all photos (embiggenable)
WHILE I’M ON THE TOPIC OF BODIES OF WORK, I thought that the topic of sequencing photographs in a book / folio / gallery walls was worth a few words. The idea was brought to my attention during the aforementioned viewing last week of my Adirondack Survey book.
During that viewing I was asked about the arrangement / sequencing of the photographs in the book—how did I determine the flow of the photographs? The question caught me somewhat off guard inasmuch as I had paid very little attention to the sequencing. That’s primarily cuz I was not trying to tell a “story”. Consequently, I did not pay any particular attention to the sequencing other than to avoid having 2 photographs of a similar referent to appear consecutively.
After thinking about the idea of sequencing / flow, I realized that most of the photography-based monograph books I own do not seem to have an “organized” sequencing of photographs—William Eggleston’s Guide is a good example of seemingly random sequencing. Of course, it is possible that what appears to a viewer to be random flow is actually the result of agonizing over achieving a very organized / arranged sequencing.
In any event, while I do not spend much time or effort, re: sequencing in a book / folio / exhibition, there is one thing on which I spent zero time / effort—captioning or giving a photograph a title....have I mentioned how much I vigorously despise “creative” / cutesy captions / titles for a photograph?