Language has always been central to the meaning and exploitation of photographic images. However, the various types and "styles" of language associated with different photographic genres have been largely overlooked. This book considers the nature of photography, examining the language used in titles, captions and commentaries, particularly as they relate to documentary photography, photojournalism and fashion photography.

The Spoken Image addresses the question of how the photograph communicates its message, with or without the aid of language. The book looks at the work of film-makers such as Antonioni and Greenaway to contrast filmic methods of narration with those of photography. Scott concludes that photography has arrived at a level of communicative sophistication equal to that of modern textual narratives, in conjunction with which it often works.

Clive Scott is a professor of European Literature at the University of East Anglia and the author of many ground-breaking books on French poetry.

Scott's book Channel Crossings: French and English Poetry in Dialogue 1550-2000 (Legenda, 2002) was awarded the 2003 R. H. Gapper Book Prize by the UK Society for French Studies. This prize recognises the work as the best book published by a scholar working in Britain or Ireland in French studies in 2002.

Scott became a fellow of the British Academy in 1994.