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Context and Ambiguity

Blogs: #3 of 17

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Context and Ambiguity

Is the person on the beach welcoming a new day, or contemplating the day just ending? A number of contextual clues would give us the answer: location, direction, season, and of course time of day. But, nothing else in the photo provides any of those clues. Even with one of the clues we still might not know. If the location is the US shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico, we would still need more information on location. If it's the west coast of Florida, then it's likely sunset. However, if it's the coast of Texas near Corpus Christi, then it is almost certainly sunrise.

In the end, does it really matter? Can't we construct our own storyline to suit how the picture makes us feel?