1996). Photo-Textualities. Reading Photographs and Literature. Newark: University of Delaware Press. Google Scholar
Coplan, Amy (2004). Empathic Engagement with Narrative Fictions. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 62, 141–152, [online]. Access: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1559198?searchText=cofrontend/components/head.tplplan%20amy&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dcoplan%2Bamy&ab_segfrontend/components/head.tplments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Ac2d9b9f3f7e5442dfrontend/components/head.tpl77f47b7fe8bd3359 [05.01.2024]. Google Scholar
Dijk, Teun A. van (2003). Dyskurs polityczny i ideologia. Transl. Aneta Wysocka. Etnolingwistyka, 15, 7–28. Google Scholar
Feininger, Andreas (2012). Filozofia fotografowania. In: Bogunia-Borowska, Małgorzata and Sztompka, Piotr (eds.). Fotospołeczeństwo. Antologia testów z socjologii wizualnej. Kraków: Znak, 427–429. Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving (1976). Picture Frames. Studies in Visual Communication, 3, 78–91, [online]. Access: https://repository.upenn.edu/entities/publication/f139af3a-39b0-4e3c-9712-4190636a118b [05.01.2024]. Google Scholar
Horodecka, Magdalena (2010). Zbieranie głosów. Sztuka opowiadania Ryszarda Kapuścińskiego. Gdańsk: słowo/obraz, terytoria.Kress, Gunther and van Leeuwen Theo (2021). Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design. London–New York: Routledge. Google Scholar
Lundsten, Lars (2007). Understanding Visual Narrative: the visual construction of the social. In: Stocchettu, Matteo (ed.). Images and Communities. Helsinki: Helsinki University Print, 281–304. Google Scholar
Mandler, Jean (2004). Opowiadania, skrypty i sceny: aspekty teorii schematów. Transl. Małgorzata Cierpisz. Kraków: Universitas. Google Scholar
Mądzik, Leszek (2008). Fotografie Ryszarda Kapuścińskiego. In: Wróblewski, Bogusław (ed.). Życie jest z przenikania. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 181–184. Google Scholar
Nasiłowska, Anna (2009). Słowo i obraz. Teksty Drugie, 5(119), 6–9. Google Scholar
Siewior, Kinga (2012). Odkrywcy i turyści na afrykańskim szlaku. Fotografia w polskim reportażu podróżniczym XX w. Kraków: Universitas. Google Scholar
Sonesson, Göran (2015). Semiotics of Photography: The State of the Art. In: Trifonas, Peter (ed.). International Handbook of Semiotics. Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media, 417–483.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Taylor, John (2007). Gramatyka kognitywna. Transl. Magdalena Buchta, Łukasz Wiraszka. Kraków: Universitas. Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael (2002). Kulturowe źródła ludzkiego poznawania. Transl. Joanna Rączaszek. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy. Google Scholar
Wojciechowska, Izabela (2008). Obrazowanie świata. In: Kapuściński, Ryszard (ed.). Ze świata. Kraków: Znak, 232–234. Google Scholar
Wolny-Zmorzyński, Kazimierz (2007). Fotograficzne gatunki dziennikarskie. Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Akademickie i Profesjonalne. Google Scholar
Wysocka, Aneta (2002). Językowy obraz Afrykanina. Etnolingwistyka, 14, 175–196. Google Scholar
Wysocka, Aneta (2016). Fakty – język – podmiotowość. Stylistyczne osobliwości reportaży Ryszarda Kapuścińskiego. Lublin: Wydawnictwo UMCS. Google Scholar
Wysocka, Aneta (2021). The autobiographical “self” in Ryszard Kapuściński´s empathetic journalism. Human Affairs, 31/3, 335–347.
Crossref
Google Scholar
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
