A Thousand Words

Though in a crisis moment everyone tends to turn on the tv to see video of events and hear the latest information, I've always felt that still photos do a better job of capturing emotion and creating the lasting image of events. When I think of 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina, it's the still photos that I remember. Video conveys the immediacy, but it's usually franetic and often comes with audio commentary that later proves to be wrong or caught up in the emotion of the moment.

I may be biased because of my own love for photography, but I think it's the photojournalists who really preserve history for us and help us understand tragedy. The talking heads on television end up becoming a blur. As usual, it's the photographs coming out today that have made me cry. The best photo essay I've found is from Time. I think the photos express what even 1000 words could not capture.