Is a Picture Really Worth 1,000 Words?

Is a Picture Really Worth 1,000 Words?

The phrase a picture is worth a thousand words became popular in America when Frederick R. Bernard entitled one of his published articles, “One look is worth a thousand words.” The idea that a still picture is more capable than actual words of conveying a complicated and meaningful message is quite remarkable. Writers will spend hours upon hours trying to construct perfectly flowing sentences that will stir up some deep emotion inside of the reader, while a simple picture can stimulate that same emotion, possibly even stronger. This belief that a picture can get a message across better than even the best verbal descriptions is very frustrating to those who disagree with the phrase. They believe that when using the right words, descriptors, and other important text, you can become more revealing than even a picture. In the following paragraphs I will discuss the different viewpoints of each side, whether a picture really is worth one thousand words or whether it is not.

Dr. Mark Clayson disagrees with this statement and argues that, “Words have a way of conjuring up hidden meanings, thoughts, and feelings that pictures alone cannot do so.” Why else would people cry in books? The words you read on a page can evoke feelings inside of you that you wouldn’t normally encounter, bringing you to tears in some cases. It is only through the words in a book that you can experience the extravagant lives of characters and feel like your apart of them. The Lord of the Rings series is a perfect example of words forming characters that people become absolutely obsessed with. You never hear of millions of people becoming obsessed with a single picture- a picture could never create the feelings of pleasure and excitement young readers of The Lord of the Rings receive every time they read one of those books. Dr. Elizabeth Loftus explained in “The New Positioning” by Jack Trout that, “The brain registers words in echoic memory and visuals in iconic memory. Iconic fades in a second, echoic lasts much longer.” Words that we’ve read are going to be more memorable to us than pictures simply because that is how our memories work.

Those who support the idea that a picture is worth one thousand words hold that a picture can provoke thoughtful emotions as well as or even better than one thousand words. The iconic photo from the Great Depression of a migrant mother with her children burying their faces in her shoulder exemplifies this idea exceptionally. With one glance at this picture, you can almost feel the mother’s pain and shame. This picture helps everyone who wasn’t alive during the Great Depression understand how hard times were, people were starving and ashamed of themselves for failing to provide. It is much more convenient to come to this understanding through a picture, rather than come to it by reading a long and possibly boring book. People against abortion, also called pro-lifers, promoted the idea that a picture is worth more than words by showing a video called Harder Truth to a legislative committee during debate on the bill. These images in the video showed the horrors of abortion far better than any prepared speech could have done. People tend to think and learn visually, and sometimes, no matter how well crafted a sentence is, it doesn’t get the point across like a picture does.

It is hard to say if a picture really is worth a thousand words. While I could never be satisfied with Lord of the Rings through just pictures, the photo of the migrant mother during the Great Depression stimulates an understanding in me about that time period that I have never felt before. Clearly both literature and imagery can be used to effectively evoke deep emotion inside someone. Not all, but some pictures really are worth even more than a thousand words. An image can guide you in perceiving your own feelings, ideas, and interpretations. It can be just as thought provoking as any book, and can convey a meaningful message extremely well.