Pictorial Communication

How much can be told through a single still? What is the story that is being told?

Infinite.

          Is this the beginning of a greater story of this child's life? Is this the end of a tragedy that has a positive ending? Why is the toddler sitting down? Why is he looking up? Is it early or late fall? What part of the county is he or she in? There is no correct interpretation of what any one picture means but a million different things can be said.

          Communication is not all about a dialogue, monologue, or words in general. Those are three very important parts of communication but having a different perspective on what things mean creates a unique experience with every moment of everyone's life.

          Connections to images are unique to each person and can reveal a lot about a person, but what is their story and why does it contribute to their interpretation? A Rorschach test or an ink blot test is often used to explore the deeper meaning behind what someone is thinking. A patient's response to the ink blots on a paper reveal their story like an interpretation of a picture.

          Photographers also take on the responsibility of telling a story when they publish a photo. There is an experience behind every photo and it allows for a greater creation than just pixels on a piece of paper.

          Without story tellers, communication would be nearly impossible because there would be no common stories to tie together the individual stories of each person or each photo. Pictures give us that common story and adds to our knowledge of the greater world.

Everybody Lies

Lying is a normal part of being human. Whether it's to keep someone's feelings from being hurt, or trying to get oneself out of a bad situation, or it's simply to keep a secret, everybody lies. It's hard to strike a balance between an appropriate amount of lying and being honest which, as Billy Joel puts it "Honesty is such a lonely word./Everyone is so untrue./Honesty is hardly ever heard./And mostly what I need from you."

Truthfulness and honesty is what is craved in the modern day and age, but that's not what people really want. Everyone wants to be told they're the best thing to happen since sliced bread, which in fact, no one is. And while that is incredibly harsh, I'm just being honest and isn't that what everyone wants?

No. Of course not.

Honesty is not always the best policy. White lies are more and more accepted in today's day and age, and really, they're harmless. Telling someone they look good in a new outfit, saying that will boost his or her confidence to really look good in that outfit. Half of looking good is having the confidence to think that you actually look good.

Honesty is the best choice most of the time, but honesty is help up to be this great thing we should all strive for. The only person we need to be completely honest with is our self. And that means not putting yourself down and not building yourself up more than you are.

Everyone lies. It's part of what makes us human. As humans, we also love to hear lies because they are much more interesting than the truth.

Spreading a lie is much easier than spreading the truth. Lies are interesting and fun, whereas the truth can be humbling and hard to deal with. The brain shuts down in response to traumatic to read more about the effects of trauma on the brain click here. It shrinks the frontal cortex (where we make our decisions) to make room for a larger amygdala which stimulates the fight or flight response in the nervous system. Have more aggressive tendencies with fewer neurons to make decisions isn't the type of person that woud thrive in modern society. So as an evolutionary feature we forget the experience and try to function the way society wants us to.

It's a fine line to walk. Lying and telling the truth. However, lying isn't as sinful as perceived by society, but constantly lying isn't the answer either.