photo by me

I couldn’t really call this “moving images” or “moving pictures” since they aren’t moving (although, the shot to the right was taken while I sat in the back of my brother’s van, going down I-17 at 75mph). Anyway, I wanted to play with words and this photo did that perfectly for me.

As I’ve stated previously, I’ve been thinking a lot about identity and how we are defined by our words. I’ve also been thinking about how we are defined by the photos we publish, either as stand-alone or alongside our words. What do they say about us?

If I post a whimsical photograph of my niece and nephew, does that tell you something about me? Does it tell you that I adore them? Does it tell you that I have fun with them? Does it tell you that I want to catch them in humiliating poses that I can torture them with when they are teenagers (ha! They’ll have tortured me so much by then that I won’t have the energy!).

If I post an image of a broken window in a post about refugees, what does it add to the words? Does it make you think about the broken spirits of people? Does it make you wonder what the circumstances are? Does it add to the overall effect of the writing?

I carefully choose the photographs for my entries. They mean something to me in relation to what I am writing. For homelessness, I chose the image of a man who was sleeping on a bench in downtown Flagstaff. I was down there at 6 a.m. this summer and his snores could be heard across the square. I didn’t want to intrude but I also couldn’t resist photographing him. The way he was slumped over, his bike balanced, his solitude, it all spoke to me. When I chose that image for the piece, I felt that it fit perfectly. I felt that it added to what I wanted to say about not having a bed to sleep in.

Books are made into movies all of the time. Just this year, Jarhead, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Chronicles of Narnia, and more, I’m sure, are movies. How does that add to the value of the printed word? Do moving images detract or enhance our appreciation of the books?

I didn’t like Jarhead the book and I didn’t like Jarhead the movie (although I liked the movie slightly more than the book). They didn’t complement one another for me. The movie didn’t add any rhetorical value to the book for me.

The Harry Potter movies have long been a favorite. They add a depth to the books that my mind fills in. Now I get to see it in living color. The same is true of the Lord of the Rings books. I can only hope the Narnia books will be done justice (because they were favorites when I was a kid and I still own copies of them).

One of the things I love about photography is that I can capture a feeling or a sentiment that I can’t necessarily put into words. As the old addage says, “A picture is worth a 1000 words.”