When looking at this photoessay, it wasn't the photos that got to me the most, it was reading the captions about the photos.
When the captions explained everything about the trials, the victims, the genocide,the meaning of the
picture came to life. When they showed the pictures of the bones, it did not strike any emotion in me,
they were just pictures taken, possibly for archeological purposes. But, because they had a caption, there
was more meaning to the skulls. Unless you knew the who story, then you would
be able to understand and possibly have some emotion attached to the picture that you see. I know the
one picture and caption that got to me was the one where the men were looking for old land mines, and
it stated that a family of three happened upon one and were killed. Just thinking about how tragic that was
after the genocide was over, that people still have to fear for their lives. Comparing this
to our lecture last week, when we talked about listening to a tape from a holocaust survivor or reading
their statement, i feel that a person will show more emotion, over hearing someone speak or reading their
testimonies, because the most powerful thing to me are the words. Describing in details what happened
to you whether in a book or in a video or a tape recording, it portrays a lot of emotional and pulls on your
heart strings!! Looking at pictures on the other hand, such as those from Cambodia, they do not pull
on your heart strings because you didn't know what they were about and what happened to those people
unless you read their testimonies.
Words are louder then pictures i believe. In words a person can communicate everything they are feeling
detail by detail. In a picture, you can just see so much. You can possibly see sadness, happiness, anger,
but it doesnt tell you what the person is thinking or going through unless you have information
and facts that explain the time period, and who the person is in the photo and when happened. I am not
saying that pictures don't say a thousand words, but i am saying that pictures can just tell you so much.
And its not what is in the picture that gets to a person, it is the story behind the picture.
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