A woman sits facing away from me with thick dark hair falling over her shoulders in waves. Beside her, an ink pot shows the marks where a brush wiped its tip on the lip. She holds out one henna-patterned hand toward the wall, and she is writing. Her loose white cotton gown spreads around her in a circle, and the gown and the wall are covered in a rich amber flow of Arabic script.

What was she saying? I wish I could read those words.

Lalla Essaydi is a Moroccan artist now living in New York City, and I saw her photograph, "Converging Territories," in an exhibit called "The Medium and the Message" at the Williams College Museum of Art.

The notes in the room encouraged me to think about the form of a work of art: how a photograph can expre...

Please subscribe to keep reading.