Images and Words.
I am sure that the mail about this picture(and a few more in the series) has reached most of our mailboxes. And as is the trend now, any mail with even a mildly interesting fable will shuttle across the information highway till it reaches the point where we send it to trash at the look of its subject line.
Now the first time I got the mail, it had more of a chronological labelling of the events(genuine or gyan) shown through a series of snap-shots. Keeping aside the statistical jabber, the conclusion drawn from the series was highly subjective.
- The passion called photography.
- Insanely stupid acts people do without getting high.
- Amazing photoshop-ing.
Now as expected, the mail hit me the second time in the day. But this time I noticed a difference. Below the usual series of the images, there is an apparently inspiring one-liner on the lines of "The will to do is the greatest. Believe in yourself." Some enlightened soul has decided to do justice to the images and replaced the descriptive jargon with some fodder for thought.
And fodder for thought it is. It has lead me thinking that is it that necessary to molest a picture's pristine complexity by drawing a definitive conclusion out of it? Doesn't that completely disregard the viewer's independence of open interpretation?
Chronological or sequential descriptions are a different story altogether as they are written to serve a different purpose, from a photo-journo point of view. But I find this dogmatic approach towards viewing photographs utterly retarded. I fear the day when Taj Mahal or the Everest would have to come with a billboard that reads "Dangerous Beauty" or "The Power of Love". Why does everything in life has to come with a punchline?
Let the images be their own words. Let them speak, make them free.
posted by emeraldpond at 10:31 AM
6 Comments:
"Why does everything in life has to come with a punchline?"
- May be so that we can learn the meaning of it in the simplest possible wat. Sometimes it might be someone else's interpretation of things and we just try to follow that. Others we try to learn from our experiences.
How can you draw a "simple" conclusion from something that is inherently complex? And that IS precisely my point. Why do we always need a "simple" explanantion? A powerful photograph always transcends the barrier of languages and reaches the viewer with utter ease.
If you know to see a picture it does talk to you ....tells you a story ....but then you should be blessed with an mind that can see thru those frozen frames of time...for the others less fortunate people who like their skies blue and grasses green (your's truly always painted the other way in the golden days [read as a child] …) there are the "PUNCLINES"...Its up to you to decide what you want
Option a) overtly simplistic conclusion dished out ala-carte where you can make no mistakes ….you never go wrong ….never stand out as an idiot….
Option b) a moment of pleasure to be had with uncertainty …risking of being a joke...
As the poet said:
”…Two roads diverged in a woods & I
…… took the one less traveled by.... And that made all the difference...”
Punch Line: “The choice though not always a easy one is always yours…see the words in bold or just let it fade …..”
I agree with Samik. Sometimes we do need a simple explanation coz the difficult one is out of our reach. OR coz we dont want to find the difficult one. Its just out confort level.
Coming out of this confort zone is very difficult and not everybody can do that.
i agree with sapta, always adding an explanation or a viewpoint to any situation, subconciuosly restricts the viewer to think with a different perspective, which he might have had if the punchline or whtever would not have been there..those punchlines kill the natural interpretational abilities of any personel..it gives the viewr a ready-made viewpoint to judge any event or situation, without putting the brain to work , think and understad by its own judjemental skills...dnt put punchline..dnt cage the mind..
I guess the solution then if we can add a hyperlink where all those interested in the punchlined version of the photo can visit and enjoy..for the rest just the photo would do.. but keeping the definitive and maybe unwelcome punchlines aside, I feel the story behind a photo is important.. maybe the greatest photograph was taken with the utmost nonchalance and an utter lack of a sense of occasion..
Take for example, the Iwo Jima photo (flags of our fathers wala photo..the destiny of all those involved in it couldn't have been more incidental..but now, we have very certain words to define it..Its all very amusing..
Post a Comment
<< Home