A Picture is worth a thousand words

The “Urban Visions” photo display in the art gallery truly shows that the Year of the City is fulfilling its task. The artists, especially Ellis Marsalis III, did an unbelievable job of demonstrating the ideas and principles of what it is like in the inner city of Baltimore to the oblivious community of Loyola. The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” truly applies to Marsalis’ photographs. The whole aspect of Baltimore is depicted, not just the things that are aesthetically pleasing.
Marsalis had several pictures in his collection that dealt with the lifestyle of those in Baltimore, more specifically homeless children. Two particularly fascinating pictures include “Fished Boy” and “In the Shadow of the Trees”, both of which depicted a child staring into the camera. In “Fished Boy”, a wide-eyed little boy stares into the camera, almost inviting you to stare back. The emotion showed in his face is what really makes the viewer personally connect to the child, which is Marsalis’ way of getting those who saw this photograph to understand the actual living conditions of a homeless child in Baltimore. It forces the looker to realize the entirety of what Baltimore has to offer, not just the college campuses and the inner harbor. This kind of realization is what is ideal by means of the Year of the City, because it is forcing a connection between the student-body of Loyola and the inhabitants that we share the city with. The picture did not stop there, even after I continued to contemplate it. It had me thinking about how that boy and other little children like him are without a place to sleep in the snow, while I worry about how well I did on my macroeconomics midterm. The Jesuit aspect of the Year of the City I felt is connected to this, because of how it makes me think that there is a greater good that can be accomplished, which I personally need to help work towards. Not only that, but how I should be giving myself to help others, and not concerning myself with things like booking my plane ticket to Florida for spring break.
I received almost the same effect from “In the Shadow of the Trees”. The image of the boy barely visible in the picture with a gun makes the viewer realize the actual situation that people live in. They are forced to look at some negative aspect and realize that this picture is giving the city character. The single most thing that this photograph reminded me of was the poem by Langston Hughes, “Theme for English B”. In the poem the teacher tells the narrator to write a page about his life, which seems an impossible task. The idea of “a picture is worth a thousand words” plays perfectly into this situation because of how this picture is a perfect summary of this child’s life story. The violence and drug-related aspect of Baltimore which Loyola students are not aware of first-hand are given a face in this picture by this child, and serve as another way to connect with those we are trying to unite with.
From the portfolio of Ellis Marsalis and the other photographers, the Loyola student-body received a fantastic insight into life in the aspect of Baltimore to that which they are not accustomed. The artists truly did get their point across and managed to succeed in what I believe they were trying to, and have left a last impression on me and hopefully the other people fortunate enough to see their displays.