THE POWER OF A LENS

Music, for a time, was devoid of imposed imagery. Listening to a song I was free to make any associations I wished except perhaps while looking at the album cover. Then along came MTV. It revolutionized how I thought about popular music. Images were now chosen for me. I felt something unique and personal had been irretrievably denied.

Certainly a similar comparison between books, before the advent of film, can be made. Readers did not compete with someone else's depiction of the characters they envisioned, except perhaps for those with illustrations.

It is hard to shake Vivien Leigh's portrayal of Scarlett O'Hara or Madonna singing, "Like A Virgin."

Once we witness an evocation through a lens, our perception is unequivocally changed.

Something lost? Something gained?