Idea 63: Thousand Word Pictures

There are plenty of iconic images that exist in the collective consciousness - that one of the monk setting himself on fire, the plane sticking out of the twin towers, the man on the moon (which was the inspiration for possibly the best Onion front page ever), and so on. (I'm hoping you all know the images I mean having just used those few words otherwise my 'collective consciousness' comment is nonsense.)

But you know, those smart-alec types who say things like "A picture paints a thousand words" aren't necessarily always right. There is clearly a sensationalist impact to these iconic images - they vividly capture a scene which sums up a moment in time or event. But they also are short-cuts which don't give you the detail and the nuances - the story - behind what you're seeing. (I'm thinking of this at the moment after going to see 'Flags of Our Fathers' last night which was about how one photo - the one of the 6 American soldiers planting the US flag into the ground at an angle - was a key part to helping the US win the war.)

So I wondered whether with a little bit of photoshop transparent type application, it would be possible to write a thousand words about a particular image - what you're seeing, what happened and why, what came next and so on - and have those words layered on top of that particular image so that you could read both the words, and see the image through them. Which might be an interesting project to complete on a number of these iconic images.

If you can be arsed.

Feasibility Rating: 6