Shel Belinkoff wrote: > Forget what I said earlier. Just let the photo stand by > itself. I said too much in my initial post, proving, or at > least giving credence to, the idea that the viewer can be > influenced by too much information. > > What difference does it make where the garden is in relation > to the wall and the shoes and the stones? This is a photo of > those elements. It's always been a photo of those elements, > or one of the elements (the shoes). > > Why do you want more? Is it because the PHOTOGRAPH got you > curious, or because of my comments about the setting and the > history? How might you feel had I just presented the > photograph with no back story, no history? > Note that I never said that this was a photo of Marilyn's > garden with the shoes in it, but, rather, the SHOES that are > in the garden. > > You say that the STORY must go beyond the mystery, but must > the photograph, must any photograph, tell more, must a > photograph solve mysteries or is just presenting them OK? If > either of these photos present a mystery, then, one at least > one level, they are successful.
As usual Shel, you have made some very interesting points - not only here, but with the recent pictures of 'Kaboom' & 'Not everyone sells their stuff on eBay'. I would love to have seen 'The Shoes' displayed in four different galleries (on-line or real), but with four different titles; say firstly as you described, then ones called 'Recycling', 'Modern art' & 'Shoe advert' - whatever, the names are irrelevant, the idea is to get four different audiences with a pre-conceived idea by the name of the picture *before* they think about it for themselves. I'd bet on four very different reactions and comments. Which brings me onto my take of names. I normally go for forest or landscape scenes, which I give names too, generally related to what took my eye to press the shutter in the first place. So, immediately I have made a statement about the picture, before either the link has been opened or the picture really looked at. I think I will now name my pictures by where they were physically taken and leave some of the mystery (such that there is with my pictures) to the viewer. Finally, I love the concept of a few pictures - maybe as few as four or five - being displayed or viewed in sequence to tell a story, with no words at all. I expect also, that only two pictures would need to be swapped to different positions in the sequence to alter or change the story. Thanks, Malcolm
