Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra
I have to admit that I’m a big fan of Star Trek. Not the original Star Trek and not the latest series, but one and the only one - Star Trek: The Next Generation. One of the episodes features Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, and Dathon of the alien Tamarian race, played by Paul Winfield. Captain Picard is captured and then trapped on a planet together with Tamarian captain. They must learn to communicate with each other before the beast of the planet overwhelms them. The Tamarian language, although “translated” by universal translator device, is still unintelligible for Picard, because it is too deeply rooted in local Tamarian metaphors. Eventually Jean-Luc grasps the meaning of Tamarian metaphors and in the end he even enriched them with metaphors from Saga of Gilgamesh.
Enthusiastic Star Trek fans compiled the Damrok Dictionary which has Tamarian phrases like these:
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.
dahr-MOCK juh-LAHD tuh-NAH-gruh
Friendship as a result of shared struggle
Kadir beneath Mo Moteh
kuh-DEER moe-moe-TAY
Failure
Mirab, his sails unfurled
mee-RAHB
Departure, “let’s go”
Sokath, his eyes open
soh-KAHTH
Realization, understanding, an epiphany
Temba, his arms wide
TEM-buh
Giving, receiving
I’m telling this story because I think that photography like Tamarian Dathon speaks metaphorical language quite frequently. Every photographic image has to be interpreted in context of culture, religion, history, in context of personal life of the photographer, his relationship with nature and people in his life. Every photograph carries a metaphor. Every photograph is a metaphor. Metaphors could be quite potent but often utterly meaningless to a viewer. In that case photograph fails its main function - to communicate (Kadir beneath Mo Moteh). Question: is it a failure of a photographer or a viewer? Or both? Photographer must try to understand the language of the viewer and vise versa. Photographer should try to speak universal language of art showing a path to his cultural or personal metaphors. And viewer should be visually educated, be ready to accept the path. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.