Caption This: A Photographic Collection of Amusing Comments, Snarky Asides, and Romantic Admissions

By Barbara Levine, Paige Ramey and Martin Venezky

A fascinating collection of photographs from the past century that have surprising, funny, and poignant captions.

Whether it's scripted words in pencil scrawled below an old Polaroid or a pithy caption on a social media photo today, we've all felt a pull to describe in words and sentences the pictures and moments of our lives. This celebration of a century of personal photo captions, in all their forms, themes, and voices, explores the captivating (and often contradictory) relationship between what we see in photos and what we say about them.

Through 150 color and black-and-white vintage photographs of everyday people dating back to the early twentieth century, arranged in nine thematic chapters (This is me grooving, This is my snarky side, This is me in love, etc.), Caption This reveals the funny and surprising history of the captions emblazoned beneath, lurking behind, or even scrawled across the images.

Caption This is a unique delight for photography and pop culture enthusiasts that combines the candidness of Awkward Family Photos with the confessional intimacy of PostSecret.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Release date: Oct 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9781797226927

Barbara Levine

Barbara Levine and Paige Ramey are collectors, artists, and curators specializing in vernacular photography. Their photography collection, known as PhotoMania, was recently acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and their collection of vintage photograph albums was acquired by the International Center of Photography in New York. They run Project B, an archive and collaborative curatorial venture. They live in Houston and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Book preview

Cover: Caption This by Levine Ramey.Logo: Chronicle Books LLC

PUBLISHED BY

Princeton Architectural Press

A division of Chronicle Books LLC

70 West 36th Street

New York, NY 10018

www.papress.com

© 2023 Barbara Levine and Paige Ramey

Resisting Capture: The Counterculture of the Caption

© 2023 Kim Beil

All rights reserved.

NO PART of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher, except in the context of reviews. Every reasonable attempt has been made to identify owners of copyright. Errors or omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions.

EDITOR: Jennifer N. Thompson

DESIGNER: Martin Venezky

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Levine, Barbara, 1960– author. | Ramey, Paige, author.

Title: Caption this : a photographic collection of amusing comments, snarky asides, and romantic admissions / Barbara Levine, Paige Ramey.

Description: New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 2023. | Summary: A celebration of a century of personal photo captions in all their forms, themes, and voices —Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022060352 (print) | LCCN 2022060353 (ebook) | ISBN 9781797223346 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781797226927 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Photograph captions. | Photographs—Humor. | Levine, Barbara, 1960—Photograph collections. | Photographs—Collectors and collecting. | Photographs—Private collections—United States.

Classification: LCC TR147 .L48 2023 (print) | LCC TR147 (ebook) | DDC 770—dc23/eng/20230119

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022060352

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022060353

First and Last Words

BARBARA LEVINE AND PAIGE RAMEY WITH PETER L. STEIN

This is me

This is my fashion statement

This is me grooving

This is my self-conscious