The invention of the literary photobooks may misleadingly suggest that our main interest here is historical-documentary, a thesis on the emergence of this phenomenon, which is hybrid, expanded, intermedial. It s not the case. Here, there is a theoretical ambition: to provide a setting for its observation and, from there, to establish a disciplined pattern of activity capable of placing it in a historical perspective . How are poetry (or prose) and photography related in literary photobooks? We explore the idea that verbal and photographic systems (or processes) combine into a form of interaction that is not only bidirectional, but involves modulatory influences that connect word and image, for a historically situated reader. How can we characterize, or define, this process? On this topic, there are few publications, although it has recently started to show quite robust results. In the absence of a consolidated critical literature on hybrid literary phenomena involving photography, it seems to us a good idea to situate the literary photobooks in existing areas: Intermedial Studies and Semiotics. We devote a close attention to the study of models, theories and terminologies, available in these areas, to explain the phenomenon observed – the relationship between verbal text (poetry and/or prose) and photography, in photobooks. This is the core of this work. This thesis is divided into three parts: (i) definition, characterization and relevance of the literary photobooks phenomenon; (ii) terminologies, theories and models – used to describe and analyze the relationships between poetry/prose and photography, in the observed phenomenon; (iii) analysis of word-image complex relationship in literary photobooks produced in Brazil in the 20th century. Among those selected are: Os Sertões (1902), text by Euclides da Cunha and photographs by Flávio de Barros; Pintura em Pânico (1943), text and photomontages by Jorge de Lima; Quarenta clics em Curitiba (1976), text by Paulo Leminski and photographs by Jack Pires; Sertões: Luz and Trevas (1982), photographs by Maureen Bisilliat and fragments of Os Sertões, by Euclides da Cunha.