Find a photo essay online – blog about it. Invite discussion. I began my search for an online photo essay looking for some of those funny church road signs that one always sees collected in some cute coffee table book. Wouldn’t one of those little books be considered a photo essay in and of itself? And if so, wouldn’t you expect to be able to find some website that had collected and presented some of the best of those witty road signs into an online photo essay of sorts? Turns out… it is harder than you would think.
In the process of searching for that elusive site, however, I ran across another site hosting an “online photo essay” that tickled my fancy. You can access the photo essay of which I am speaking by simply clicking on the image included in this blog. The photo essay that piqued my interest was just one of many included on a website of “Photo Essays in Black and White” by photographer Herman Krieger. The essay that I enjoyed the most and chose to blog about was Krieger’s “Churches ad hoc.”
What I enjoyed most about “Churches ad hoc,” aside from the simple elegance of Krieger’s black and white motif, was Krieger’s clever use of captions. The pictures themselves depict all sorts of amusing and thought-provoking ironies, but Krieger enhances that quality by including beneath each photo a witty caption. The caption can be a single word or a short phrase – either way, one cannot help but chuckle. The caption beneath the image I included above was “Disestablishment.” I especially appreciated that the “One Way” sign is in alignment with “Church Street.”
In discussing photo essays in lab, we briefly touched on captions or accompanying text. Mr. Bevill stated that some pictures may have a single-word blurb beneath them, or they may be accompanied by as much as a short paragraph discussing the photo’s meaning and composition. Several of the photo essays I looked through online, such as many of those posted on the TIMES website, included short paragraphs with each photo. While that much text is useful in helping the individual viewing the photo(s) to fully understand the piece, I think that it can be somewhat distracting. I have a greater appreciation for the photos of which one can say “no words are necessary.” I am not discrediting the photos that are accompanied by a great deal of text. I am simply asserting my belief that a truly skilled artist and a genuinely impressive photo can communicate an idea to a viewer without words.
In Herman Krieger’s case, I found that he was more than capable of doing just that. His short captions only served to augment, or supplement, the humor and ideas captured in his photos. That should be the aim of every photo essayist – to attempt to fully and creatively communicate an idea without words. Trust your viewer’s ability to understand what you are saying through your photo. Trust your own ability to convey a given message through your photo. In my opinion, words serve ultimately to distract from the simple and creative art of photography and completely defeat the purpose of a photo essay.
I am curious if anyone else has any thoughts on the matter. Do you prefer photos unaccompanied by text? What about photos with short, possibly amusing captions – as with Krieger’s black and white photo essay? Are you distracted by text when viewing photos? Do you even care about anything but the photographs in a photo essay? What are your thoughts?
3 comments:
I agree with what you are saying about the photo essays that do not have a lot of writing, or possibly even no writing at all. I think that they are more meaningful, and they are what a real photo essay should look like. It makes sense that a photo essay should be only photos because the point is to learn through the pictures, and connect without using words, right?
Unfortunately, the one that I used in my blog has writing explaining each of the pictures... I think that those photo essays without words are maybe more rare, as better work is. I did like your idea of the little books with only a few words in them- that would have been really cute!
I really enjoyed the photographs in your photo essay. I definately have a great love for black and white photography and a great appreciation for it since i do it myself.
As far as the captions under the photos, I think that it can be an important part of a photo. Sometimes the viewer needs to be lead in the right direction with what message the photographer is trying to get through to the viewer in their photo, because sometimes it is not always so obvious.
On the contrary, a photo without text leaves the viewer to decide what they think the point of the photo is, which could be a good thing. When it is left open-ended for the viewer to decide, there could be so many possibilities of what they think it means and it could vary dramatically for each person because we all have different perspectives on what we see, and relate what we see to our own lives. Something I see in a photo could have much more meaning for me than someone else, because we see things differently.
It also depends on the type of photo that you have. For instance, in my photo essay I have photos of teenagers in each one and in the text it explains something important about that persons life to them. Without having the text there,you wouldnt understand the point of that photo essay.
First I will say that interestingly enough I was going to do my blog on the this photo essay also but before I started to write my blog I decided to see what other people had done. When I saw that you had already done this one I decided to find another one. Anyway, I also thought this was ver interesting. I think Herman Kriegger is a brilliant photographer and the short captions underneath do the trick for me. I personally prefer a very short caption or none at all, like the photo essay you chose. I want the pictures to tell the story.
Post a Comment