Pictures+and+1000+words

They say a picture speaks a thousand words. Let's begin to explore how pictures can help us in our **thinking, reading and writing.

Ex 1** • **Spontaneous Writing** • Look at the image and write the first thoughts, feelings and ideas that come to your mind. The first thing you might start with is an opinion about the picture - do you like it? Move onto whatever comes and write to your heart's content.

• **Meditative Writing** • This usually takes a little more time. Look at the image for a while and then close your eyes and allow the natural flow of thoughts, emotions and desires surface. This method can work well if the image invokes a memory. Just allow yourself to 'feel' the image and then write, write, write!













My Answers... 1.1 Ah! What is happening to the man? Why is he falling downwards and why are the on-lookers smiling? Where was this picture taken? 1.2 A thought came to me upon closer inspection of this picture. Was this person performing a stunt? And...many more questions...Why were there balloons by the side-were they related to what is happening? What are those at the bottom of the picture? Are they decorations with streamers? Are these people having a celebration? 2.1 Er...is this couple having a rendezvous? It seems to me like one of those scenes from the movies in the 1960s and 70s... 2.2 Hmm...I thought it seems to be a little weird...having a rendezvous under the hot sun in the open? It is not entirely impossible though. Perhaps I have a mindset that couples usually go to air-conditioned restaurants for meals. Also, I noticed that there is an enclosure behind them, with an animal inside! What is that animal? Are they at the zoo? 3.1 This picture seems to me like any ordinary afternoon in a busy city with many office people. 3.2 WAIT! Just what is that elderly man doing in front of an office building? Is he begging for money? I would feel sorry for him if he is a beggar. What are the two people on the right hand side of the picture doing? Do those boxes beside them belong to them and what is in there? 4.1 Wow! What a great scene! Firemen putting out a fire so bravely. They're such heroes! 4.2 The raging fire seems to be spreading rapidly, and come to think of it, the flames do seem like some I would see in those James Bond movies after the explosions... XD 5.1 How heartbreaking it is to see such people living in poverty, looking so thin and frail. I feel so sorry for their plight. 5.2 The most heartwrenching aspect about this picture is the elderly woman, clasping onto the fence. Those bony, wrinkled fingers of hers and her gaunt face suggest her age. From the way the people - most likely villagers - dress, I can infer that they live in poverty and suffer from malnutrition because of how thin they are. The expression in the old woman's eyes hint to me that she longs to live this place and live a more comfortable life, however, she is unable to do so. 6.1 Argh! Why are those children running about in the rain? 6.2 To me, they seem like children living in villages, probably from less well-off families. In this picture, I don't think that they are running home as it started raining but that they are playing in the rain. They seem to be having much fun skipping and jumping around, and it is these simple pleasures like playing in the rain that makes them really content. Perhaps, once in a while, we should really take time out from our hectic schedules to enjoy the simplicities of life.

My first thoughts by Jek Kee:

Image 1: Is this image modified using computers? Very Verrrrry likely... Image 2: Errrm, that animal looks weird and is that even an animal? What are those two people doing? Image 3: That man looks crippeled, heavily disabled and people just walk pass him, or pretend that he was not there. Or did he just fell? That look on his face does not signals it. Image 4: Fire, and firefighters fighting it with jets of water that looks quite small, might take a long time to finish up that inferno. By then everything would be burnt! Image 5: Poor women and others in poverty. Looks like a scene taken from a third world country. Image 6: Children running in the rain. Are they playing, running away, seeking shelter or refuge or WHAT???

My second thoughts by Jek Kee again!!!:

Image 1: Ok, some people looking at him with smilling faces, eh, still not sure what he is trying to do. Many possibilities. Image 2: Looks like a zoo, thought hinted by the animal and cages or enclosures. Who are the two people standing outside? Image 3: Everybody just passes the cripled old man, some even pretend that he does not exist, trying not to sense his presense. How would they feel to be him, may I ask? Poor and powerless, the people senses no pity for him, the injured one. How could they??? And how did the man become like this? Image 4: I sense that there are not many firefighters, but at the same time they are capable of putting out the fire. Image 5: Who took this picture, may I ask, and where is this place? Image 6: Looks like a scene in the past, what with the background and the Attap house I spied and the happy children playing during or after a rain. Looks fun, so carefree with not a care in the world except for safety, of course.

My thoughts by Ferrero:

1.a Did he like fall from an aeroplane or something?!? 1.b Well, come to think of it, is that computer graphic? If that was real, that's an AWESOME stunt. It could save me a lot of trouble climbing staircases, well, of course, invisible wings would be better. 2.a I expected another impossible stunt. That was SO disappointing. 2.b Is that a secret meeting? You know, they dress them up as if they were going for a date and during their "date", they exchange information? The man looks suspicious. Is that a dog pound? There's a lonely dog behind them. 3.a Is that man stuck in a man hole?!? 3.b Why was that man on the floor? Why did everybody act like he wasn't there? If it had happened in Singapore, the scene would have been very different. Singaporeans are so "kiasu" that their eyes will be glued on that poor old man until he's out of their visual range. 4.a OMG! 4.b Umm, where's the fire taking place at? How come there's only 3 firemen when the fire's definitely gonna gobble them up as their numbers are so measly? Where are the other firemen? Are they fighting another fire? Why is hardly anybody at the scene? If the fire break out happened during the night, wouldn't everyone wake up from the light and heat? Wouldn't they be a little "kiasu"? 5.a Oh! The pain! The agony! 5.b She's so skinny! She looks like she's crying in her right eye. Her mouth completes that painful look and she's such a poor thing. And is the camera that took this picture the first that the people in the picture have seen? The lady in the left of the picture looks like she's staring at the camera as if it were some weird new fangled invention from outer space. They must be really poor to not have seen a camera before. 6.a So fun! 6.b I didn't realise it was raining. Lucky them, so carefree while we here have to suffer to prepare for PSLE. *Sigh* From the colour scheme of the photo, I infer that it was taken quite a few years back, maybe 2 or 3 decades (that's 10 years) ago. The glorious old days, sigh. We'll never be able to experience their sense of adventure, my mum wouldn't allow me to go out in the rain even if it was just sticking a finger out the window, don't even talk about drenching myself from head to toe and running in MUD. Mud is cool, for us as well as for the pigs.