What is in an image?

Do the thousand words conjured by a picture come from the image or the viewer?

Image credit to @joannawatala www.jwphotography.eu

I came across this image in my Instagram feed. It is triggering. I see beauty and pain and I am instantly conflicted. The comments below it full of every opinion, every possible response. I sucked in a breath, thumb frozen mid-scroll, mind silent for a moment while I absorbed the tones of black and white which had been brought together to cause such…