L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L JJ4TJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L It is understandable for a photographer, whose main intention it is to communicate visually through photographs, to be hesitant when it comes to using text. One can question, `If the photograph needs reams of text to explain it, then is the photograph really doing its job?' Take a minute to reflect upon the photographs we experience in daily life and think about the role of text in relation to the photograph and vice versa. An advertising campaign may take several months, or even years, to reach the point where an audience can recognize a brand through the style and subject of images alone. Adverts therefore use slogans, captions, titles and so on to help the audience place the context of the image: this approach can also be effective in other forms of photographic work. There are occasions when a simple explanatory sentence will help the audience understand what is going on in the photograph, in a way that adds to the picture rather than negating or reducing the power of the image. Shades of interpretation In her book Zoo (1996), comprised of 74 black-and-white photographs of animals in zoos, Britta Jaschinski includes a short piece of prose, interestingly at the back of the book as a postscript. In it she writes, `The uneasy paradoxes inherent in zoos have led me to discover aspects of myself, the animals and of a society that feels a need to confine. A stream of emotive, social and psychological associations has swept through my lens and it is precisely because of the complexities that I would never wish my images to be didactic or even complete. They cannot illustrate but do seem to embody those strains of unease, which I ­ and perhaps many of us ­ feel. The intention is to allow shades of interpretation, so that if any of my feelings, impressions and ways of seeing reflect some truth, it will be recognized by the viewer.' Each photograph is simply captioned with its plate number, the place and year e.g. `70. San Diego 1995'. The simplicity of each caption allows the viewer to work with the profundity of each image at a personal and emotive level. The merely informative and factual caption could be said to help prevent any `didactic' intention as to the audience's interpretation, in this way the photographer is encouraging the audience to respond to the visual language alone. Using text `I think that what you've got to do is discover the essential truth of the situation, and have a point of view about it.' Burt Glinn, American Magnum photographer