Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Eight things we love about photography – Silence


Now the “eight things we love” list gets personal. I have to admit that I’m a strongly visual person. I don’t hate music or conversation or any other kind of pleasant sound. But I do note an excess of noise in the world around me, from the neighbor’s leaf blower (which he uses for all purposes from leaves to snow to just generally amusing himself) to bad music escaping from nearby cars to the general love people seem to have for screaming and yelling.

Thus I treasure the silence of photographs. But I also treasure their ability to create a sense of sound without actually making any noise, taking advantage of the strong, implicit connection of our senses of sight and hearing.

I took the photo at the top of this post years and years ago. I have no memory of what the violin actually sounded like. But from the visual clues (the loose hairs on the bow, the musician’s eerie costume) I can imagine what the tune must have been like. As can you, even though you weren’t there.

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