A photo in an article with a caption that reads:
Law enforcement officers during a raid of a gambling house in the 1940s. At upper left is Mike Elliott, whose campaign for Multnomah County sheriff would be financed by gambling racketeers. (Oregonian archive)
(source)
Why is it "at upper left"? I thought it is idiomatic to use the preposition on and with the definite article, "on the upper left". Is at upper left correct?
Best Answer
Unfortunately, preposition usage is tricky. My first thought was
However, any of in, on, or at seem acceptable to me in this example. For example, it's possible to say at the left, at the top, etc. I believe the definite article is required in typical speech and writing, just as you suspected. In other words, at the upper left sounds better to me than at upper left. I think the reason the author omitted the definite article was due to headlinese:
Notice that the first "sentence" is also in headlinese.