Is a Picture REALLY Worth a 1000 Words?

Pictures and images can convey all sorts of emotions. They can make someone feel sorrow or happiness within one single frame. Pictures are used in so many different ways in today’s society. Advertisements, commercials, etc. all use visuals to help display different ideas.

Pictures have different meanings behind each and every single shot or frame that is taken. From the viewers perspective it is hard to get the full meaning behind one single still frame. Many ideas can come about from pictures without knowing the true meanings.

We can be touched by pictures, but we can also have no idea what the true meaning behind them is.

For instance, at first glance this little girl looks healthy and fine. In reality though she is living and dealing with being HIV positive.

Magazines exploit celebrities through pictures every day. They can take at picture and create whatever kind of story they wish. I would have to say that a picture is not worth a thousand words. There can be so many different interpretations from one picture it is ridiculous.

Pictures are powerful statements but us as viewers who are we to say what those thousand words are and are not, that is only for the subject or artist to say. The saying “A picture is Worth a 1000 words” has been around for many decades. It is believed to be around since the 1920’s. The saying however, has changed over the years, "Chinese proverb. One picture is worth ten thousand words." The Phrase Finder website is very informational for all sorts of sayings. For instance, even before pictures were created sayings such as this one were used, "One timely deed is worth ten thousand words" - The Works of Mr. James Thomson, 1802. It does not matter if the picture is worth 10, 100, 1000, or 10,000 there can be numerous meanings for the picture.

Pictures can be seen to represent a thousand words because humans tend to be visually oriented. Seeing a picture can display an idea or thought that needs to be conveyed to the audience. However, how is anyone really sure how that message is coming across to the viewer. What one person may see within a picture someone else can interpret completely differently?

Pictures are worth a thousand words but who are we to know what those words are. People can create false meanings with pictures. Since they are only a single shot it can be warped to create a whole new meaning, idea, emotion and so forth. Images can convey strong emotions and feelings. I feel that words can speak louder than pictures to display certain ideas. With pictures there is always room for interpretation, but with words it is more black and white.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words.html

http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/writings/letters.html

Believe

When children are little they do not need to see or have proof that Santa Claus and Superman are real, they just believe. That however, gets proven wrong when they grow up and learn the truths about things; but what about things that cannot be proven? For instance, the controversy over the mission to the moon, some think that it is an elaborate hoax while others believe in it without question. The ones who believe it to be true do not need any more evidence and proof. What they think they perceive as true is what they believe. To believe in something is to “have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so…” (Dictionary.com).

There are so many different things that people believe in without hesitation. Religion probably is the biggest thing that comes to mind. People believe in the unseen every day. God cannot be proven with science yet, but people still believe in him. That is when faith comes in to play; I myself being a Christ follower believe this is an essential part. I cannot prove that God exists, but I believe that it is and have faith that it is true. There is a website I found giving six straightforward reasons to believe that God does really exist, http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html. It is amazing how many different views to this one subject there truly are today. Not all things can be proven with science or math. The Big Bang cannot be completely proven and who is to say that God did not start the big bang. There is another article saying just this, http://www.rbc.org/questionsDetail.aspx?id=45738. Believing in things helps give us explanations to things that we do not know yet.

There are things in life that just cannot be proven yet, but people have to make decisions. Sometimes it is better to believe in something rather than nothing at all. It is hard to wrap the human mind around the concept that we cannot understand why or how we exist, therefore we compensate by making simple explanations. This is not only true in religion, but in science all things that we consider to be facts today started out as just theories until we had the ability with technology to prove them. Without out the humans ability to theorize on what we now deem the improvable we would still be living in caves and playing with rocks.