The Mindful Photographer

Use Irony Sparingly

Irony dominates much contemporary fine art photography. The classical definition of irony revolves around the notion that things are not always what they seem; that there may be an opposite meaning in an image that belies its superficial depiction. As a literary device, irony speaks to those in the know by subverting or contrasting meaning through words that are contrary to expected beliefs. In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, when Mark Antony states several times in his funeral oratory that Brutus was “an honorable man,” we know that he is using sarcasm as an ironic tool to refer to the scoundrel-like nature of Brutus.

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