“Wrong!” Can a ‘bad’ picture ever be ‘great’?

Most times, the relationship between the audience and the photographer is a one way street. The audience doesn’t have any insight or knowledge on the process or thought put into the photo and can only objectively judge the composition based off the final outcome (how the photo looks). Consequentially, the audience might not get the the intended meaning the photographer is trying to convey, hindering the photo’s value and impact. This is why context– in forms of a blurb, title, personal explaination, etc.– it very important in helping the an audience subjectively perceive a photograph.

Take Baldessari’s ‘WRONG’ as an example. At first sight with out the title, it may look like a very low quality, mundane, and vexing photo since it defies so many obvious rules and techniques in photograph: it is not cropped properly, nothing is centered, very blurry etc. However, the blatant judgment of the photo ‘Wrong’, makes the ‘mistakes’ and ‘flaws’ of the photo much more appealing. We start to ask ourselves: why must we conform to the practical aspects of photography and art?

Thus, any photo or art work can be so much more powerful with the addition of context…even if it’s just on word.

Works Cited

“Context – its about the title – Blog Post 1” ISB, https://dx.isb.cn/dash/#/classroom/648607/sections/lesson/344114/page/344116. Accessed 22 August 2024.

Baldessari, John “Wrong” Photograph. Dragon’s Exchange, ISB. Accessed 22nd August 2024, https://dx.isb.cn/dash/#/classroom/648607/sections/lesson/344114/page/344116/edit, 22 August 2024.