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Photos, Photography, and Images - An Image is Worth a Million Words

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An Image is Worth a Million Words

A picture represents a moment in history that cannot be authentically recreated. To catch an action, an image, or an emotion by film is truly a special gift and one which most people take for granted. For an image to capture a moment that simultaneously speaks for one person, a nation, and a cause is really “worth a thousand words” as Neil Postman puts it (515), even a million. It is irreplaceable by anything other than understanding, appreciation, and wonder. Three memorable photographs that embody these assets are those of five members of the British Royal Family walking behind Princess Diana’s coffin, Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon, and American soldiers raising the flag atop a …show more content…

Yet perhaps the most moving expressions were on the faces of Princess Diana’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, whose beloved mother was suddenly taken from them a few short days before. It is clear that the shock seemed almost unbearable to these young boys who were now lost because the center of their world, their mother, was dead. People around the world were able to share the pain and sadness of the members of Princess Diana’s family through their expressions, unequivocally portrayed by that one photograph. Furthermore, in his article “‘By Means of the Visible’: A Picture’s Worth,” Mitchell Stephens explains what makes pictures so powerful in conveying emotion by stating, “[. . . ] words [ . . .] must work hard to tell us what a glance could about the expression on that face” (481). In addition to showing the feelings of the British Royal Family, this photograph is a symbol that shows the world that, while Princess Diana is dead physically, she will forever be alive in the memories of her people. Her impact on society will never be forgotten and neither will the courage and strength in the faces of those men that touched the hearts of so many people.

A second memorable picture is that of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon in July 1969, which is remembered as a celebrated image that represents the power, not only of America but of the whole human race, to conquer space. Surely most

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