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Creative Outpouring: Titling a Picture

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While the groundhog has offered us hope of an early spring, we’re pausing to reflect back on the pleasures of last autumn, when we shared photographs and ideas about possible titles for them with readers of the blog and visitors to the National Book Festival.  We’re still savoring the creativity the pictures inspired.

All five of the images we displayed at the festival were big hits with visitors to our booth.  This one attracted many humorous proposed titles as well as philosophical reactions.

Rope Bridge, Carrick-a-Rede. County Antrim, Ireland
Rope Bridge, Carrick-a-Rede. County Antrim, Ireland. Photochrom print, between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.09832

Among the suggestions “favorited” most by visitors who surveyed the more than 120 proposed titles that accumulated on the display board were these:

  • “That’s the last time I trust my GPS.” (This one received by far the most thumbs-up votes.)
  • “This looked much easier on Lord of the Rings.
  • “Try not to look down.”
  • “Oh-oh! I have to sneeze.”
  • “To get to the other side.”
  • “What was I thinking?”
  • “Faith.”
  • “I walk the line.”
  • “I preferred the former field sobriety test!”

Several visitors also told us of their adventures crossing this very bridge.  (You can see further examples of modern-day crossings in the comments we have received about this image in our Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/4426684715/).

Perhaps you have another title to offer or bridge-crossing experience to share?

Thanks again to all who participated virtually and at the National Book Festival.

 Learn More:

  • This photochrom print has been available on our Flickr account for a few years, attracting quite a lot of attention there.  Recently we’ve been adding to the “Photochrom Travel Views” set, showing scenes from England.  The entirety of the Photochrom Prints is available through the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.
  •  Those who traverse rope bridges such as this may have to summon their inner daredevil.  How about exploring images of those who have intentionally engaged in daredevil exploits?

Comments (2)

  1. Great photo and some clever captions, but if the unimaginative “What was I thinking” and the banal “Try not to look down” are among the best, then public discourse is even worse than I feared. And shame on you for the unwieldy and downright ugly, “favorited.”

  2. As an acrophobic, my reaction to the photo was one of quesiness. My first thought, “This is a fear I choose to NOT face.”
    Two questions:
    1. Where was the photographer standing to take the photo?
    2. Was the person on the bridge perhaps standing there debating if he would continue, knowing he’d have to make the crossing again to get back?
    Things we will never know.

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