Let The Viewer Tell The Story

When I began posting photo galleries on the web, I wanted to create something similar to the slide shows I made when I was a kid. Those presentations had narration and music played through a single track of a stereo cassette deck. The second track was channeled into an earpiece and it was just my voice calling out numbers telling me when to change slides. It wasn't high tech, but it worked.

Without narration or music, my (current) web slide shows call upon the viewer's engagement to advance or backtrack the slides. With minimal captions, viewers can create their own narratives as they move through the images. They are invited to enter the frame.

A viewer's response is unpredictable and often surprising. This became especially clear to me while collaborating with Grace Cavalieri and the stellar cadre of poets who participated in creating two books of ekphrastic poetry - in this case, poems responding to photos. The first book was Poet Trees, and the second book, The Road Beneath Our Feet, is posted here on FotoSpecchio. 

Over the years, I repeatedly reexamine my images and make notes along the way. I can look at an image a hundred times and not notice what someone else sees at first glance. That's how this process works. It's part of the joy of photography.

The Slideshow

22 black and white images. Click below: