Whose "Thousand Words?" (Or, Captions of Industry)

[amateriat]

I got a look at this just now, and it got me thinking about the age-old problem of photo-captioning, which is an especially large mine field to dance on in the world of journalism, where's one person's on-the-ground statement of "facts" becomes someone else's biased propaganda. For years, I had a fun game of asking people to match a caption to a given front-page photo of a given newspaper whenever a major event was covered by most or all the usual New York suspects: Daily News, Newsday, New York Post. (I'm speaking strictly about the tabs here...the Times doesn't exactly fit in.) Often the same newsfeed image, but, oh, my, the captions...


- Barrett

 

[pachuco]

Interesting article, thanks for sharing that!

 

[adji_jo]

brilliant article... we don't see images as they are, we see them as the values we gave to them

 

[-doomed-]

brilliant article... we don't see images as they are, we see them as the values we gave to them

Its pretty amazing how that works out isn't it ?

Great article, its funny(in a sick sort of way) how spin can be added to tip things one way or the other depending on who is authoring that spin.

 

[morback]

A bit too blunt in the examples. But that's exactly what I used to read in the papers and why I don't read them anymore.

Also why discussions about truth in photography are amusing.

 

[MartinL]

Thanks. Far too little discussion about captions. It's not just a photojournalism issue, but spans the entire range of displayed photos. Captions should briefly identify the subject or the context and leave the conclusion for the viewer. If the viewer can't be trusted, or doesn't have enough information, then it's up to the photographer (editor, etc) to give the information in an accompanying piece, but not present it as a caption which is more like a title and more credible if neutral in tone.

So, in the "thought experiment" in the referenced piece, the correct captions for all three might be "Street in Tyre, southern Lebanon, Date" The more detailed description that follows is properly an accompanying news narrative of a verifiable event. The final "spin" turns the news into an editorial or opinion.

Less weighty (but just as annoying) captioning errors abound in family and street photography. "A Lonely Lane at Dawn" tells you about me; wheres, "Jones Road, 5:45 AM" identifies the photo. I prefer the latter. If the photo evokes loneliness in the viewer, the caption isn't needed. If it doesn't evoke loneliness, maybe it's not such a great photo. Likewise, I prefer "Spot at 6 weeks," to "Isn't he the cutiest little puppy you have ever seen?"