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What have you learned from the "No Words" forum?


Sanford

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The images and threads posted in the No Words forum deal mostly with what a picture is of and not what a picture is or may be about. Photography as a record of things in the world rather than a means of revealing things about the world. These aren't mutually exclusive but the relationship between subject and subject matter seems to be neglected in such visual exercises.

 

Well, I find that people will interpret the categories or themes pretty loosely, - partly for fun, partly to make people think, and partly because they have a really good picture that may not quite fit the literal interpretation of the proposed subject. ;)

 

In my mind, you're just as likely to find pictures that reveal things about the world in NW as you would anywhere.

 

I've learned that what I think are my best photos often aren't as interesting to people as some of the pictures I'm not that proud of. Since it's such a fun forum for me to view, I've also learned a lot about how I can improve just by looking at other peoples' work.

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Interpreting things loosely is like...waking up without a body. And how do you wake up without eyes?

 

Imagine the topic being "grass" and the lead picture is a woman peering through some tall grasses. This is followed by a photo of wild rice being harvested, and then a photo of college students studying on an immaculately kept lawn in front of a stately old building. The fourth photo is of people smoking pot at a concert. In that fourth picture in particular, the photo isn't really about the pot or "grass", it's about the people. Maybe it's really about the people in all the pictures but yet the topic is "grass". That's what I meant by interpreting loosely.

 

I suppose the pot smokers might wake up feeling like they don't have a body if they're high enough but otherwise I'm not sure I understand what you mean. And eyes aren't required to wake up. :)

 

NO WORDS would be if the one starting a thread would just start with posting a picture instead of necessarily starting with a concept. A slice of time and eye. Nothing more, nothing less. That's NO WORDS. So where will it take you that image? If it's any good you will remember certain poems, lines from a song, what he or she said to you that day,...something emotionally strong enough for you to visualize it in a picture, a single image without preconceived words or concepts attached to it. Something raw. Something that feels like speech when being honest.

 

Yes, that would truly be "no words" and might be interesting but wouldn't work as well as the current "no words" forum works. Sometimes a few words are worth more than a thousand loosely related pictures. The written topics allow you to quickly discern what might be of interest to you or which ones you might already have the perfect picture for. But that doesn't mean somebody couldn't start a thread in NW simply called: "anything".

Edited by tomspielman
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Yes, that would truly be "no words" and might be interesting but wouldn't work as well as the current "no words" forum works. Sometimes a few words are worth more than a thousand loosely related pictures. The written topics allow you to quickly discern what might be of interest to you or which ones you might already have the perfect picture for. But that doesn't mean somebody couldn't start a thread in NW simply called: "anything".

 

An experiment in similar lines was undertaken by Leslie sometime back, here in the Causal Conversations forum. It continued for a while and generated a lot of interest. However I would prefer to have the no words forum the way it is right now, with a good balance of imagery and few words just to control the level of ambiguity. This keeps the threads focused and draws interest while giving viewers ample freedom to interpret and contemplate.

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