The 'Stories Behind The Pictures'

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Among our most popular pages at Bygone Derbyshire are our 'Stories Behind The Pictures' items. Here local historian Peter Seddon highlights some of the contributions and muses why words and pictures together are such a potent combination.

The old saying that 'a picture is worth a thousand words' is a very common one. Yet it is often routinely trotted out without much thought as to what it actually means.

There is a logic to it of course - imagine writing a thousand words about how happy a footballer looked after scoring a goal. Once you had articulated in a few sentences how delighted he appeared, any more words might be considered superfluous. Yet a photograph capturing the magic moment itself would surely 'say it all' - at least that is what people really mean when they say 'a picture is worth a thousand words'.

But is it really true? Let's assume the picture has no words added to it at all. Surely then a picture without any sort of caption leaves so much untold. Who was the opposition? Was the goal a winning one? Perhaps the player was particularly happy because he had just broken a record? What year was the photograph taken? Maybe it was the player's debut - or his last ever game before retirement? Or perhaps the goal was meaningless in the context of the match itself, but the player had placed a large bet on himself to score it!

Any of that missing information would - if appended to the picture - put the whole thing 'in context'.

So essentially there is a flip side to the phrase 'a picture is worth a thousand words' - to provide the right balance we should also be saying that 'a picture without words tells an incomplete story'.

That is the spirit in which our 'Stories Behind The Pictures' items have been written. They start with a picture and bring it to life by telling the story behind it.

That may simply mean a basic rundown of the 'who, what, why, when and where' variety. But the narrative might also offer a wider perspective involving far more background information - it could even pick out small details in the picture which at first glance might otherwise have been missed. But the basic idea is always the same - to bring a picture to life.

So if you have an interesting picture with a Derbyshire connection - whether it be a particular favourite or one you have simply stumbled across - why not first add it to the 'Picture Gallery' and then create a 'Story Behind A Picture' feature of your very own.

Of course the writing bit doesn't have to be 'a thousand words' or even anything approaching it - all that really matters is that your story should add something of interest to the picture.

To give an idea of what has been posted so far, here are some features which fit broadly into our 'Stories Behind The Pictures' category.

Tattersall, Jimmy - World Number One at Tennis

Steve Bloomer's 'Old Codgers XI'

Hargrave House School became Hotel International

The modest heroine who foiled two GPO robberies

Nuns in Derby - The Enemy Within

Fishing for Pennies - Derby's Lifeboat Appeal

Balloon proves war talk was more than hot air

Brewed to Perfection - Derby Tea

Derbyshire - What's in a Painting?

Old curiosity shop girl was watching out for weddings

Derby From The Air

Doing The Bumps with Prince Charles

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