So I’ve gone back and forth on this a few times. Should this sure be strictly images, just showcasing a portfolio of work, or should it include text content as well?
It started off as more of a traditional blog, a mix of text and photos. I think that format offers several benefits – most noticeably it seems to be much easier to optimize for SEO when you have text on your site. I’m sure that will eventually change when web crawling gets to the point where it includes image classification, but for now text would seem to be the key.
But writing content can be dull, and what’s the point when Chatgpt can typically do a much better and faster job of writing articles? Is this not a photography website and should the images on this website not be strong enough to stand on their own? A nice thought, and so I pulled text from the site – and left only pictures.
A year-ish later I revisited this thought and after much internal debate I reached the following conclusion: What’s the message you are trying to communicate, and what’s the best way to communicate that message? Taking pictures is great fun, but should there not be a higher purpose then just taking pictures for the sake of taking pictures? Family scrap-booking aside, what good is the image of a tiger if they soon go extinct and all that’s left is pictures and fading memories. Why not combine media formats and use photography to try and bring about meaningful change?
In the end I think it comes down to understanding what your intent is when you press the shutter button. What is the meaning behind the photos you are making and what’s the best way to share your intended message with others.
I’m not trying to say every photo must have a deeper meaning or hidden message, but even the ones where it’s you and your friends or family making goofy faces at the camera can hold special significance when you or your kids look at them 20 years later – and wouldn’t it be nice to at least have a caption so it’s not just nameless faces?
Food for thought I guess…