A photograph by Józef Czechowicz from the 1870s: a street in Wilno (Vilnius) near the Bernardine Church.

For photography shows

Look at the photograph, not the caption.

The description plays in your headphones, and your eyes stay on the print. Reading can wait until you have time to sink into the image, away from the crowd in front of it.

Let's talk How we set it up

Wilno (Vilnius), near the Bernardine Church, 1870–1879. Photo: Józef Czechowicz. Public domain.

Today

A photograph asks to be looked at. The caption pulls your eyes away.

Your eyes jump between the photo and the panel

While you read the description, you aren't looking at the picture. While you look at the picture, you don't know what you're seeing.

The context doesn't fit

Who the people in the photo were, where the photographer stood, what has changed since. That's too much for a caption.

A small room, a lot of text

Walls covered with descriptions take space away from the prints.

The Kriegers' photographic studio on św. Jana Street in Kraków in 1912.

You listen while you look. The photograph stays at the centre.

The narrator says “look at the bottom left corner”, and you look. That's how people used to look at photographs with a guide, and now every visitor has one in their headphones.

The Krieger studio, 1912. Photo: Amalia Krieger. Public domain.

How it works

How to prepare it

From a collection of photographs to a show with narration.

1
Photos and notes
The frame, the date, the place, the story of how it was taken. As much as you know.
2
A “look at…” narration
A short story guides the eye around the frame and adds context.
3
Signs by the prints
A small sign next to the photo, and the wall is left to the image.