A Reflection on Captions and Text.

Having enjoyed a whirlwind few weeks of exhibition visits I have been reflecting on the effectiveness of text and captions accompanying work.  This can range from nothing to minimal information such as a simple title or date through to extensive written text sometimes including full camera and exposure details such as in the EPOTY and TPOTY shows in Cumbria and Hull. When captions are present they can be place next to an image , to one side as in Stan Dickinson's New Photographic Chemistry in Sheffield or even round the corner.  If there is more lengthy text it is occasionally placed with the image as in Ian MacDonald's Smith's Dock in Hull's HIP festival, on an available (if the viewer wishes to read it) information sheet such as in Arrivals in Sheffield, or even in a video installation such as in Dana Ariel's and Bharat Sikka's exhibitions in Brighton.

When I have been developing my Body of Work I have a tendency to give far too much information and I remember, when sharing my work for Assignment 3 with my peer-led hangout group, being told that I had provided so much information that one colleague felt that he didn't need to see the images.  I was reminded by another colleague that this is a creative arts photography course and not a creative writing course.  One of our tutor's Clive White made a pertinent remark in a recent OCA forum sting on personal voice when he stated that, "The most important thing is to make some interesting work, the research and writing is in aid of that."  My own tutor Rob Bloomfield has said similar when suggesting that I need some text to accompany the images (although no captions) and that it should be not to much - a few sentences - and quite subtle.

Reflecting on the exhibitions that I have seen of late I enjoyed those where there is less information - less is more - as the viewer  is allowed to form their own opinions of the narrative within the image or series (Death of the Author?).  Stan Dickinson's work in Sheffield comes to mind, where simple captions, which gave no real clue, were placed to one side rather than with the image and also Olivia Arthur's in Brighton where some captions were placed just round a corner from the image.  Occasionally it is interesting to read more information later, after one has had chance to form ideas about the work, and this has worked well with Bharat Sikka nd Dana Ariel in Brighton where there were video text presentations separate from the work or in Jeremy Abraham's work Arrivals, in Sheffield where information sheets accompanying each image were available to read separatly should the viewer wish.

Captioning and text which I though has worked less well was in HIP in Hull when Ian MacDonald's work Smith's Dock had lengthy detailed captions.  The images in this exhibition were superb, but a bit like my work from Assignment 3, nothing was left to the viewer's imagination.  The same can be said for TPOTY and EPOTY where, as well as lengthy detailed captions and information sheets, full camera and exposure details were provided, much as in photography magazines, which satisfy a need in many readers for such detail.  I like to decide on my own exposure setting to achieve the effect I desire, not ape someone else's.