Would it be possible to express a picture in one word? How about two? How might that look like in a picture? Does a picture of a letter, such as the letter “a”, represent a thousand words? How about a picture of a number such as “0”?
This phrase is certainly a commentary on the speculative imagination of the viewer–the gaps they fill in when they look at a picture. The story (or stories) they create to make sense of the image and bring it to life, since the image is undoubtedly static–frozen in time.
A scenic image of a landscape may conjure thousands of words that describe the season or the atmosphere of that environment, but the picture evokes emotions as well. And it’s hard to describe any emotion with just words when it’s something that’s not simply read, but felt and experienced.
Words and images essentially have different functions. Words require us to think abstractly or to use our imagination to perceive a reality that’s separate from the physical world. Images, however, are a visual representation of thoughts and emotions. They are perceived directly without the buffer of words.
Images can be manifestations of words, and words can be manifested as images via the mind or art. Whereas the former provides the visual experience, the other asks us to actively create it.
Compare reading a 1,000 word description/caption of a painting to observing the painting. It’s certainly not the same experience, and I think the quote misses the point when we observe a work of art. Although we can come up with a thousand words that describe or provide a narrative for the image, it’s how we respond to it–in a visceral sense–that cannot be summed up in words.
Fallton Havenstonne 