The Exclamation ‘Point’

Before the collaborative project with the Photo Imaging Students, nobody had ever sent me an email with five exclamation points before. Several PWE teachers have told me that one exclamation point is too many, and would probably have a tiny heart attack if they saw these exclamation points, shamelessly embellishing my inbox.

This email, however, gave me an immense amount of joy — and only a tiny heart attack. Steven, my photographer, spoke Chinese as a first language and had very little confidence when it came to writing in English. He came to me, the editor for the duration of the project, explaining that he had an idea and a mental image of what he wanted to do with it, but due to his language barrier, he wasn’t quite sure how he could execute it.

I fired off a rough idea of how he could beef up the editorial side of his project, and back came the email with the five exclamation points that defied the laws of the elements of style — and the unspoken grammatical rules of professional emails. Steven was just happy I was engaged with both his work and his ideas.

The photobook was about Chinese hospitality from the perspective of Rose Chinese Restaurant. Although we are spoiled for choice when it comes to Chinese restaurants in Melbourne, when considering what goes on behind the scenes, every one of them will have their own unique story to tell. The suggestion made was for Steven to meet with somebody from the restaurant in his spare time, to hopefully include more of a personal angle and story — who the people are, and what hospitality means to them. After the editorial and copyediting processes, the introduction to Steven’s photobook read:

‘Rose came to Australia alone when she was 30 years old. She couldn’t speak a word of English at the time, and because of her language barrier, she could only apply for a kitchenhand job. With her accumulated hospitality experience, she founded her own Chinese restaurant in 2001. Rose Chinese Restaurant has been running for over 16 years. Rose has wanted to give up at one time or another, but she has stuck to her beliefs and kept cooking for her customers. There is a sense of achievement in seeing them enjoy her food. But surely, this requires a process. The success behind the restaurant is the desire to discover.’

I was pretty chuffed about the progress Steven and I made since our first interaction. Initially, because of his limitations with English, he thought of the editorial process as intimidating — a wall between him and his goals. But together we crafted what was already in his head to begin with, just in a different language. And as a result, I found myself more emotionally invested with his images when they were sitting alongside our new text. More so than I did when I first set sights on them in the beginning, when they were photographs waiting to be issued with their story.

Something new I’ve learned about photographs in general is that they are like storytelling, just in a different medium. Photographers and writers are practiced in a very similar art form, in which each can compliment the other; a photograph or a photobook can be made stronger with beautifully written captions, and words can be made stronger with a photograph that emphasises the text. Although photographers don’t have to spend years trying to internalize the elements of style, or worry too much about sending a professional email with five exclamation marks. Lucky them!!!!!?

• *Hey Sidney, loved this, I thought it was a really nice article, with a great sense of humour. My only suggestion would be to change the second last sentence and maybe change the beginning word (Although) to something else, or just add a comma afterwards, as it seems interrupted. Maybe just add another sentence (possibly saying something about the photographer’s needing to spend years learning about tone?) I dunno, up to you.
• Overall, it was a great piece :) (Also hope I’m adding comments right, I wasn’t sure where else to do it) Amy

Photographs used with permission of photographer