The exhibition label

The photograph had been chosen for the main wall of the exhibition. It showed an old man sitting outside a boarded shop, his hands resting on a walking stick. Behind him, a poster advertised a sale that had ended years before. Sam had taken it on a wet Saturday while collecting pictures for a college project about the town centre. The tutor liked the angle and the empty space beside the man. For the label, Sam wrote: A resident waits as his neighbourhood disappears. The sentence seemed to give the picture a significance he had not quite seen when he took it.

On opening night, people stopped in front of the photograph more often than the others. They spoke quietly and moved closer to read the label. Sam stood beside a table of paper cups, pretending not to watch. His tutor introduced him to a woman who worked for the local newspaper. She asked what the man had said about the shop closures. Sam explained that they had not spoken. The woman looked at the photograph again. Before she could ask another question, the man himself entered the room with a younger woman carrying his coat.

He recognised the picture at once and laughed. ‘That's my best side,’ he said. Sam felt relieved until the younger woman read the label aloud. The man frowned. He had been waiting for his daughter to bring the car, he explained. He did not live in that neighbourhood, and the shop behind him had closed before he moved to the town. Sam began saying that the words were meant to express a wider idea. The man listened politely. ‘They make it sound as though I told you something,’ he said. Sam stopped.

The tutor came over and suggested changing ‘resident’ to ‘visitor’. It would be a small adjustment, and the wall was already crowded with people. Sam looked at the sentence. Changing one word would leave most of the story intact. He asked the man whether he would like the picture taken down. The man said the photograph was fine; it was the explanation that belonged to somebody else. Sam removed the label. He wrote a new one giving the place and date, then added that the subject had been waiting for his daughter's car. His handwriting looked clumsy beside the printed labels.

Later, the newspaper woman returned. She said the correction was interesting, but she could no longer use the caption Sam had first supplied. He nodded. Across the room, the man was showing the photograph to his daughter. Sam could hear them arguing pleasantly about whether he always held his stick that way. Fewer visitors paused to read the new label. At closing time, Sam photographed it beside the picture. The empty shop was still there, and the space beside the man was still effective. He was less certain now about what either of those things allowed him to say.

Focus on the final three paragraphs, from ‘He recognised the picture’ to the end.

A reader said: ‘Sam’s correction is more than an embarrassing retreat: it shows a developing respect for the person in his photograph.’

To what extent do you agree and/or disagree? Evaluate Sam’s response and the effect of the ending, using evidence and analysis of the writer’s methods.