There are different origins to the phrase ¡°a picture paints a thousand words. In the New Mirror for Travellers in 1828, James Kirke Paulding wrote ¡°A look, which said as plainly as a thousand words. Frederick Barnard, in 1921 wrote ¡°One look is worth a thousand words in Printer's Ink. Suggesting a Chinese proverb origin, Printer's Ink later said, ¡°One picture is worth ten thousand words in 1927. The band Bread, in its world famous song If, starts the smash hit with ¡°If a picture paints a thousand words, then why can't I paint you?

Regardless of what the axiom's origin is, the truth it states is very much undeniable. A picture basically couldn't compare to how words could describe a scene.

Take this for example: a four feet tall man, with a big washing machine tied to his back, riding a Suzuki Raider motorcycle, cruising on a very busy road, blindfolded. Wouldn't you rather see a picture than hear or read words describe such a scene?

A picture is truly nothing like how words could ever come to describe a scene.

Photography of the Times

Since its birth, the form factor and capability factor of cameras have gone respectively smaller and more and more impressive. For a time photography was considered to be quite an expensive ¡°hobby to participate in, but recent developments in photographic equipment has made photography an activity of relatively cheap price range, allowing more to engage in the activity either full time, or when snapshots are needed. There are now digital camera options for those who wish to steer away from film development procedures, requiring only personal computer systems for pictures to be developed. To those who do not wish to have actual hard copy pictures, but rather have digital images stored in permanent storage devices, printing costs would be negligible.

Most hand-held devices, which would comprise mobile phones and/or personal digital assistants, now also come integrated with digital cameras, with most of such cameras coming with digital zoom features, thereby making photography something almost everyone could do.

With powerful image capturing capabilities and features, coupled with relatively cheaper price tags, the world of photography is now quite accessible to many, allowing impressive pictures to be taken, memories to be forever kept in pictures.

The Statement of Black and White Photography

Yet even with all these now impressive classes of cameras capable of taking pictures rich in color, black and white photography still holds a place among professional, amateur or recreational photographers.

Originally, the first pictures to ever be taken came out as black and white. As the technology of photography progressed, colored photographs became possible, and colored pictures started coming out. Yet, black and white photography still is around. One could state that black and white photography is quite popular because of this factual roots of photography, but this actually isn't all the way true, as black and white pictures simply hold a power in themselves.

The secret as to why black and white photography still lingers?

Black and white photography's known impact on persons. A sense of sincerity, or sadness, or nostalgia, depending on the subject matter of a picture, could come out naturally in black and white photography. Colored pictures could induce such emotions in persons, but there are just certain scenarios where black and white just works perfectly.

As certain photography subject matters in black and white come out much more provocative compared to colored pictures, the whole premise as to why black and white photography still is up and about, stands to be this: With black and white photography, certain pictures don't just paint a thousand words, but also brings about one or a myriad of emotions to those who see them, at degrees colored pictures are known to be incapable of.

Thus the statement in black and white photography.