JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div class="topStory">
    <div class="photo">
    <a href="somelink"><img src="someimage.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo"></a>
    </div>
    <h2><a href="somelink">Text near to someimage.jpg</a></h2>
    <p>Some extra text.</p>
</div>

JavaScript

var topStory = $(".topStory");
var img = topStory.find("img");
var text = $("~ *:first", img.parents().not(topStory)).text();
console.log(img, text)