Pictures Lie

I recently attended a symposium yesterday given by the Pikes Peak Library District.  The title of the event was 'Film & Photography on the Front Range."  The first speaker, Mike Olsen, spoke about an assignment that he gave to some of his students.  For this assignment, each student was given three envelopes.  The envelopes were numbered one through three and the students were instructed that they would open an envelope when told and then write an essay on what was written on the paper inside of it.

The students were told to open the first envelope.  The paper in the envelope said, "what is your earliest memory?"  One student wrote about her father returning from Desert Storm.  She wrote about the excitement, parties, and good times that they had.

The assignment in envelope two was, "Prove it."  The same student reported that the festivities were recorded on video and photographs taken at the event.

The third assignment was, "Why did we give you this assignment?"  The student returned to the instructor somewhat confused.  He asked her what confused her about the final assignment?  She said the pictures from the earlier assignment showed this wonderful time that we had when my father returned from overseas, but two weeks later, my parents got divorced.  "Pictures lie," she said sadly.  To that the instructor replied that she should enter for the final assignment just those two words, "Pictures lie."

Of course, I am paraphrasing the speaker.  If you are interested, the symposium was live streamed (ya gotta love technology) and I'm sure that the finished results will be posted on their web site.