FrankS
Registered User
The discussion thread on this topic has become insane, IMO.
Let's try a poll.
Let's try a poll.
gho
Well-known
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"?
I would say a single picture can tell a story. Well, actually in my humble opinion, pictures do not tell stories, but may trigger a story in the mind of the viewer. And good photojournalists are probably capable of getting a pretty more or less unambiguous story across through a single picture. I am just thinking about a photo by Eugene Smith of the country doctor, where he just left his car and is approaching the home of a patient in the rain.
I would say a single picture can tell a story. Well, actually in my humble opinion, pictures do not tell stories, but may trigger a story in the mind of the viewer. And good photojournalists are probably capable of getting a pretty more or less unambiguous story across through a single picture. I am just thinking about a photo by Eugene Smith of the country doctor, where he just left his car and is approaching the home of a patient in the rain.
dave lackey
Veteran
Friday evening, there was nothing on TV to watch, so I retrieved my copy of The Bang Bang Club and we watched it for the first time in a couple of years.
The Pulitzer award winning photo by Kevin Carter of the vulture and the starving child in Sudan tells a story...in and of itself.
The Pulitzer award winning photo by Kevin Carter of the vulture and the starving child in Sudan tells a story...in and of itself.
DNG
Film Friendly
Tricky Poll Q.....
I change my Vote to "Disagree.....!
You may get a lot more false answers...
Not into Grammar Test Polls....
I change my Vote to "Disagree.....!
You may get a lot more false answers...
Not into Grammar Test Polls....
airfrogusmc
Veteran
A couple quotes by two greats
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.
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.
gns
Well-known
I have an opinion but didn't vote.
Because it proves nothing except popularity.
Because it proves nothing except popularity.
dave lackey
Veteran
The problem with arguing whether a photograph is just what the camera sees or tells a story is first of all a problem in itself as Albert Einstein himself said that all is an illusion from the moment something happens to the time later when the image seen reaches the brain.
Tempest in a teapot, IMO.
A story doesn't have to be long. Kevin Carter made a photograph. Obviously, from the photograph, there is a young child, and the child has lived long enough to be in the photograph, and a vulture. End of story. The photograph documented this much. Did the vulture eat the child? Did the child run away? Extrapolating beyond what the photograph shows is up to each individual and the stories may be quite different to each one. It does not matter if the stories are different...but it does make the photograph a strong one for each viewer.
Anyway, what's the point of these threads about a photograph and a story. Just a portrait of each of my grandchildren tells a story of each wonderful child being alive, smiling and engaged with the photographer...me. End of story.:angel:
Documenting something by a photograph (single) actually does tell a story up to that moment the shutter is released... and it need not be long, in a film, or otherwise subject to anyone's like or dislike.
Tempest in a teapot, IMO.
A story doesn't have to be long. Kevin Carter made a photograph. Obviously, from the photograph, there is a young child, and the child has lived long enough to be in the photograph, and a vulture. End of story. The photograph documented this much. Did the vulture eat the child? Did the child run away? Extrapolating beyond what the photograph shows is up to each individual and the stories may be quite different to each one. It does not matter if the stories are different...but it does make the photograph a strong one for each viewer.
Anyway, what's the point of these threads about a photograph and a story. Just a portrait of each of my grandchildren tells a story of each wonderful child being alive, smiling and engaged with the photographer...me. End of story.:angel:
Documenting something by a photograph (single) actually does tell a story up to that moment the shutter is released... and it need not be long, in a film, or otherwise subject to anyone's like or dislike.
jwc57
Well-known
This is fruitless. Winogrand said many things, including something to the effect that photography was a medium that described something. Yet, here we are told it has no narrative, so how does it describe something? Wiinogrand didn't believe he was a street photographer, but is famous for it.
airfrogusmc
Veteran
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
I haven't bothered to read the other thread because I can only abide so much navel gazing ... I did vote disagree here though!
airfrogusmc
Veteran
Describing something and telling a story are two very different things. A car is red. Thats a description but it is not a story.
jwc57
Well-known
The problem with arguing whether a photograph is just what the camera sees or tells a story is first of all a problem in itself as Albert Einstein himself said that all is an illusion from the moment something happens to the time later when the image seen reaches the brain.
Tempest in a teapot, IMO.
A story doesn't have to be long. Kevin Carter made a photograph. Obviously, from the photograph, there is a child and a vulture. End of story. Extrapolating beyond what the photograph shows is up to each individual and the stories may be quite different to each one. It does not matter if the stories are different...but it does make the photograph a strong one for each viewer.
Anyway, what's the point of these threads about a photograph and a story. Just a portrait of each of my grandchildren tells a story of each wonderful child being alive, smiling and engaged with the photographer...me. End of story.:angel:
This made me wonder, is there a minimum number of words or sentences for a story to be told? Can one sentence without commas tell a story? If more than one person is depicted in a photo, is that a story, while one person is not?
gns
Well-known
I haven't bothered to read the other thread because I can only abide so much navel gazing ... I did vote disagree here though!
You are wiser than I am.
jwc57
Well-known
Isn't a story a narrative that does nothing more than describe an event or series of events......
FrankS
Registered User
Pretty much everything that could be said, has been said in the other thread.
Here, let's just vote. Interested to see where we stand as a group.
Here, let's just vote. Interested to see where we stand as a group.
ruby.monkey
Veteran
I'd say that the right photo can tell a story to the right person; but not every photo can tell a story to everyone.