[Leica] Mary Ellen Mark On Vimeo for Leica

[Jayanand Govindaraj]

Gerry,
Doesn't that mean that the photographer was lazy with the wording of his
caption?
Cheers
Jayanand


On Fri, May 29, 2015 at 8:43 PM, Gerry Walden <gerry.walden at icloud.com>
wrote:

> There is also the point that under certain circumstances the use of a
> caption can influence the viewers interpretation of the image to the
> detriment of the original intention of the photographer.
>
> Gerry
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On 29 May 2015, at 15:19, Robert Baron <robertbaron1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > An interesting point of view, Jayanand, and to be honest not one I had
> > really considered before you raised it.  Maybe that is because her
> > photographs ring true to me as depictions of the culture I am part of,
> but
> > I'll need to think about that some more.
> >
> > Even the photographs she made of cultures I am not familiar with have the
> > ring of truth to them, in my opinion, and I now think about the war zone
> > photographs of shooters like James Nachtwey and wonder if they need
> > captions and if not why not?  Would you think Salgado's famous
> photographs
> > of the gold mine or of the train station need text?  An argument can be
> > made that some things should allow for use of the viewer's imagination -
> or
> > sense of investigation if the viewer wants to learn more about the
> subject.
> >
> > Educators trying to teach students (or trial lawyers like me trying to
> > teach a jury) will say you should not spoon feed every bit of information
> > to the audience but leave some for the audience to figure out; it is
> better
> > learned and retained that way.  Should that maxim also apply to
> > documentary/documenting photography?
> >
> > Again: you raise an interesting point and I'm going to think about it.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > --Bob
> >
> >
> >
> > ===On Thu, May 28, 2015 at 10:41 PM, Jayanand Govindaraj <
> jayanand at gmail.com
> >> wrote:
> >
> >> Bob,
> >> Interesting. TFS.
> >>
> >> What struck me is that most of the pictures have no emotional impact for
> >> me, like the girls in the gang on the street, without her narration, as
> I
> >> am not steeped in the nitty gritties of US culture. Goes against what
> Kyle
> >> says that one of her tenets was, about not having a caption. I think
> that
> >> is valid when you have a mono cultural, homogenous viewership for your
> >> work, but once you have a cross cultural audience, a little explanation,
> >> like a caption, is invaluable to create the emotional impact! Of course,
> >> this observation is for the sort of photographs that she took, and
> >> obviously would apply to a much lesser extent for nature/wildlife and
> that
> >> sort of thing, but even there, giving the frame "a local habitation and
> a
> >> name" does help in pulling the viewer emotionally into the frame.
> >>
> >> My two bits!
> >>
> >> Cheers
> >> Jayanand
> >>
> >> On Fri, May 29, 2015 at 6:29 AM, Robert Baron <robertbaron1 at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> https://vimeo.com/80793010
> >>>
> >>> View full screen.  It is worth seeing and listening to I think, not so
> >> much
> >>> because of Leica but because of Mary Ellen Mark.
> >>>
> >>> --Bob
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
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