Giving a meaning to a photo

School, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Looking at this photo, you recognize a building in the background, and silhouttes of trees in the foreground. There is some kind of field between. The blue sky is covered partly with light clouds.

Name the building a school, and you gain additional meaning. Field of knowledge, and similar kinds of metaphors spring to mind.

Today in Finland we have an additional, dark context in which to interpret photos of schools. Last year we had a serious school shooting, with several casualties. Today we had another, as reported by Yle in At Least 11 Dead after Kauhajoki School Shooting.

Fortunately, the school shown in the photo has nothing to do with these shootings. But ... the human mind is eager to look for patterns, possibilities, and especially threats. Could something similar happen anywhere? Thus, today we have in Finland very strong emotions in play when thinking about schools: sorrow, fear, anger.

But - and this is a try at a kind of optimism - human beings are adaptable and quite tough. I believe that after a few months or years the photos of schools will be again symbols of hope and love, not sorrow and fear. And finally, this is a photo of a building, a field and a forest, that is all.