Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/09/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 09:25 AM 9/18/98 -0400, you wrote: >But, when someone (please note, NO attribution) says they need a caption >to understand a photograph- well, it just stands to reason something >must get lost in translation. Or missed altogether. Actually, I think that there is nothing wrong with this thinking. Pictures are certainly not objective in the sense that they always are perfect. Some, or most of the context is often lost in the making of pictures. For example, I photographed a woman who is a cancer survivor. But from my photo story, you'd never guess it. (See my related post for the whole story, she was GREAT!). The Florida University journalism conferences (can't remember the name of them) that the book "Photographic Communication" was based on talks about this subject at length. W. Eugene Smith, Ernst Haas, and many other pros of the 60s talk about the "third effect." The combination of pictures and words together produce an effect that is greater than the sum of its parts. Ernst Bloch might have caught on to Stieglitz's "equivalents" and shouted "Music, I hear music!" To match the intent of Stieglitz. But for the most part, an explanation doesn't take away, but can complete a very complex picture. - -- Eric Welch St. Joseph, MO http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch Women who seek to be equal to men lack ambition.