Weekly #10 -- Sunday, January 13, 2019

I am not much of a linguist but words sometimes interest me. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary, m-w.com, provides a few different meanings for the word “image”. One that possibly comes to mind is:

a visual representation of something: such as

— a likeness of an object produced on a photographic material

— a picture produced on an electronic display (such as a television or computer screen)

The examples here are interesting in that they point to specific media on which a visual representation might be produced. A picture of a tree printed on photo paper is different from the same picture posted online. Are they different representations? Are they different images?

Another definition of the word (also from m-w.com) is:

a mental picture or impression of something

Here the emphasis is on what the mind conjures up. That picture of the tree printed on two separate pieces of photo paper, one on regular matte paper and the other on a fine art paper, might yield slightly different impressions on the mind. Since we form images in our mind based on different factors… our moods, our environment, etc... we might form different impressions of very similar inputs over time. Or the impressions formed might turn out similar to each other… but, to me, each is still a separate image.

Also, there is nothing in this definition that suggests that a mental image has to come from a photograph… it can come from anything… a photo, a painting, a poem, or even a memory. The impression, the image, I have about a photograph/poem/song/movie/whatever has to do with my mind at that time. I might even form an entirely negative impression at first but might form a much more favorable impression after time has moved on and conditions changed.

I think that the more open we are, the more we are able to get out of our heads, the more we will see the true nature in the things around us… and in ourselves. In other words, the mental images we form even out and become no different than the things themselves.

Enough… enjoy yourselves!