Over the course of a year, we have numerous opportunities to enter our photographs into a huge variety of photography competitions . 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 myself 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 one and 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 accurate 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.
ReplyDeleteGood 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!"
ReplyDeleteI 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 .
ReplyDeleteThe 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 wrong.
DeleteHaven't I seen some photographs of yours which did have a title?
ReplyDeleteSeveral of my photographs do have a title. In no way did I imply that photographs should not have a title. My argument is with demanding a title or even more so when a photograph is considered perfect but is being downgraded because of an inaccurate title.
DeleteI have never been impressed by the PPA. My experience with our local chapter has been very much like yours. In many cases their approach to photography is hardly different from painting by numbers.
ReplyDelete