The Question of An Image

I choose carefully the picture that accompanies each article I submit for publication: sometimes it supplements the writing if the visual cue enhances its effect; sometimes it softens the tone (often with humor, and often self-deprecating humor) if the message is hard to swallow; and other times it even blatantly contradicts what the readers are about to read if I am aiming to jolt or to provoke.

When choosing a picture to go with my last piece 我在手機裏看見您的臉但那又如何?, I had a great struggle: the picture I really wanted is what Scorsese would call a "key image" of a movie, and this one is from "Brokeback Mountain". I was talking about the Westerns and how they are always about the Land and a yearning, and here Ang Lee captured it all in one simple composition---two cowboy shirts, doubling up, and a photo of a mountain pinned to the closet door. The image speaks loudly in a most quiet way.

And my struggle. If the reader knows not the image, then the image means not much. If the reader knows the image, he or she will likely typecast me as someone questionable because I not only promote a very questionable movie but also honor it by posting an image of it. I wouldn't break my back over being prejudiced against, but I'd hate to see the image desecrated and my message undermined. So I practiced the diligent act of self-censorship and went with an image of Gus from "Lonesome Dove", which achieves a different sort of provocation as everybody must be thinking what the hell does a cowboy have to do with seeing a person's face on a cell phone? Well, I created the long title (I hate long titles) to accompany the image and gave it a reason to be there.