A New Way to Caption Your Photographs

GPC Style Annotation for PhotoJournalism is:
"Who. What. Where. When. Why. How (optional)."

GPC Style Annotation is merely a suggestion for captioning stills,
and is not currently intended to become an accepted captioning convention like AP Style,
but can be easily used in conjunction with most AP Style spelling conventions.

GPC Style was originally introduced in December 2005.

The underlying reasoning behind this format is that
captions written in GPC Style might be both quicker to read
and easier for people to interpret in an international context,
provided that the readers are acquainted with the logic behind this captioning format.

GPC Style Annotation is very direct
and relies less on the traditional grammatical structure of the English language,
potentially making it easier to interpret once translated into other languages
as well as easier to read for those with less proficient reading or English skills
(again, by those acquainted with its logic).

The idea is simply how to write captions to make them
as globally accessible to the 'global-internet-public' as possible.

If there is a more globally accessible method I would like to see it.
Hopefully there is.

While 'why' is arguably the 'wildcard' factor in this formula,
it can be very useful if used responsibly and ethically to provide for better analysis and context.

The straight facts, who-what-where and when are up front,
whereas the more subjective why and how close the caption.

'How' is optional because it is more process-related.

GPC Style Annotation is a structure that will serve equally useful in both fictional
and non-fictional narratives for both motion and still images;
photos, video clips, and paintings alike.

Conclusively,
GPC Style Annotation represents one of the shortest, most direct, and universally accessible methods
for communicating a story with a single image.
I hope you consider its use.

-patrick