THE DIALOGIC IMAGE
A dialogic image is never an image alone as it is always in conversation with its social context and other images. M. M. Bakhtin’s concept of dialogism gives us a way to dynamically think of the relationship of image and context: the image is never separated from the social conditions that it exists within, that produced it, and that it reacts to. These conditions could be the weather, an utterance, or a revolution. Likewise, the dialogic image is always in an intense relationship with another image and addresses a viewer as a producer of meaning, rather than a spectator or consumer. The dialogic image resists closure: it extends meaning and relationships. The dialogic image is never singular and it is always contextually multiple. The dialogic image is always reciprocal and incorporates more information than it can immediately reveal. The dialogic image is your friend because it necessarily invites you in.
