Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/12/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]"Strongly disagree. A caption can add to a picture as well as giving the who, what, where.... How the blazes can one "Untitled" picture be remembered against the visual sea of other "Untitled" pictures." - - - - I don't know about photo books but in evaluating art works the caption establishes the mind set of the juror. I have seen mediocre paintings juried into art shows because of a clever caption while objectively better works were rejected because of poor or missing captions. Probably the worst are generic descriptive captions such as "Flowers" or "Portrait." No matter how good the painting, the juror mentally classifies it as old ladies art. The best captions make an art show visitor seek out the painting from the show program. We are so inundated by images that even the strongest needs a little verbal help. For newspapers or magazines the issue is moot. The pictures are adjuncts to the story. The author's byline is usually set in larger type than the photographers. Larry Z