You read the text, now what do you think of the photos?

©Torbjørn Rødland

"... but if a photographer is producing a project book I think they should be careful with text. Sometimes it's necessary, to open up a project, to help free it from conventional perception. An interview is always clarifying, but the three-page catalogue essays you see everywhere are no fun. I don't read them. They're like the liner-notes on LPs from the 1960s. You know why they're written, and they carry no weight. " from Shane Lavelette's interview with photographerr Torbjørn Rødland courtesy photo-eye Magazine

This interview, in addition to being outstanding and loaded with wonderful quotes, brings up the issue that I did not address with the "read the text" comment in the previous post. I See Angels Everyday; The Pond; Ghetto and Chicago all have essays, you can elect to read or do as Rødland does skip this extra info and read only the images.

Arguably, the most successful use of text accompanying images is Jim Dine and Diana Michener's 3 Poems. Many of the pages have text printed at the bottom of the page, one of the 3 poems possibly, overlayed on the images. It is blatant and gives the images another signification.

Text has a place and it is usually not adjacent to the photos. Text applies meaning.

Some more quotes to share from the interview:
"A cliche is only interesting if it contains a hidden truth"--Torbjørn Rødland
"No medium does melancholia better than photography"--Torbjørn Rødland