Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/12/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I think they are *better* without the captions, exactly. Marty On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 1:50 AM, kyle cassidy on the lug <leicaslacker at gmail.com> wrote: > I think people are sometimes misinterpreting the concept of what an image > needs to be a success. The photo needs to be good by itself. It needs to > be worthy of hanging on a wall and being successful as a visual object. > Steve McCurray's Afghan Girl photo is a successful photo whether or not > you know who she is and why she's where she is, Thomas Franklin's photo of > the Firefighters raising the flag in the rubble of 9/11 is a beautiful and > poignant image regardless of whether or not you know the exact > circumstances. This doesn't mean that we don't need or want to know the > circumstances or that they're not part of the story. > > The thing to keep in mind is that at some point in time your image will be > viewed without the textual context, without your name, possibly without > any real frame of time reference. Next time you walk through an art > museum, look at the anonymous medieval and renaissance portraits. Imagine > your photo on those walls. If it needs a tag next to it saying "Fred and > Joe the first time they saw one another after being rescued from a sinking > ship in 1944" in order for people to say "my, that's a nice photo" -- THEN > it's failed. If they say "look at that beautiful photo, I wonder what's > going on" then you've succeeded. But the fact that National Geographic did > a story about Afghan refugees doesn't hurt Steve McCurray's photo -- it's > already a good photo, it's already a success. > > I haven't looked at the Best of Time photos yet, but I'm certain that > every one of them is a good photo without the caption. > > > On Dec 12, 2010, at 8:22 AM, Ric Carter wrote: > >> and, if a writer needs a photo with his piece, he's failed to tell the >> story? >> >> This is something we get a little carried away with here from time to >> time. >> >> If this were true, we'd not need writing. Time Magazine could thin up and >> go with a single photo per page. (Would they need headlines?) >> >> A picture that carries its story is wonderful, but one that carries the >> whole story is (so far as I know) non-existent. >> >> Our world is full of wonderful, beautiful, successful photographs that >> are improved by a caption and occasionally full-fledged, long-form >> writing. >> >> ric >> >> On Dec 12, 2010, at 4:20 AM, Marty Deveney wrote: >> >>> If you need to add words, you've >>> failed. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >