For those of us who have trouble keeping our mouths shut--you know who you are--the power of a photograph has special allure.
Without words, without explanation, or with just minimal explanation, a whole world opens up.
Decades ago, in Montgomery County, Maryland, some psychologists were trying to figure out whether the standard IQ tests and SAT tests were missing something. The reasons for this are lost to the Phantom, but he clearly remembers the test was not multiple choice and required essay answers.
Most of the questions had a photograph or a painting or a political cartoon with a space for the student write an essay below it, explaining that image.
But one panel was blank, just a white framed space.
Most of the exam takers wrote this must be a typo, a misprint and moved on to the next question, but some wrote answers about this is a panel--about being lost in a snowstorm, or this is what the world looks like to the blind or this is a flash of light at Hiroshima as the bomb went off.
The students who skipped that panel tended to have high SAT scores. The ones who spent ten minutes writing about that blank page often did not have high SAT scores. Some did not finish the exam because they got so enthralled with that blank page and just went on and on. (You can imagine what the SAT scores of these enthusiasts were.)
For a truly humbling version of this experience, go to the last page of the New Yorker, where they ask you to provide a caption for the un-captioned cartoons and try to write one and then, a week later, check back to see the three best.
Here, for the reader's consideration, are images, some from the Phantom's camera, one from a friend, one from Twitter...
Cancer patient
Death Row turkeys
Hampton Falls, NH
Hidden Pasture Road, Hampton Falls
Musician
Iceland
Back porch, Hampton, NH
Vietnam
Warming
Klimt
Rte 1A North Hampton NH
Home
Without words, without explanation, or with just minimal explanation, a whole world opens up.
Decades ago, in Montgomery County, Maryland, some psychologists were trying to figure out whether the standard IQ tests and SAT tests were missing something. The reasons for this are lost to the Phantom, but he clearly remembers the test was not multiple choice and required essay answers.
Most of the questions had a photograph or a painting or a political cartoon with a space for the student write an essay below it, explaining that image.
But one panel was blank, just a white framed space.
Most of the exam takers wrote this must be a typo, a misprint and moved on to the next question, but some wrote answers about this is a panel--about being lost in a snowstorm, or this is what the world looks like to the blind or this is a flash of light at Hiroshima as the bomb went off.
The students who skipped that panel tended to have high SAT scores. The ones who spent ten minutes writing about that blank page often did not have high SAT scores. Some did not finish the exam because they got so enthralled with that blank page and just went on and on. (You can imagine what the SAT scores of these enthusiasts were.)
For a truly humbling version of this experience, go to the last page of the New Yorker, where they ask you to provide a caption for the un-captioned cartoons and try to write one and then, a week later, check back to see the three best.
Here, for the reader's consideration, are images, some from the Phantom's camera, one from a friend, one from Twitter...
Cancer patient
Death Row turkeys
Musician
Iceland
Back porch, Hampton, NH
Vietnam
Warming
Rte 1A North Hampton NH
Home
Maud,
ReplyDeleteI have submitted, but never accepted and seeing the winners, I had to agree there were always better.
I'm sure Obadiah will be thrilled with your review of his painting.
For me, the animating force for this post was that photo of the two kids in the bathroom. Simply could not get over that. Still bobs up in front of my eyes.
The story implied in that simple, stark image just will not go away.
Phantom.