If you have to explain what your image is about, it’s probably not a very effective image.
One of the common reasons that you might need to explain the image is because it includes ‘privileged information’. (Also known as ‘inside information’, ‘contextual knowledge’, etc.)
Privileged information is knowledge that you have about an event or subject that adds interest to it that is not obvious to someone without that knowledge.
If you’re writing a book that includes images, this is not a problem. You can explain the circumstances and put some context around the image. If you’re presenting a free-standing image to a general audience (or posting it on a photography (or art) website), you can’t expect that the viewer will have that knowledge (or experience).
Photojournalist deal with this problem all the time. Think of all the famous images from ‘Life Magazine’ or ‘National Geographic’. While many of these famous images stand alone quite successfully, many require that the viewer understand the situation. Sometimes these images have become so iconic that you, the viewer, are just expected to know the background – that’s the exception!
There are so many examples of this that it’s hard to know where to start to describe it.
- A picture of a bird with its mouth open and its feathers ruffled. You know that it’s fighting off a predator, but the predator is not part of the image…
- A picture of a child crying because her balloon just flew away. Will the viewer think something more sinister has happened?
- A religious ceremony. (Especially if it’s not a well-known religion, or ceremony.)
As you can see, any of these will make perfect sense to someone with the same knowledge that you have, but will the image be understood by the general public? If not, is that a problem or will the image still be a strong one?
There’s no right answer – it’s just something else for you think about while you’re composing the image.
If you’re always going to be present when someone is viewing the image – no problem. I have lots of pictures in my family photo album like this. That’s part of the fun of having a photo album – you can talk about the pictures while you’re showing them to your family or friends (of course that’s why so many people hate to see other people’s albums…)
But if you intend to display this image somewhere, think about whether the viewer will ‘get it’ or not. If the viewer doesn’t get it, is it their fault, or is it yours?