“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
 
This is one of my least favorite clichés…for two reasons.
 
· Very few pictures communicate that many words.
 
· The cliché implies that pictures should stand on their own without words. Good pictures do that, but photographers should appreciate that adding words can inform, entertain and inspire, just like adding lyrics to music.
 
So when you present your pictures—in a book, album, gallery or slide show—consider adding words.   What kind?  That all depends on the picture, the audience, and what you feel like writing about.
 
The most obvious words are informational:
 
“Here’s where I took the picture…here’s the name of the person in the photo…here’s the date...”
 
OR
 
Technical factsabout how the picture was made.  But why not go beyond informational and technical and tell a story?” Consider:
 
Facts:“The Queen died. Then the King died.”
Story:“The Queen died. Then the King died…of a broken heart.”
 
Facts don’t have emotional power, stories do. If your mind doesn’t think in terms of stories or you can’t develop a story specifically about the picture, why not add interesting observations or thoughts that have some relationship to the picture, much as a travel writer might.
 
Every picture in “Flush,” my bathroom book-in-the-making,  will have a caption. For the photo above, I might reuse the caption I used in my book, Abandoned America:
 
“This ordinary toilet and bathtub, rising out of the coagulated dust of decades, were located in a majestic house with wide hallways, sweeping staircases, ornate banisters, and spacious rooms. One could lounge in the tub while soaking up a breathtaking view of the Allegheny Mountains.” 
 
Then again, I might take a different direction:
 
“Bathroom, restroom, lavatory, toilet, john, powder room, men’s room, ladies room, latrine, loo, WC, urinal, outhouse, powder room, washroom, can, facilities, comfort station, head, little boys’ room, commode, ladies/gents, cowboys/cowgirls. Could it be that the number of synonyms we have for a word is in direct proportion to our awkwardness in using it?”
 
Many other lines of approach are available. I could write about bathrooms from an interior design standpoint, or bathroom history or the time I couldn’t find a bathroom when I desperately needed one.
 
Before you dismiss the idea of combining pictures and words—you may think you don’t like writing or storytelling or that you’re not good at it—consider this:
 
I used to dislike writing immensely, and wasn’t very proficient.
Years ago, when I switched careers from law/corporate management to commercial photography, I felt relieved that writing was no longer a job requirement. But to my surprise, when I added words to a book of photographs I was publishing, I was transformed: writing became deeply satisfying. And as an added plus, readers (including book reviewers) liked what they read. Why not give it a try and see what happens…
 
P.S. My love of combining pictures and words has led to a presentation called “25 Pictures/25 Stories.” Curious? See: www.25stories.com.