INTERACTION

VERBAL/VISUAL
(Excerpted From A Book By Carl Chiarenza)

Does a photograph need words? Sometimes a photograph does and

sometimes it does not. The answer lies at the end of many questions:
Who is the photographer, what is his purpose; where is the photograph to
be seen; who is the spectator, and what does he want; is the photograph
to be viewed alone, in a sequence, or with a story; is the photograph
editorial, journalistic, documentary, or a work of art; and what will the word
or words do for or to the photograph?

Title: (Photographic usage in the United States): an identification, stating

of whom or what, where and when a photograph was made. A title is
static. It has no significance apart from its photograph.

Caption: briefly stated information, usually occupying no more than four

short lines, which accompanies a photograph, adds to our understanding
of the image, and often influences what we think of it. A caption is dynamic;
it develops title information into why and how along a line of action. It
makes use of the connotations of words to reinforce the connotations of
the photograph. It loses half of its significance when divorced from its
photograph.

Text: main literary statement accompanying a series of photographs,

usually presenting information about the theme and its background not
contained in the photographs and captions, Text, no matter how closely
related to the photographs, is a complete and independent statement of
words.

There appear to be four main forms of the caption.

There is the ENIGMATIC CAPTION, a catch phrase torn from the text and
placed under a single photograph.
Then there is the CAPTION AS MINIATURE ESSAY. This again usually
accompanies a single photograph and comprises with it a complete and
independent unit.

The NARRATIVE CAPTION is of course, overwhelmingly the common

contemporary form and is familiar to everybody through magazine
journalism. It directs attention into the photograph, usually beginning with
a colorful phrase in boldface type, then narrating what goes on in the
photograph, and ending with the commentary. In a photo-story, it acts as
bridge between text and photograph.

The ADDITIVE CAPTION: It does not state or narrate some aspect of the
photograph; it leaps over facts and adds a new dimension. It combines its
own connotations with those in the photograph to produce a new image in
the mind of the spectator – sometimes an image totally unexpected and
unforeseen, which exists in neither words nor photographs but only in their
juxtaposition.

The same photograph may fit well into many different situations with
different types of verbal accompaniment. The same photograph can also
hold its own without any words. To draw a simile: A solo musical
composition may be heard with or without accompaniment. The resulting
effect on the listener cannot be the same; it can be similar. The
accompaniment can also change the effect completely; so presentation is
most important. The composer usually decides this fate – so should the
photographer.

Let us take one photograph and follow it through a series of combinations

and experience the differences for ourselves.
With Title: Chicken Coop, Rochester, New York, 1956
The Enigmatic Caption
– bringing to mind the north star in the dark night sky.

The Narrative Caption

DESIGN: Design can be found almost anywhere in natural and man-made objects.
Here is a segment taken from an old chicken coop; a segment showing a feeling of
inherent design. It is for an inspiration such as this that the artist is constantly on
the lookout.

As Miniature Essay

A simple wall in a simple structure, yet it has so much to say; beyond this wall
chickens are kept sheltered from rough weather; here they find a place to rest and
bring up a family; from this family human beings are fed and kept alive to build new
shelters for new chickens; the cycle goes on.
The Additive Caption

From death and decay rises a new source of life.

From darkness comes the brightest light.

With text

The Story of a Family

It has been standing on that land for eighty-five years. The walls carry with them
many tales about the elderly couple that brought them into existence in that
summer of 1872. The couple came to the United States from Italy in the early part
of that year and cleared the land for farming. Chickens have lived and produced
and died behind this wall and the wall has witnessed them and noted them.

Three generations have passed by this wall, each adding its impressions to the
tale. It stands there like a bank of pulsating light: The wall is dark, and almost
black. The door is rich in the texture of age and wear. A window is broken, as if in
one of many battles. The center window glows against the darkness, bringing to
mind the north star in the dark night sky; it seems to grow overcoming the dark
wall.

Activity bubbles forth from the plant life growing out of the decaying wood and
earth below. Here is the youngest generation, growing, feasting on the weathered
wood for nourishment; here is the will to survive, to overcome, to make itself
manifest.
Words can change the meaning of a photographic image and we should
realize this when we encounter any such combination. Propaganda many
times makes use of words with pictures to slant the opinion of the public,
for the public is vulnerable and fails to see other possibilities in the
photograph. For some audiences where a need is apparent for a push in a
certain direction, the addition of words will be a considerable help. Here
the spectator is made to think and associate by necessity the words with
the picture, thereby leading to an experience—whether conscious or not
Words have a definite effect on the photograph or photographs with which they
are combined. They serve as informers, as directors and convertors. The
addition of words can force the reluctant spectator to think and associate; this is
not the only function of the combination. Here is a new medium that combines
two of the most important older mediums: words (prose and poetry: the verbal)
and pictures (photography: the visual). The interaction provides new frontiers to
be explored for new experiences; of which the Sequence is only one.

We have seen the basic combinations of words and pictures and how they
influence the spectator. There is another combination that evolves from
the basic structures. This variation is called: the Sequence.
The Sequence is a group of photographs (usually between four and
twenty) that stand together and state their message in something of the
manner of movie frames; each acts upon the other and together they
evolve an experience. Again, like the movies, they can have language
accompaniment or be silent.