• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SafetyRisk.net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE
    • Slogans
      • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
      • When Slogans Don’t Work
      • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
      • BIGGEST COLLECTION of WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
      • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
      • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
      • Safety Acronyms
      • You know Where You Can Stick Your Safety Slogans
      • Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple
      • Spanish Safety Slogans – Consignas de seguridad
      • Safety Slogans List
      • Road Safety Slogans 2023
      • How to write your own safety slogans
      • Why Are Safety Slogans Important
      • Safety Slogans Don’t Save Lives
      • 40 Free Safety Slogans For the Workplace
      • Safety Slogans for Work
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
    • FREE DOWNLOADS
    • TOP 50
    • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS
    • Find a Safety Consultant
    • Free Safety Program Documents
    • Psychology Of Safety
    • Safety Ideas That Work
    • HEALTH and SAFETY MANUALS
    • FREE SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENT RESOURCES
    • Whats New In Safety
    • FUN SAFETY STUFF
    • Health and Safety Training
    • SAFETY COURSES
    • Safety Training Needs Analysis and Matrix
    • Top 20 Safety Books
    • This Toaster Is Hot
    • Free Covid-19 Toolbox Talks
    • Download Page – Please Be Patient With Larger Files…….
    • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
    • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • Social Psychology Of Risk
    • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
    • Safety Psychology Terminology
    • Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
    • The Psychology of Leadership in Risk
    • Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk
    • The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
    • Psychology and safety
    • The Psychology of Safety
    • Hot Toaster
    • TALKING RISK VIDEOS
    • WHAT IS SAFETY
    • THE HOT TOASTER
    • THE ZERO HARM DEBATE
    • SEMIOTICS
    • LEADERSHIP
  • Dr Long Posts
    • ALL POSTS
    • Learning Styles Matter
    • There is no Hierarchy of Controls
    • Scaffolding, Readiness and ZPD in Learning
    • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
    • Presentation Tips for Safety People
    • Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts
    • It’s Only a Symbol
    • Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists
    • Zero is Unethical
    • First Report on Zero Survey
    • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • THEMES
    • Psychosocial Safety
    • Resiliencing
    • Risk Myths
    • Safety Myths
    • Safety Culture Silences
    • Safety Culture
    • Psychological Health and Safety
    • Zero Harm
    • Due Diligence
  • Free Learning
    • Introduction to SPoR – Free
    • FREE RISK and SAFETY EBOOKS
    • FREE ebook – Guidance for the beginning OHS professional
    • Free EBook – Effective Safety Management Systems
    • Free EBook – Lessons I Have Learnt
  • Psychosocial Safety
    • What is Psychosocial Safety
    • Psychological Safety
      • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
      • Managing psychosocial hazards at work
      • Psychological Safety – has it become the next Maslow’s hammer?
      • What is Psychosocial Safety
      • Psychological Safety Slogans and Quotes
      • What is Psychological Safety?
      • Understanding Psychological Terminology
      • Psycho-Social and Socio-Psychological, What’s the Difference?
      • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
      • It’s not weird – it’s a psychological safety initiative!
You are here: Home / critical thinking / A Picture Tells a Thousand Lies in Safety

A Picture Tells a Thousand Lies in Safety

October 20, 2022 by Dr Rob Long 8 Comments

Originally posted on June 8, 2020 @ 7:34 AM

‘A picture is worth a thousand words’

‘Seeing is believing’

These are common aphorisms about photographic media and images. Unfortunately, these aphorisms have never been true. No image is objective or neutral but rather carries a story that must be interpreted.

Now, more than ever with applications and devices that can manipulate images, we need to be more aware about what we think images do and the nature of photographic evidence.

I have written before about naivety about evidence (https://safetyrisk.net/evidence-proof-and-paperwork-in-safety/) and the nature of proof. Despite the reality that the safety industry trains people about regulation, legislation, standards and systems, it doesn’t help safety people understand the subjectivity of evidence. This is often discovered the hard way when a safety person for some reason or other ends up in court. The court and lawyers don’t think about evidence as most safety people do.

So too, when it comes to images or paperwork in themselves they do not comprise objective ‘facts’ or neutral ‘evidence’. Indeed, often the paperwork that is trusted by the industry as a protection is used against you in court.

Images and documents require interpretation and testimony to verify their authenticity, validity and accuracy to a court. Now that images can be so easily manipulated and ‘doctored’ with Photoshop (or Picasa), we need to be much more aware of how images that we might trust can be challenged. Similarly for the volumes of paperwork we think are a defence.

