by Marc Hays
It has been said that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” but it ain’t necessarily so. This old adage implies that in the marketplace of communication pictures are far scarcer than words, i.e., it takes 1000 words to equal the value of one picture, but is that always the case? To say, to the contrary, that words are worth more than pictures would be to make the same mistake, i.e. to set up a false dichotomy. Worth is often tied to purpose, which provides the determining factor for the solution of many disputes. What are we trying to do with our words? What are we attempting to accomplish via our pictures? The answer is found in the “both/and” rather than the “either/or.”
Interestingly enough, the phrase, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” is not a picture at all, but a collection of words, logically organized into a sentence. The earliest example of this phrase in print is in newspaper advertising in the early 20th Century. The advertiser wanted the consumer to come by the showroom and see the advertised product in order to be convinced to purchase it, i.e. seeing the items will be more convincing than reading a description of them.
In a sense, pictures are empirical and words are rational. Pictures are data, not devoid of meaning, but always in need of interpretation. Words are similar in lacking inherent meaning, but interpretation is unavoidable due to the inability of any person to speak a “neutral” sentence. A photograph communicates what we can see with our eyes and nothing more. A sentence communicates a necessarily biased opinion about what we’ve perceived. So, if our purpose is to show, then a picture may be far more appropriate than a paragraph, but if the goal is to tell, then you probably need more than just an image.
One sterling example of an effective use of both pictures and words is N. D. Wilson’s bookumentary “Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl.” Here, the cinematography is amazing, stunning, breathtaking, and 997 other positive modifiers, but the message of the pictures is always subservient to the narrative. The pictures are a hand-maiden to the text, serving to enhance the presentation of the meaning, not establish it. Many of the images would still be breathtaking without Nate’s narration, but the story could never be told if the TV was muted (with no subtitles.) Here’s the trailer as a taste of what I’m getting at.
The preeminent example of image and word kissing, is the Son of God who is both image and Word. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15). There can be no necessary dichotomy between word and image, as both are manifest in the man Christ Jesus. In Him, thousands of thousands of words will never tell all of His glories. “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25). So what about pictures? Can one picture of Christ tell us 1000 times more than all these “insufficient” words? Well, one day we’ll see Him face to face (1 Cor. 13:12), but until then, only one thought comes to mind: the Bible is not a picture book.
Nate Wilson’s book, Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl can be purchased here.
And the DVD bookumentary here.
The featured image in this article is a mixed-media collage entitled “Worth 1000 Words” by William Beasley. Prints of this artwork can be purchased here.<>
