Backyard – © John Neel
I like to make people think about what they see. The story in an image comes from the response of the viewer. Captions make the image work differently. They tend to lead the viewer. I’d rather the viewer has their own interpretation. If anything, I find that a title sometimes does the trick. The viewer brings their own history to the table. It is best when they are forced to think.
I do what I can to steer the response within the image itself. After that it is what it is. If I have to explain it, it isn’t free to do its thing. If an image requires a title, it is not speaking to the reader/viewer. It becomes more of a documentary image that requires a voice to tell us what is happening.
Art only needs an inner voice. Art is understanding through introspection. Art becomes self-reflective. It is meditative and requires the viewer to ponder what is shown within the artwork. Art is a meeting of the minds between the artist and the viewer. It asks you to look and to respond with open-mindedness. A great artist works with an open mind in order to discover. The artist is simply the first viewer in a visual puzzle that requires a mental focus to realize the essense of its message.
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Rethinking Digital Photography – John Neel
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Perhaps we should distinguish between fine art photography and fine photography. Often times fine art photography is meant to leave you witha bit of mystery, and a caption certainly detract from that mystery. A well-chosen title can assist the viewer without giving away the mystery itself. However, a lot of “fine photography” benefits from both the caption and a title. We do the viewer a disservice by sticking to the somewhat snobbish view that if I have to tell you what it is it’s not very good. A whole book of such imagery is like a map with no text. Nice to look at, but I can’t use it to get anywhere.
Glenn – I understand what you mean. However, I am speaking of Fine Art imaging as a unique category in photography. Artists want their work to be somewhat ambiguous so that the viewer has to work at it to figure it out. It is not snobbish, it is a puzzle. Puzzles usually don’t give away the answers. To get it (understand the work), you need to follow the clues, reflect on your experience of what is shown, and/or use your imagination. Art is like a question that needs to be answered by its viewer. It might be compared to poetry for the same reasons. If you go to an art gallery, the work is usually shown without captions. The information needed is entirely within the frame.
John