Showcase Sunday: Worth a thousand words

This was written close to three years ago and was written based on the concept of speed of consumption and lack of reflection, as our attention is pulled from one moment to the next, with very little time spent chewing over what we have eaten. For those looking to attract an audience, I think that this is something to consider as to be able to hold the attention long enough, more than an image is usually needed, content has to develop a story - it has to speak to the viewer and draw them into the narrative to make it their own.

For some, this is easy to accomplish, for others, it is a challenge seemingly out of reach - but I don't actually believe that. A lot of people develop content to try and increase the reward to effort ratio, and it shows. When it comes to attracting and holding attention, lazy content rarely does the job for long before people move along.

While for me this piece speaks about the creation of content, I think it is also very important to note how little thought and effort we put into drawing the nutritional value out from what we consume. Being in the audience needn't be a passive activity if really paying attention. I think however most these days pass time scrolling and watching with no intention, instead of use the time spent consuming as a catalyst for their own creative forces.

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Worth a thousand words

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A picture is worth a thousand words. We have all heard it but is it true? 

The first known instance of this idiom dates back to 1911 "Use a picture, it's worth a thousand words" quoting a newspaper editor discussing journalism and publicity. In other words, advertising. This makes sense as words in print take up room and the space taken comes at a cost so, an advertiser could potentially save money by representing their business using less page real estate. 

Interestingly, it originally may date to a similar sounding Chinese proverb: Hearing something a hundred times isn't better than seeing it once. Which, without doubt, is fundamentally different.

But possible lost in translations aside, this idea of a thousand words represented has pervaded all types of image media as well as our own psyche. We feel that we learn more from a picture than through words and what we learn can be obtained much faster. This may have something to do with a past where an image was harder to fake than a text is to lie in. This is obviously no longer the case as what is caught in the shutter and what comes out of the digital editing can be quite different.

But this is not the point of the article, maybe that can come another day. I am a hobby photographer myself and enjoy tinkering around with cameras and equipment from time to time as I explore the world through a lens. I am not the only one. 

The explosion of digital photography and in-camera supports has meant that every, man, woman and dog has the capabilities to capture an image of decent resolution at very little investment. Even though the gap between a professional, amateur and layperson is closing, there is still a significant enough difference between to still have a photography career. Maybe not for long.

But with this dramatic increase of new users who need not buy film, learn to process it in a dark room, pay the exorbitant costs, understand DOF, white balance or even ISO and aperture, has come an onslaught of images. Images of everything and anything. Every holiday snap, every grainy concert picture from an iPhone and every meal; uploaded for the world to wonder at in awe. The majesty of the shot, the lighting, positioning. Wow. 

That was a touch sarcastic I know, I'll stop. What I mean is that the image space has been inundated with so much range in quality that it is hard to distinguish what is what. Not just because of the volume but also the speed at which it gets uploaded into the ether. Facebook alone has about 350,000,000 new photos per day. That's a lot of photographers! (Sarcasm?)  

A picture may tell a 1000 words, but just like words on a page or spoken to the ear, they must be read and listened to. In a world of thumb flick fast scrolling, the images of quality are being drowned by lunches. Literally. The speed at which an image is observed and tossed up, down or either side of the screen is going through a quickening. And even if one does stop to search for quality, the feet, legs, and torso have to wade through a proverbial pile of ...selfies, to find something worthy of high enough appreciation that one would care to pause and savor it.

It is hard to find and concentrate on an image and see its intricacies when it is positioned alongside 100 others with the same Instagram filter or a portrait tastefully jazzed up with a Snapchat dog nose.

My father talks a lot. Like me. When my father talked to potential buyers of his work, I would recommend that he would let the client observe and create an emotional attachment to the piece, rather than he tell them what it is or why. It is a much stronger impression when they feel a connection, a part of the process. He rarely listened, he was too busy talking. Like me too often.

Though now, even though they are still called galleries, the online world of images is not a place to dawdle on a Sunday afternoon discussing the content, what the photographer was aiming for, the subtle expressions on a subject, the lighting brilliance, the candid capture in a war zone. It is lightning speed consumption. Like viewing a forest of billboards running alongside the track of a bullet train.

I did a little test with one user who commented on a photo I posted for a Photo Challenge. He had commented that even though my writing was good, the picture told a better story. I asked him if after he had read the text (below the image) if he went back to review the image. He had. Experiment successful.

So, in order to get a picture to tell a thousand words, it seems that it has to be accompanied by close to that number of words anyway in order to slow down a viewer enough, to create the space necessary to actually invest more than a fraction of a second to absorb the story of the image.

I have started recently to add more detailed words around my images if some noticed. For many they may be superfluous, others annoying and some enjoy the read. I would much prefer to leave an image for the viewer but in order to capture the heart of a viewer, I need to slow their scroll thumb down just enough to catch a pointer in the text to the image. Hook them in so they can explore.

This will sound manipulative to some but, I think that in those spaces where the quick to move mind has been slowed, there is time for reflection, consideration, critical thinking, compassion and understanding. In that moment or two, I hope their heart beat slows a little, their vision clears and a deep breath fills their lungs. I hope when they press the back button or scroll to the next, they are calmer, more centered and better prepared for what they will go on to do next. Even if it is a picture of a cat, sitting on the couch like the million other photos similar uploaded in the last few minutes while you read this.

Perhaps, it is now consumption as a form of meditation. 

Taraz
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