> Why are these photos so depressing? What is it about their composition that is so enervating?
If the causality was a property of the images, those questions would have definitive answers.
But our emotions are not transmitted to us by inanimate objects or images. They come from within our psyches. There is an element of choice to what we feel. If there wasn’t, we would be zombies, or machines, or vulnerable imbeciles who could be overcome by an enemy combatant who would need no gun, knife or club - just a picture of a traffic light.
If the causality was a property of the images, those questions would have definitive answers.
But our emotions are not transmitted to us by inanimate objects or images. They come from within our psyches. There is an element of choice to what we feel. If there wasn’t, we would be zombies, or machines, or vulnerable imbeciles who could be overcome by an enemy combatant who would need no gun, knife or club - just a picture of a traffic light.