The comparison between similar and different things and phenomena is fundamental to human thought and inquiry. A single image may or may not may embody a comparison, but the act of comparison is intrinsic to the visual pair. The visual pair is a basic unit of arts-based research.
A visual pair is a set of two images that are "associated or complementary in use, purpose, or position" (Oxford English Dictionary). The relationship between the two images may be formal, spatial, descriptive, explanatory, narrative, metaphorical, or a combination of these. Since our purpose is to compose pairs that advance knowledge through visual inquiry, we will not consider visual pairs that are composed of two images whose sole relationship is one of form and/or spatial position. Furthermore, since photography is our artistic medium as well as a tool of our research, our goal is to create photographic pairs where the aesthetic and semantic qualities of the pair are mutually reinforcing and inseparable.
The photographic pair is a particular category of photo essay, which may stand on its own, like a diptych or photographic haiku. It may also be joined with other photographic pairs to form a longer photographic essay that makes an argument or tells a larger story. Visual pairs that serve to advance arts-based inquiry or understanding are characterized by the following: each image is sufficiently powerful, both visually and semantically, that it can stand on its own; the two images must have a descriptive, explanatory, narrative, or metaphorical relationship (or, ideally a combination of these), in additional to a formal one; the most powerful pairs are not merely descriptive or explanatory, but advance knowledge of the subject investigated through the discovery of new ideas; the meaning of the pair is more than the meaning of the individual photographs that comprise it; the connections between the two images in a pair are established through formal, thematic, and narrative characteristics, and through metaphor, both analogical and oppositional; the formal relationship between the two images matters. A weak correspondence in formal composition between the two images can disrupt or undermine a dialogue between them even if their semantic content is closely related.
Review the photographs you have already made in light of the required readings in Photographic Pairs: Images, Art, and Inquiry and, using your Miro board, begin to compose pairs of photographs that express what you have discovered in your research. Continue to photograph, using your camera to explore your research questions. Add the new images to your Miro board and continue to experiment with composing pairs that advance your ideas. This is the last assignment before the final project, the essay of images and words that you will create to present your research. Use this assignment to advance and focus your thinking.
Select two pairs for discussion in class and put them in an album named Pairs, along with one sentence on the topic of your research, on your FLICKR page by 8AM Monday, April 1. Post the two pairs on your own website by Friday, April 5.
Between Monday and 8AM on Wednesday, review the photographic pairs of other students in the class. To do this, go to the members page for our Flickr class site. Click successively on each member's icon to link to their Flickr page and to access their albums.
Select one pair from each student's Pairs album and post a comment and/or constructive critique on the pair.