A photograph's name

We, as humans, are obsessed with labeling. When I say labeling, I also means naming and sorting, but for me it’s all labeling. To me, it all starts with finding an easy way to identify things and people and is done in order to make life easier. Today, it’s all an obsession, an obsession which most of the time we don’t even realise we have. From the Neanderthal man who had the need to name a child as “A the son of X” or “B the daughter of Y”, to the granny that labels the jars as “strawberry jam” or “rhubarb compot”, the history of humans have seen it all.

It’s no wonder why the same principle applies in art. Different arts have different systems of labeling but in the end it is all labeling: writters give their books or articles titles (War and Peace - Lev Tolstoi, Murder on the Orient Express - Aghata Christie), musician give their music simple or complicated titles (Symphony no.5 - Beethoven, Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict - Pink Floyd) and so on.

In painting, we can find simple titles that represent the subject

Claude Monet - Poppy Field (source Google)

or in the case of Jackson Pollok, titles are numbers.

Number 8 (detail) - Jackson Pollok (source MOMA)

The labelling applies to photography as well. But why and how people are labelling their photos? The answer is pretty complex but here are few examples:

1. Some people are “naming” the photos for pure statistical reason. The best examples are the masters of documentary photography which are naming their photos in order to remember and tell the viewer where the photo was taken

   

   Croagh Patrick Pilgrimage, Ireland 1972 - Joseph Koudelka (source Magnum)

   

   At a Pyongyang model maternity hospital, Pyongyang, North Korea 1981 - Hiroji Kubota (source Magnum)

2. Some photos are named in order to describe photographers feelings

   

   solitude = the state of seclusion

   

   saturday

3. In some cases, the photos have numbers as names. The best example here are the photos presented on a contact sheet (remember Eadweard Muybridge) to clients in order to choose a small amount of them from the session. Another example is the method used by the great David Hockney. Hockney used over 3000 photos to create the below image and in order to do that, he numbered the photos.

   

   In the studio, December 2017 - David Hockney (source MOMA)

4. When it comes to photography, my favourite saying is “One can see what one wants and understand what one can” and this is the case when photographs have no name. One photographer that I admire and follow is Adrian Capusan who has his own view about naming the photos: for him it all depends where the photo will be published.

   

   ( © Adrian Capusan)

   

   ( © Adrian Capusan)

   So, should we name the photos? Yes and no. It is up to each individual to do that. If you think that you want to give the viewers an explanation, yes, by all means name the photos. If you feel like “A photo is worth a thounsands words”, than don’t. There is no right and wrong, it’s just the photographer feeling.