I use Visual Q - (Depends: libtiff)
There is no option for writing on a photo though. It doesn't have any brushes either.
It has these options:
[Edit]
Contrast, brightness, color balance, gamma
[Image]
resize, rotate, mirror, flip, reversal, grayscale,sepia
[Filters]
blur, blur strength
sharpen, sharpen strength
emboss, color emboss, dark emboss
mosaic
oil
spread
swirl
custom filter