As you may be reading this without thought you are reading the words on the page from left to right, top to bottom. As you look at a photograph you may be doing the same. Why?
Different cultures and languages are taught to read one way or another whether it is top to bottom, left to right or right to left. As this article is in English chances are you will be reading a photograph in a left to right, top to bottom orientation. Okay, that’s cool, but what about other cultures?
In contrast to the Western Cultures and the English language the Arabic languages are also line oriented but will read from right to left, while on the other scale Asian languages such as Japanese and Chinese are read in a column format. This means they read from top to bottom and from the right side to the left side.
Great! You just learned how other cultures read or interpret and I bet by now you are asking how on Earth this pertains to a photograph. So similarly western cultures will scan an image from the top- left area of a photograph and scan to the right, then move down and repeat. On the other side of things people of Arabic culture will first look at the top right of a photograph and scan to the left before going to the net line or section of the photo. People of Asian culture generally begin interpreting from the top left section of a photo and scan downwards.
\“Why did I need to know this?\” you may by asking yourself. Well... the small way on how a culture read or interprets a photo will affect how you shoot in the future. If you plan on making photography a career and get some clients along the way you may be needed to look at some of their cultural background to shoot in a style that will affect their culture and ultimately open you up to more opportunities.
Ultimately you will want to compose your photos in a where you are able to guide the reader exactly where you want, regardless of culture background.
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