Here’s how to give your photograph a title as shown in the book, 'Why is That Art?'.
There are many ways to do this, but this is an easy format to understand.
Name | Title, Year.
eg.
Matt Kamimura | Trees at the Park, 2023.
Matt Kamimura | Untitled, 2023.
Matt Kamimura | Untitled Self-Portrait, 2023.
Matt Kamimura | My Dog Spot, 2023.
Matt Kamimura | Jane (Blue Dress), 2023.
The formatting goes a bit like this:
Name--that’s your name.
The vertical bar is for visual separation. You can find that on your keyboard on the right side. Press the backslash key while first holding down the shift key.
The title, this is all up to you.
The first example, Trees at the Park. This photograph is not a part of a larger series of images of trees at the park. Think of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon—that is the only record they made with that title with no plans on making a variation or sequel.
The second example, Untitled. There is no creative wording that will convey more than what the image itself says on its own, or the creator has no interest in thinking of of a name, or maybe the creator wants the viewer to label it themselves, leaving ambiguity where giving the piece a title might have certain implications or biases.
The third example, Untitled Self-Portrait. This is not one out of a series of Untitled images. Untitled self-portrait may be a one-off image with no title, but the creator wants the viewer to know that the image is of the person who made the image.
The fourth example is a specific photograph of my dog Spot. For me, it is the one and only iconic photograph of my dog Spot (like how there is only one Mona Lisa). This is not a part of a larger series about my dog Spot. If I decide to later create a series of images involving my dog Spot, I will title that future photograph “My Dog Spot (Running)” to mark it as a variant where Spot is running.
The fifth example is of my friend Jane. I take lots of pictures of my friend Jane—it’s our thing that we do together. This photo is specifically of Jane wearing her blue dress. It is her only blue dress and we don’t plan on photographing her in it a second time or finding a different blue dress in the future to photograph her in. As this is one of a series, the photo is titled Jane (Blue Dress) to differentiate it from Jane (Red Dress) or Jane (Halloween 2022).
Then there’s the comma and the year.
The year ends in a period.
That’s it. Now you know how to label your art!
