Road near Sweetwater Valley, Western Colorado, 2007.
Photo sharing and blogging offer more context to still images and
I think they’re popular because viewers have a fascination not
only with certain still images, but also the back story.
Shortly after the composition captures them, viewers start digging for
that information just outside the frame’s edges.
Not long ago, Annie Leibovitz’s photograph of Queen Elizabeth II was
an instance where people seemed to want to know what happened when
the shutter wasn’t firing.
Technical information about particular images is another instance when
viewers look beyond a photograph.
Dave Hobby’s blog Strobist is successful because people want to learn the
techniques behind the images, but, I think the stories behind some of Florida
nature photographer John Moran’s pictures are interesting even if you have
no desire to photograph anything.
Lawrence Schiller
Last Sunday’s edition of The Times Magazine features a story about
photojournalistLawrence Schiller, whose current exhibition, American
Icons, is showing at Asprey, London.
Captions accompanying some of Schiller’s images recount his first
meeting with the Jackson Five, his surprise at catching Pat Nixon’s
tears as she reacted to her husband Richard’s failed bid for president
and Paul Newman’s insecurities as an actor.
The Times’ story.
She wrote: “For Schiller these images are a window on an era when
people had a more positive outlook – an era he wants to see return,
and believes that Obama will herald.”
What the images mean to the photographer that shot them is often a
beautiful backstory.
Pictures keep telling
As they get older many of my favorite pictures which I shot become
more personal.
They are not just about the what’s framed.
Yesterday’s post featured a couple pictures I shot in 2007 near
western Colorado’s Sweetwater Valley.
These images are more than landscapes to me. They are about
living one summer 10 miles from running water.
They are about going for a 10 mile run after work. They tell stories
that deal only indirectly with what I photographed.
Charged 