Why I Don’t Title My Photographs
What’s in a name?
I am participating in an online workshop now and for the next 4 weeks. As part of the workshop, we get various photo assignments and then post our “homework” on the workshop website.
This isn’t a “how to take photos” workshop — it’s about finding your inner creative voice and letting it speak up.
Most people title their images — and not just something like “Assignment 1” or “Week 2 Exercise.” While I don’t say anything to my fellow participants, I find most titles bothersome.
The Descriptive Title
Sometimes, and not necessarily in the workshop, I’ll see titles like Woman in the Rain with an Umbrella. I’ll give you one guess what the photo shows. If you didn’t say “a woman in the rain with an umbrella” stop reading this.
I’m sorry, but they could have left the title off and I’d get what the image was all about at a surface level. But by giving the work that title, I’m left thinking that the photographer was simply documenting that when it rained, a woman used an umbrella — and the title is redundant.
If the intent was something deeper, the photographer has kept me from wanting to ponder it, because they directed my imagination to the superficial subjects. And that was disappointing as I could…
