Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/09/19

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Subject: Re: [Leica] RE: Untitled #7 (no Leica content)
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 08:52:53 -0500

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.