One of the indicators of naivety in the safety industry over time has been the constant parading of photographs of people doing crazy things. The photos are often used to create a climate of superiority for the industry so it can parade its superiority about risk in the face of unsafe behavior. These photos are often paraded about as ‘shocker of the week’ or ‘idiots at risk’ or similar posts. Many of these are clearly ‘Photoshopped’ and bury the industry in an unhelpful climate of pointing and safety arrogance. The more these are paraded the dumber it makes the industry.

Digital cameras are everywhere and even the simplest of cameras and a phone can allow editing in the phone/camera even before it gets to Photoshop. Even then, photographers have known for years how to change the emotion of a photographic image through Depth of Field, shutter speed, aperture setting and angle/point of view. Photography has been a hobby for over 50 years and I can do all of these things but I am certainly no professional. Photography helps one to see the world semiotically.

When a professional Photoshop graphic expert takes to an image it is nearly impossible to detect its manipulation, even to another expert (https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/DIGITAL-MANIPULATION-AND-PHOTOGRAPHIC-EVIDENCE%3A-THE-Parry/60feb88e68e053ae90fc1db2142b56a504276b85;).

Unfortunately, people in general are naïve about digitally enhanced images and photos. Similarly in Safety, understanding Real Risk and developing discernment seems in short supply (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/real-risk/).

The prevalence of Instagram and other social media image platforms demonstrate that people tend to believe the story if the picture matches an attribution. Rather than question the veracity of the story, if the image matches the story then we tend to believe its true. We see this kind of thing done all the time in museums and art galleries. We see an image and then underneath is an explanation given by someone. For example: I went to an Exhibition recently and the two photos below demonstrate the way we make associations and then attributions about images.

Fortuna

image

Explanation of Fortuna

clip_image004

I took these 2 photos but you have to accept my testimony on that. The little statue was part of a travelling exhibition called Rome, City and Empire (https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/rome-city-and-empire ). But these two comments still don’t make my story true. You still have no evidence that I was there or took the two photos other than my corroborating testimony.

Then when we come to the photos themselves you also need my testimony to accept that the explanation and photo were situated together. Even if true, we still need to trust the explanation given by the comments underneath the statue as a true representation of the statue. We then need to trust the testimony of the museum employee, historian or curator and then attribute the connection. The statue may not be of Fortuna and it certainly is dislocated from its context so there is rather a lot of trust and faith placed in the testimony thus far.

This is how all images are ‘used’. In semiotics the study of subjectivity and interpretation is called ‘hermeneutics’. The beginning of wisdom in risk is accepting rather than fearing its subjectivity.

Even in the courts we know that effective storytelling and skills in narrative connected to evidence can sway a magistrate or jury (Amsterdam, A., and Bruner, J., (2000) Minding the Law, How courts rely in storytelling, and how their stories change the ways we understand the law – and ourselves. Harvard University Press, London; Bruner, J., (2002) Making Stories, Law, Literature Life. Harvard University Press, London).

Whether it be paperwork or images the problem is not in the image but rather in the fallibility of humans as witnesses, lawyers, magistrates and juries. Neither the courts nor the Law are stupid enough to believe in zero!

Often testimony is required years after people were present on the scene. Sometimes stories are then embellished or change over time. It is up to the court to decide what testimony or evidence is valid.

I have already demonstrated how commentary attributed to images can be easily manipulated and distorted (https://safetyrisk.net/lemmings-for-lemmings-in-leadership-and-risk/ ). The story of the Dancing Guy at a folk festival has been misused by leadership speakers for 10 years. The TED Talk video has had 14 million views and it’s all false! Similarly we saw a president this week pose for a photo in front of a church he never attends holding a book he doesn’t read (https://www.ft.com/content/f0623663-34b5-46fc-981b-8765a44076ed ). But he knows just how gullible and lacking in discernment the general public are, such is the misattributions and naivety about images. This is now known as ‘Fauxtography’ or ‘Hyper-realism’.

We do know that any form of proposed evidence (and photos), are challenged in court. If an image or some paperwork can’t stand up to cross examination it doesn’t last long. Often a lawyer will advise their client NOT to submit some pieces of paperwork or images because they know how the court will treat them unfavourably eg. a risk matrix (https://vimeo.com/162034157 ). Greg Smith nominates this coloured tool (that is trusted so much in the safety industry) as his ‘go to’ for discrediting a risk assessment in court.

