Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.
Truman CapoteRead
Finding a photograph is often like picking up a piece from a jigsaw-puzzle box with the cover missing. There’s no sense of the whole. Each image is a mysterious part of something not yet revealed.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that photographs are fragments of a larger story, lacking context without the whole picture.
Susan Meiselas compares finding a photograph to discovering a piece from a jigsaw-puzzle box that lacks its cover, indicating that each photograph represents only a part of a greater narrative. Just as a puzzle piece alone does not reveal the complete image, a photograph captures a moment or detail that may evoke curiosity about the broader context and story behind it, encouraging viewers to ponder what remains unseen.
Themes
PhotographJigsaw-PuzzleNarrativeMysteryContext
In practice
Example use cases
In a photography workshop, one might use this quote to explain the importance of context in capturing images.
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