A single picture can not tell a story - poll

[thegman]

If you don't believe a single photo tells a story then follow the link or google Pulitzer winning photos. They may not tell the entire story but the majority convey the basic story.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...AA&biw=320&bih=356&sei=4BtiUbDLGYim9gSbnIH4BA

But the story would only make any sense if you knew context, like which war/country it was in etc. The photograph on it's own would rarely make a jot of sense.

I don't believe a single photo on it's own can tell a story of any complexity, I just don't see how it can. Even if it's of a well-known event or person, the photo is not telling a story, it's just reminding you of one you already know.

 

[FrankS]

You should re-read the poll. 😉

Anyways, can't wait for the third installment of this series.. some pictures might tell some stories!

That some pictures might tell stories is already included/implied in the wording of this poll.

If you disagree with the statement that a single picture can not tell a story, the alternative is that a single picture CAN (but not necessarily does always) tell a story.

IMO, some pictures are better at telling a story than others, just as some viewers have more imagination/information to bring to the dance between image and viewer.

 

[airfrogusmc]

Frank, in the other thread you said it was your own imagination telling the story not the single photograph. A single photograph by its very nature can not tell a story. It has no narrative. It can show you what something looks like in two dimensions and you, your memory, life's history and experiences are telling the story, not the photograph.
post 156
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2113298&postcount=156

 

[airfrogusmc]

I put agree, because it can make you wonder what is going on, as this one by Cindy Sherman:

Photo by Cindy Sherman.

Yes great single photographs can ask questions, make you think, and the really good ones engage the viewer and inspires him to create his/her own stories about what he is being shown based one his/her memories and life's history but the photograph isn't the one telling the story.

 

[FrankS]

Airfrog, in the other thread, you suggested that I've changed my position on this topic. If that was sincere, it is an example of you not understanding my posts. I see no point in continuing that discussion here.

 

[Paul Jenkin]

One of the best examples of a single image telling a story is Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother". The story is made more powerful once some context is added but it is a supremely powerful image, even stand alone....

 

[airfrogusmc]

Airfrog, in the other thread, you suggested that I've changed my position on this topic. If that was sincere, it is an example of you not understanding my posts. I see no point in continuing that discussion here.

So what is it Frank what you said in post #156? So now you're saying that a photograph does tell a story? And you wonder why I don't understand?

I don't think there is any ambiguity in my position. So what your position? I thought after pages and pages I knew yours per post #156. Can you see why I'm confused?

 

[gns]

Rather than appealing to authority (as some did in the other thread) or appealing to the masses (this poll), why not just make your case by example. If so many people feel photos are so great at telling stories and have such conviction about it, where is the example of a photo and the great story it tells?

 

[FrankS]

As I said early on in the other thread, this is simply a matter of semantics (what the word "story" means to each person) and figurative vs literal interpretation of the sentence, " A picture tells a story."

Nothing more than a tempest in a teapot.

 

[tunalegs]

A photo can tell a story.

But photography is a reductive process inherently, and the photographer chooses what gets cut out so the story may be lacking context, biased, or entirely distorted and dishonest.

Ironically enough many of the best single photos that give a complete story are photos that have been carefully staged or manipulated so as to somehow provide all of the context needed to understand what is happening just from what is included in the frame.

 

[airfrogusmc]

As I said early on in the other thread, this is simply a matter of semantics (what the word "story" means to each person) and figurative vs literal interpretation of the sentence, " A picture tells a story."

Nothing more than a tempest in a teapot.

So just to be clear you are saying "a single photograph tells a story"?

 

[jwc57]

When I was in high school, I wrote a story about a soldier lost in fog and smoke. I didn't name him, I didn't say he was American, British, Japanese, German, Italian, Korean, or Vietnamese. It was simply how he felt as he wandered and wondered if he was headed in the right direction. It described his loneliness. It ended when he saw others, but couldn't make out if they were friend or foe. I stopped it there.

I left it up to the reader to decide who he was, what he was, and if those were his fellow soldiers.

It was a story I could have done with a painting or a photograph. Like the story I wrote, they too would have left the details to the viewer while telling the story of being lost and lonely.

People see my photos now and say that they show loneliness and abandonment. I've been telling the same story since I was 13 years old. People understand the story...so I have to continue to say they do.

(Ironically, that story was based on a photo. What took one photo for the photographer to say, I simply repeated, in ten pages. What is missed is that even a 400 page novel, still has comes down to a single message. That is its story).

 

[FrankS]

So just to be clear you are saying "a single photograph tells a story"?

Yes!

Were you unclear about that? Really?

 

[airfrogusmc]

Yes!

Were you unclear about that? Really?

Yes from your posts in the other thread, why wouldn't I be?
Especially the one I mentioned in the other post.

A persons own imagination is telling the story, not the single photograph. You want story watch a movie, read a novel, check out the book "The Americans" by Robert Frank or the photo essays by W.Eugene smith but a single photograph can not tell a story.

 

[FrankS]

You are entitled to your opinion. Since the statement is impossible to prove objectively one way or the other, know that it is opinion, not a fact. What you can say with certainty as a fact is that a single photograph does not tell you a story, just as I can say with certainty as a fact that a single photograph can tell me a story. Please reread and attempt to understand my quote in your post #51 above.


For example, this photo speaks volumes to me. (Danger: use of figurative language)

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/S/smith/smith_minamata_full.html

 

[MartinP]

The questions in this poll and the other thread are ambiguous and also in a foreign language.

This stuff is hashed over in every photo course ever and comes up with the same answer.

 

[sepiareverb]

What no 'Maybe' option? Geez.

 

[FrankS]

A single picture can not tell a story. Agree or disagree.

If you disagree then:

A single picture CAN tell a story. The maybe option is this one.

 

[airfrogusmc]

You are entitled to your opinion. Since the statement is impossible to prove objectively one way or the other, know that it is opinion, not a fact. What you can say with certainty as a fact is that a single photograph does not tell you a story, just as I can say with certainty as a fact that a single photograph can tell me a story. Please reread and attempt to understand my quote in your post #51 above.


For example, this photo speaks volumes to me. (Danger: use of figurative language)

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/S/smith/smith_minamata_full.html

Frank language is important and the fact is that great single photos speak to me to but I know they can't tell stories. Now you are certainly entitled to your views but the way you described in the other thread, what you believed would make someone think that you believed the viewers mind is whats telling the story, not the single photograph. Anyone can surely believe what they want. They can believe the world is flat, we never walked on the moon, and theres a spaceman in a hanger in the New Mexican desert but just because one believes doesn't make it so.

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.

 

[sepiareverb]

A single picture can not tell a story. Agree or disagree.

If you disagree then:

A single picture CAN tell a story. The maybe option is this one.

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