Hi!
I’m curious about how many of you photographers write about your photos. I’ve got a specific reason for asking this.
Over the last few years my taste in what I photograph has changed quite a bit. I couldn’t find a thread through the images for quite a while, until I pulled a few out from a couple-month span and wrote about them. It was super useful for me, helping me realize what I was getting drawn to, and that in turn helped me focus my work going forward.
I’m curious if any of you write about your work too. Please tell me about it!
And please drop a link to the writing below if it’s public. I’d be down to give it a look.
Cheers!
I don’t do any kind of documentary or journalist photography, so writing about my photographs is very personal and I keep it to myself in a form of a journal. It’s mostly my own emotions at the time of taking or editing a photograph. I find it very interesting to go back to my older entries and read what i wrote. Sometimes I’m surprised with what i wrote, because I might not see the photo in the same way anymore. I don’t do that with every photograph though, only the ones that i feel a strong emotional connection with.
I go out of my way to make sure my pictures don’t tell a story.
So no, I don’t even think about writing lol
I always write a description in my invoice… seeems weird but helps years later. , More lately taggging with metadata
I hate it. Writing artist statements about my work was absolutely dead last on my list of things I wanted to do for my photo degree.
I shouldn’t have to tell you how to feel about my work. If I do, I did it wrong.
Yes, in a way; I write poetry and often have the same themes in my poems and my photographs. The connection between my words and my photos is artistic, not analytical.
I saw you falling
From grace and from truth;
It’s some kind of calling,
Like God gave to Ruth:To pick up the pieces
Of fragmented love —
Not for myself
Nor no one above,But to build of them catchers
Of dreams I forgot:
Yours, for the angels;
Mine, for the caught.I hold your pieces.
The night’s black buoy
Holds us afloat
In this infinite void.Not about them in a self reflective way, but I do tend to do little projects and put together zines which are writing around them.
More like short photo essays.
I like this as it gives context and when I get them printed it becomes a nice momento or documentary piece.
i’ve started a shot journal, but i’ve also used it as like a regular journal, but for photography related thoughts/feelings.
I think you could like Daniel Milnor (on YouTube and his website is called shifter.media).
Cool idea! I’m gonna try that and see what pops up! Thanks
Uhmm… No. I take photos and get paid for it, that’s it.
Maybe to capture some technical information about the shoot, but otherwise, no. The last thing I want to is to make photography a task that I dread.
I’ve kept a blog for a few years, I don’t usually write about individual images, more the overall process and experience. What’s really interesting is being able to go back and hear from that former version of myself and see what they were struggling with, and compare that to what I’m dealing with now. Real measure of how much I’ve changed over the years!
It’s okay to supplement a photo with a story but the moment you need to tell a story to explain what you are seeing or are supposed to feel then the photo isn’t any good.
But sadly enough a lot of people buy photos based on the story that goes with it and not because of the photo, so it’s become a case of who can bullshit the most will sell the most.
Sort of? I’m a journalist, so I shoot AND write the story.
I totally understand what you are saying. When I photograph, I do it very intuitively. It’s often, not always, only after looking at the images at home, that I can explain what drew me in.
When posting on Instagram, I mostly just write the year and place, but sometimes a caption just springs to mind when I’m looking at the photo. A little story of how I took the picture, why, or what I like so much about it. Sometimes just a general thought about photography itself.
I enjoy reading this from other photographers as well. It provides a little bit of context for the work, which is not always necessary, but sometimes does make you look twice at a photo and puts it in perspective.
In general, putting emotions, feelings into words, in writing, helps me understand and deal with them.
I once took one of those elaborate personality tests at a job center and my profile was “artistic-intellectual”. I also studied languages. This might explain my inclinations…
