Over the course of a year, we
have numerous opportunities to enter our photographs into a huge variety of
photography competitions like the current LEICA Barnak Berek Blog Photography
Contest. Many of the published pictures
do have titles and some competitions make titles mandatory. However, are titles really necessary?
In my opinion, this should be
left to the photographer/artist. Just as
it is our choice to take our photographs the way we see the world around us, it
should be up to us if we want to give our photographs a title or not, and we
certainly should not be penalized for not having a title when entering a
photograph into a competition.
Demanding a title can on
occasion lead to some rather curious results.
I used to teach two professional photography courses at a private
college here in Minneapolis. To give my
students a broader evaluation of their work, I routinely invited various
photography associations and photography clubs to hold their competition
judgments at the school. In turn the
students were allowed to enter the competitions even if they were not members
of the association or club.
One photography association
that regularly came to the school was the local chapter of the PPA
(Professional Photographers of America).
They demanded that every photograph entered had to have a title,
otherwise it would be rejected.
Most of my students as well
as me were never too fond of the local PPA.
It seemed that most of the photographs entered by their members were
following the general ideas and tastes of the membership. The similarities were often such that the
pictures could have all been taken by the same photographer.
I always challenged my
students to use their own ideas and to come up with something different because
it would make their photographs stand out from the crowd. I was often proven right with that approach
because my students quite regularly walked away with the majority of winners,
even though they competed against individuals that worked as experienced,
professional photographers.
The absurdity of demanding
titles was shown especially with one photograph. It showed a variety of different size artist
paint brushes, one of which had the tip of the brush coated with red paint. Out of necessity, the student called it “A
Dab of Red.” The judges were quite
impressed. They gave it all kinds of
accolades. In fact, they saw nothing
that required critiquing or suggestions for corrections. A flawless photograph. Yet at the end, the photograph was denied a
first place finish. The argument was
that the title was incorrect. We were
told that “A Dab of Red” was misleading since the metal sleeve of one brush
next to it showed a reflection of the brush and the red dab of paint. Thus, they argued, there was more than one
dab of red.
Frankly, to downgrade a
photograph because the title is not quite right is about as myopic and pedantic
as it can get. Such thinking relegates
the photograph to second place status behind the title. It makes absolutely no sense. Nobody at the school agreed with that
decision.
Subsequently, when the time
came again for the PPA to visit us, we decided on a little payback. One of the students created a photograph in the studio of a
campfire, showing a frying pan with a freshly caught fish in it. As a title we chose “Der Fisch in der
Bratpfanne auf dem Lagerfeuer” (The fish in the frying pan on the
campfire). When the photograph was shown
it created quite a problem for the announcer to read the title. But there couldn't possibly be any argument
about the accuracy of it.
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I agree. To downgrade that picture because of some nitpicking over the title is ridiculous. Those PPA members need to crawl out from under the rock they are living under.
ReplyDeleteKenny Frazier commented elsewhere: Good article. Most of the time I just want to number mine, but I get criticized for that because "we don't know what that means!"
ReplyDeleteCyril Jayant commented elsewhere: I like it and I am against photos with titles and I guess perhaps I want to see more than what the photographers say . I don't like when photographer say.... it is this ....this is that.. . Perhaps we can say more than the photographer sees and what he doesn't see in that moments. Titles and caption can be accepted when it is really needed and I never bother to read them as a rule when I read a image . So It doesn't bother me. I did this mistake of titling and I learned the out come . So I don't do it any more. that was when I was in learning photography . This is good article meant for opening eyes of the amateur photographers .
ReplyDeleteMark Kelly commented elsewhere: The power is with the author whether they title their work or not. Sometimes it can enlighten the viewer as to what the photographer had in mind with the shot. Of course there is nothing stopping the viewer from making their own mind up on what the image means to them but I think to tell someone not to title their own work is stepping over the line.
ReplyDeleteIn no way was it my intention to promote not to title any photographs. That is entirely up to the photographer. My objection is to demanding a title. That is totally wrong.
DeleteMark Kelly answered: Yes I was aware of that Heinz and valid point. My line was similar but just to say that the author is the one who has the utmost power over their work and even in competitions it should be down to the author whether or not they have a title or not.
DeleteGobdulm Gob Dulm commented elsewhere: Answer: No. It's more, there are pictures with absolutely absurd titles leftover completely. The title becomes when to explain something, nothing more. It's my opinion.
ReplyDelete