John Mason <profmason@yahoo.com> writes: > Jeff posted the URL to his photo essay, of sorts: > > http://www.spirer.com/images/thewall/ > > First of all, Jeff, this is a strong set of pics. > Interesting as images, in and of themselves. The > documentary value is a bonus. I'm not a big fan of rock music, I barely know what "The Wall" is (don't think I've ever actually listened to it), and I found the pictures interesting. So yes, they have value as photos beyond their documentary value. > I'd like to talk about the photos as a group, as an > essay. Or at least pose questions, since I hope to > put together a somewhat similar set of essays on the > web in the near future. > > Let me start with the easy questions/issues and move > to the ones that are more difficult for me to > formulate. Please don't interpret any of these as > hostile. I'm curious about how you went approached > the project. > > Wouldn't a page of thumbnails help the viewer orient > himself or herself, serving as an introduction of > sorts? That didn't even occur to me. But it probably should have. A thumbnail page helps viewers pick and choose, to organize the selection to their own taste, or to view only part of it. One doesn't always want to encourage that approach to a collection of photos. Or maybe it was just another thing "to do" and the time got allocated elsewhere; I'm just speculating, not having access to the inside of Jeff's head. > I wonder why you chose to size the images so that the > viewer has to scroll the image to see it in its > entirety. Would it be better to be able to see the > whole image at once? Now I'm confused. I could see the entire images at once, and I don't even run my browser windows full-screen. > You clearly believe that the images speak for > themselves, that no text is necessary. I have no > problem with that, in general. But I see this essay > as more about the images than the performance. I'm > not sure I get much of a sense of who is performing > what. (Others may, and probably will, disagree.) How > interested were you in the story-telling, the > documentary aspects of the essay? I know that > story-telling need not be direct or literal. I found the titles to relate to the images and add to the experience. [snip] > I imagine that this is the sort of thing 18-year-olds > get excited about in Photo Essay 101. Never got a > chance to take that course. This seems gratuitously nasty to me, especially when directed at a photographer of Jeff's stature. It's hard not to interpret this as hostile, despite your introductory plea. (and Jeff, at least, will remember that I'm not shy about criticizing those of greater stature than myself). -- David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b@dd-b.net / New TMDA anti-spam in test John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net Book log: http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/Ouroboros/booknotes/ Photos: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/
