文字已死，會拍照者得天下

????像許多主流的美國人一樣，我在1999年把我拍攝的第一張數碼照片上傳到了一個叫Shutterfly的網站上。2005年，我又是較早一批注冊Facebook的人，不過直到三年后，我的家人朋友才紛紛開始使用這項服務，讓它成了我的一個可靠的交流平臺。2007年，喬布斯推出了把能手機變成相機的劃時代產品iPhone，我也在2007年秋天買了一部。

????現在到了2014年，我光是上個月就拍了500多張照片，包括每天早上遛狗的照片、假期與家人一起做飯的照片、采訪時的照片、拍到手機里的名片、我想買的一條裙子的標簽、我想去超市里買的一種牛奶，等等。另外還有一張自拍，是我在牙科診所里皺著眉頭的表情，我把它發給了我的搭檔，表明我多討厭去看牙。

????很大程度上，這些照片并不是為了記錄某個場景，而是已經變成了一種“視覺速記”，用來表達過去我可能需要文字表達才更有效、更有共鳴的情緒。這種交流方式的變化將對文化、商業和政治都產生重大影響。它已經從根本上改變了從廣告到媒體和時尚等很多行業的風貌。它甚至能影響政治宣傳，有可能影響選舉的結果。它也正在改變美國的外交模式。它還重新定義了藝術，并且影響了我們與文化藝術機構的關系。

????那些最早擁抱這種轉變的人將有機會在他們各自的領域里造成重大的影響，同時在競爭中獲得優勢。如果想知道為什么，請繼續閱讀本系列文章。在本月的系列專題《拍照吧》（Picture This）中，我將為大家介紹一些創造和發展了新的“視覺語言”形式的人和企業。首先我會介紹一些制造工具的人——比如參加了今年6月4日在紐約舉辦的LDV視覺峰會的人，他們在會上探討了計算機禮堂與溝通技術的發展趨勢；然后我會介紹一些用視覺溝通的人——比如來自密西西比的梅麗莎?文森特，她在Instagram上已經有了幾十萬名粉絲，她還在這個過程中發現了一些講故事的新方法。另外我還將介紹一些解開視覺語言密碼的人，比如托萊多美術館館長布萊恩?肯尼迪，他專門開設了一門視覺語言課程。

????未來掌握在懂得視覺語言的人手中，希望你也是其中一個。（財富中文網）

????譯者：樸成奎

????Like many mainstream Americans, I uploaded my first digital photograph to a web site called Shutterfly in 1999. An early adopter, I registered for a Facebook account in 2005, though it took three years for my friends and family to join the service with enough mass to make it a reliable platform for communication. And I got an iPhone in the fall of 2007, shortly after Steve Jobs introduced a device so radical it transformed the phone into a camera.

????Now it’s 2014, and I have taken 500 photos in the past month. They include a daily snapshot of my dog on our morning walk, holiday photos of family members cooking together, photos of my notes from interviews, of business cards, the tag to a dress I might buy, the milk I need to pick up from the store. And a hastily snapped “selfie,” or self-portrait, of myself frowning in the dentist’s office, sent to my partner to make the point that I hate visiting the dentist.

????For the most part, these photos are not designed to document an occasion. They have become a visual shorthand that is at once more emotionally resonant and more efficient than the words I might once have used to express the same ideas. This shift in the nature of communications will have a substantial effect on culture, business and politics. It’s already reshaping entire industries from advertising to journalism to fashion. It’s powering political campaigns, and will help decide elections. It’s changing the American approach to foreign diplomacy. It’s redefining art and our relationship with the cultural institutions that embody it.

????Those who embrace this shift early have the opportunity to amass influence in their fields and gain power among their peers. How, you ask? Read on. In this month’s series, Picture This, I plan to chronicle the stories of the people and businesses enabling and evolving new forms of visual literacy. I will write about the toolmakers—the entrepreneurs attending the LDV Vision Summit June 4 in New York, where they’ll discuss computer vision and trends in communications technology. I will introduce you to the communicators—the artists like Mississippi-based Melissa Vincent who are building hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, and discovering new ways of telling stories in the process. And I will shed light on the decoders like Brian Kennedy, the curator at the Toledo Art Museum, who has developed a curriculum for visual literacy.

????The future belongs to the visually literate. May you be among them.