What is Scenography....????

I am very sure that not many people have this term in their vocabulary. Except a person who work on this line such as in film industries or theater production. According to Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged scenography [siːˈnɒgrəfɪ] is the art of portraying objects or scenes in perspective. It comes from Greek word skēnographia which mean a drawing in perspective, from skēnē scene.  

British Scenographer Pamela Howard, had clearly explain in her book title 'What is Scenography' (2002) about scenography that i find very helpful to student who in this line. I quote here some of her text that i think very useful. 

"The scenographer visually liberates the text and the story behind it, by creating a world in which the eyes see what the ears do not hear."

"A scenographer is by nature a cultural magpie, delighting in the search for the ephemera of history and sociology. The variety of work that presents itself is part of the fascination of the subject, and satisfies an inherent and insatiable curiosity that wants to know not only the great events of history by the precise details of how people lived, ate, dressed, washed, and earned their livelihood."

"Scenography - the creation of a stage space - does not exist as a self-contained art work. .......(snip)....... Scenography is always incomplete until the performer steps into the playing space and engages the audience. Moreover, scenography is the joint statement of the director and the visual artist of their view of the play, opera or dance that is being presented to the audience as a united piece of work."
"The scenographer has to be an artist who can understand how to work with and incorporate the ideas of the director, understand text as a writer, be sensitive to the needs of a performer exposed to an audience, and create imaginative and appropriate spaces for productions........."

(also understand music and sound as a musician and composer, movement as a dancer and choreogapher, and the effects of light and shadow as a fine arts painter and a photographer)

"......I especially listen out for the sound of the words, the "musicality" of the text, the timbre and texture of the speech, trying to decide for myself what makes this play difference from any other – for example, the difference in sound between an Ibsen play and one by Beckett. This sense of sound is very near to the sense of colour......."

So, that is the meaning of scenography. There are many opinion from the expert about scenography but after all it have same objective which mean the art of portraying the stage.   

Example of Scenography design
courteous of : http://behance.vo.llnwd.net/profiles/75502/projects/122335/755021220269350.jpg