A single picture can not tell a story - poll

[Addy101]

I find it funny that somebody can say that a picture speaks to them, but doesn't tell a story....

Steveniphoto posted a picture of a man tied behind an armoured vehicle as proof that pictures don't tell stories.... Well, to me it told a story. Maybe it is my professional background, but to me it told a clear story about a war crime. I don't know the details, but it is a story. So, the same pictures tells one person nothing at all, but it is a story to someone else. This of course means that it is subjective. Some people can "see" the story in the picture, some people don't. That makes this poll interesting as it tells us what percentage of people can "read" the story and what percentage doesn't.

Converting the non-believer might be impossible. As a famous Dutch thinker once said: " you only see it, when you get it" (it was football-trainer Johan Cruijff) ;-)

 

[FrankS]

So Maybe is Yes, which is No in this instance?

This is either the twilight zone, or I'm being punked.

😉

 

[MarylandBill]

I wonder if the problem here is varying definitions of stories? Certainly not all stories can be told with a single photograph, but the majority of us seem to think that at least some stories can be.

Yes it is true that one's mind does much of the story telling when one looks at a single picture... but I think that is true with photo essays as well.. and with some writers as well.

--
Bill

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

The discussion thread on this topic has become insane, IMO.
Let's try a poll.

Where's the poll to vote whether it's insane or not?? 😱

 

[sepiareverb]

This is either the twilight zone, or I'm being punked.

😉

:mohawk:

:angel:

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I find it funny that somebody can say that a picture speaks to them, but doesn't tell a story...

There's medication for that :angel:

 

[x-ray]

Let's look at this from the other direction...can a story give us an image and will that image be exactly the same in everyone's mind...???

Individuals interpret a photo, painting, the written word and even as an eye witness at an accident different ways. Look at the varied interpretation of the US constitution and the Bible.


Whether there's text with a photo or not folks will come up with different interpretations. It's because each of us are wired a little different, thank goodness.


Yes a photo can tell a story. Sometimes the story isn't obvious and other times it is.

 

[airfrogusmc]

Again a souple quotes from two of the greatest.
Mary Ellen Mark said "I try to make images that stand on their own, not to tell a story, I think film tells a story"

Garry Winogrand "“The fact that photographs — they’re mute, they don’t have any narrative ability at all. You know what something looks like, but you don’t know what’s happening, you don’t know whether the hat’s being held or is it being put on her head or taken off her head. From the photograph, you don’t know that. A piece of time and space is well described. But not what is happening.”

“I think that there isn’t a photograph in the world that has any narrative ability. Any of ‘em. They do not tell stories – they show you what something looks like. To a camera. The minute you relate this thing to what was photographed — it’s a lie. It’s two-dimensional. It’s the illusion of literal description. The thing has to be complete in the frame, whether you have the narrative information or not. It has to be complete in the frame. It’s a picture problem. It’s part of what makes things interesting.”

I agree with both.

 

[Roger Hicks]

. . . All of my years as a photographer, everything I've studied, all the exhibits I've been to, all of the words written buy the greats that I have read, have lead me to what I now believe. I once believed the myth to.

And all my years as a photographer, and all I've read and experienced, and all the exhibitions I've been to -- literally thousands, over the last 45 years or so -- lead me to believe that anyone who thinks it's a myth is simply wrong.

Why, though, should anyone especially care what your beliefs or mine are? We all draw our own conclusions. Yours are in the minority.

You can argue that the minority can still be right, and of course this is true; but so can the majority. I have little doubt that of the many others who have replied, and who believe that a picture can tell a story, a non-negligible proportion is at least as experienced, knowledgeable and well read as yourself. So an assertion (one cannot call it am argument) based solely on your experience and expertise is clearly valueless.

After all, those of us who believe that a story can tell a picture need only point at one picture, and at one person who believes it tells a story. You have to deny that any picture, anywhere, at any time, has ever told a story to anyone. I do not think you can meet this standard. Still less do I think that you have.

Cheers,

R.

 

[rbiemer]

I don't have the props to do so but I think a single photograph could tell this story:
"For sale: Baby shoes, Never worn."
This story is attributed to Hemingway who may or may not have written it to win a bet whether he could write a story in six words or not.
It is not a great story but I think it is a story--regardless of whomever actually wrote it--and I believe it could be told with a single photograph.

