Bluejake

I've been thinking a lot about captions this week. The caption issue is related to the title issue, in that three possibilities exist for both:

* to say nothing (leaving the picture "untitled", or omitting the caption.)

* to give a literal explanation (for instance, the title above this post, or a caption of this sort-- "Yesterday JCN, Youngna and I biked down Flushing Avenue around dusk-- the light was coming the wrong way on Flushing, but I couldn't help grabbing this shot-- there was something that grabbed me about the interplay of this young couple and this old man shuffling past, not to mention the colors on the building behind them.")

* to provide a caption that doesn't speak directly to the circumstances of the image, but does speak to the emotional or other subjective circumstances surrounding it. For instance, I could say something about love and old age, or poverty, or the huge and unbridgeable chasm between photographer and subject. Or I could quote someone or link somewhere or do one of a million creative things.

After our ride we went to dinner, and the three of us got into a heated argument about the caption question. JCN and Youngna prefer the third option: they loathe the strictly literal explanation. I, of course, prefer that to anything else; it seems to match the documentary quality of the pictures that I take, and it feels dishonest or silly to do anything except explain the photo in the most straightforward prose that I can write.

There was only one thing we did agree on: it's probably not a good idea to shit-talk your own photos in the captions. Best to let the imperfections speak for themselves.

Unrelated: I'm going to be in Los Angeles from today through Wednesday, and then in SF from Thursday through Saturday. Shoot me an email if you want to meet up for a drink!