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!
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.
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.
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 think you could like Daniel Milnor (on YouTube and his website is called shifter.media).
I used to have a project where I wrote 100 word stories to go with my (highly edited) photos. There’s ten of them gathered here.
I like to write small quotes for my photos
I do. But not for all. Only those that I have an experience that I wanna share and I think are relevant to other’s experiences.
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.
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.
Uhmm… No. I take photos and get paid for it, that’s it.
Nope, no need to write about it nor do I need a story for it.
An image is something that caught my eye and I took a photo of it. Could be anything in the composition.
Or it’s an image is something I planned for, like a picture of a lighthouse in the pitch dark with the Milky Way behind it.
And it’s not my “work”. It’s my “fun” / “enjoyment” and when I look at my older pictures, that’s what they bring to me. It’s what I do for fun. A hobby!
Sort of? I’m a journalist, so I shoot AND write the story.
Sometimes I go back and write a comment about what was going on when I took a photo But I rarely write a caption in the moment
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.