Whether a single photo tells the story the photographer intended is another discussion, certainly.
Rob

 

[sepiareverb]

I...each of us are wired a little different, thank goodness...

Each of us are weird a little different indeed. 🙄

 

[airfrogusmc]

And all my years as a photographer, and all I've read and experienced, and all the exhibitions I've been to -- literally thousands, over the last 45 years or so -- lead me to believe that anyone who thinks it's a myth is simply wrong.

Why, though, should anyone especially care what your beliefs or mine are? We all draw our own conclusions. Yours are in the minority.

You can argue that the minority can still be right, and of course this is true; but so can the majority. I have little doubt that of the many others who have replied, and who believe that a picture can tell a story, a non-negligible proportion is at least as experienced, knowledgeable and well read as yourself. So an assertion (one cannot call it am argument) based solely on your experience and expertise is clearly valueless.

After all, those of us who believe that a story can tell a picture need only point at one picture, and at one person who believes it tells a story. You have to deny that any picture, anywhere, at any time, has ever told a story to anyone. I do not think you can meet this standard. Still less do I think that you have.

Cheers,

R.

Roger,

Well I look at it this way, the folks that thought the world was round were in the minority. The people that loved impressionism were in the minority. At one time the people that thought photography was a legitimate art form were in the minority and Winogrand and Mark were clearly in the minority. Not many photographers will ever meet there level. Us old Marines like it just fine like that.

"We're surrounded. That simplifies the problem."
-Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller, USMC

 

[back alley]

i so dislike a discussion with such limited emotional content...

 

[Monochrom]

hi, i cannot tell the story of my ife on one picture...no way...i couldn´t even tell the story of my 6 years old daughter in hundred pics....so i vote NO a single pic can NOT tell the story, i completely agree with the statement...

can a single pic tell the story of this Forum?

😎

 

[rbiemer]

OK, how about this: Because I don't understand a story does not mean that it is not a story; I can't read any other language than English but clearly, there are stories written in other languages. So, as a reader, I have to bring some prior knowledge and interpretation to any story.
If that story is expressed in some other medium, I think the same thing must apply. I have to bring something to the experience.

Every book I've ever read has required me to "create my own impression." I create in my mind my best guess of what the author means.

Where does something like "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2" fit into this?

Rob

 

[mugent]

I voted 'disagree', but beginning to change my mind. A picture can tell a story, it might be a different story for every viewer, it might be totally inaccurate, it might be vague, but it's still a story...
Can a single photo tell an accurate, clear story, probably not.

 

[axiom]

Negative phrasing is sometimes a bit difficult to parse. So "A single picture can not tell a story - no" means "A single picture can tell a story - yes"?

"A single picture cannot tell a story" is equivalent to "There does not exist a single picture that can tell a story", and its negation is "There exists a single picture that can tell a story".

In other words, voting Agree means that you agree that in the world there does not exist a single picture at all that can tell a story, while voting Disagree gives the existence counterpart of the statement.

 

[dbarnes]

This community probably has every kind of photography represented at one level or another.

I'll just speak for myself, but I suspect that for all of us us interested in photojournalism and documentary work, the answer to the question posed in this thread is self-evident.

Can a single photo tell a story?


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Lange-MigrantMother02.jpg

http://www.szellemkeponline.hu/wp-content/uploads/lewis_hine_phot_nyc_empire_state__2.jpg

http://cynthiajphoto.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/483px-addiecard05282vlewishine.jpg

http://www.famouspictures.org/mag/images/0/05/DDay-robert-capa.jpg

http://electricartists.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/07/05/franklin.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_-UbINYgejY/T5Rhz8SVfAI/AAAAAAAAB4w/SPgESa6UCdw/s1600/earthrise.jpg

http://www.airdisaster.com/photos/wtc/3.jpg

http://uploads.static.vosizneias.com/2009/08/mirt.jpg

 

[Souljer]

Hi,

Quoting myself from the other thread...

:bang: <- (...wondering if this tells a story...)

 

[Souljer]

Hi,

Quoting myself from the other thread...

:bang: <- (...wondering if this tells a story...)

🙂