Pictures are worth a thousand words

Photos in which one is posing is simply “mere consumerism.” However, candid photos capture the reality of the moment. Candid means straightforward and frank; the assertion that a photograph “reveals virtually nothing” is false as evidenced by the countless number of candid photos. Sure, it is true that selfies and pictures of you smiling with your friends at a football game reveal nothing, not even our emotions – however, these are just forms of sentimentalism and a way to capture memories. To explain farther, a picture of you and your friends at a football game reveals nothing about whether the team you were rooting for won, or if you were genuinely happy, etc. While this may be true, a candid picture of the players on the field and you and your friends on the stands, throwing your hands up in anger, could capture the true moment of how the team was losing. The Kardashians posing for a magazine shoot could be defined as mere consumerism though. These photos have absolutely no meaning but rather, they are a “form of mental pollution.” It is true that “only that which narrates can make us understand” ({only in the case of non-candid photos) due to the fact that a photograph can only capture so much. However, a candid photograph that captures the true emotions, actions, and environment of the event needs no such narration. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.