You can hear Greg and I in conversation about Risky Conversations here:

https://spor.com.au/podcasts/risky-conversations-talking-book/

You can watch the Risky Conversations videos here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/3938199

So, where does this leave Safety? Some things to consider:

  1. We should not be so naïve about paperwork and images in which we trust. Perhaps read Papersafe by Greg Smith as a start (https://www.waylandlegal.com.au/post/paper-safe )
  2. We should always keep a journal or daily diary that describes in brief detail our experiences for the day. These may become key triggers for memory should anything go pear shaped.
  3. We need to develop critical thinking skills about documentation, evidence and images and be more wary of attributions and narrative connected to such images.
  4. Unfortunately, it is outside of the safety curriculum that one will find critical thinking, the safety curriculum only empowers checklisting. A study of History, Politics, Law, Literature, Anthropology or Semiotics is needed to help shape critical thinking. It is only in a transdisciplinary approach that one can step outside of the safety bubble and the limitations of the AIHS BoK.
  5. Do some research on how images are currently being challenged in court (https://criminalcpd.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Identification-Evidence-March-2018-Edition-Mark-Dennis.pdf)
  6. Stop seeing the world as some kind of objective platform, step outside of the STEM-only bubble and start to question the biases and subjectivities of science (eg. https://www.lri.fr/~mbl/Stanford/CS477/papers/Kuhn-SSR-2ndEd.pdf) Similarly, the delusions that paperwork are objective.
  7. Spend some time exploring the challenges of perception and vision, especially collective attribution and social psychological dynamics that shape vision (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ALRCRefJl/2007/32.pdf). This is the nature of my ninth book in the series on risk to be released later this year.
  8. Perhaps start your journey away from naivety by studying an Introduction to the Social Psychology of Risk. A free module is currently being run but another will be available in 12 weeks time. (https://cllr.com.au/product/an-introduction-to-the-social-psychology-of-risk-unit-1-free-online-module/ )
  9. Start to think of paperwork and photos more as artefacts. Artefacts are a critical part of a study of Culture that is ignored by the bahaviourist focused safety industry. ‘No object is objective’ is a good mantra to have in the front of your journal or another good aphorism is ‘everything has significance’.
  10. Perhaps take up the hobby of photography there is so much free on the internet (https://phlearn.com/magazine/best-photography-blogs/). An important lesson is: just as the brain is not a computer so too are the eyes not like a camera.

One blog I have found helpful in photography and in thinking about evidence is https://thelawtog.com/blogs/. Although American there are some good tips for thinking about photography and law.

Of course, when taking photos always seek permission and if needed get that permission release in writing especially if undertaking an investigation. We cover all of this in our SEEK Module (https://cllr.com.au/product/seek-the-social-psyvhology-of-event-investigations-unit-2/ ) on investigations.

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about Rob
Dr Rob Long

Dr Rob Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
Dr Rob Long

Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)

  • Embodied Enactivity in Safety - September 21, 2023
  • The Meaning of Myth in Risk - September 20, 2023
  • Myth Making and Why it Matters to Safety - September 20, 2023
  • The Power of Safety Myths - September 18, 2023
  • What Do You Mean By Performance? - September 17, 2023
Dr Rob Long
PhD., MEd., MOH., BEd., BTh., Dip T., Dip Min., Cert IV TAA, MRMIA Rob is the founder of Human Dymensions and has extensive experience, qualifications and expertise across a range of sectors including government, education, corporate, industry and community sectors over 30 years. Rob has worked at all levels of the education and training sector including serving on various post graduate executive, post graduate supervision, post graduate course design and implementation programs.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: critical thinking, Psychological Health and Safety, Robert Long, Semiotics, Social Psychology of Risk Tagged With: aphorisms, media, paperwork

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Frank Garrett says

    June 9, 2020 at 1:18 AM

    Some of us amateur photographers lived the transition from 35mm film to digital, when that took place there was much excitement and discussion around digital pictures as “evidence” in court, but the technology just wasn’t there to manipulate images as there is today. Now there is the ability to manipulate video as seen in any social media post. A long winded way to agree whole heartily with your blog Rob, but there must be no room for interpretation, photos are black & white, figuratively and literally says safety.

    Reply
    • rob long says

      June 9, 2020 at 8:33 AM

      Spot on Frank. But even without a device like a camera, it has always been easy to con the non-discerning into believing a host of snake oil through the binary black and white of fundamentalist safety. What a shock it is when the court gets it so wrong.

      Reply
  2. Brian Darlington says

    June 8, 2020 at 5:51 PM

    Great Blog Rob, very interesting

    Regards

    Brian

    Reply
  3. bernardcorden says

    June 8, 2020 at 1:58 PM

    Industrial manslaughter charges are pending and a simplified version will be presented at the forthcoming virtual National Safety Conference.

    Early bird booking discounts are still available.

    Reply
  4. bernardcorden says

    June 8, 2020 at 11:41 AM

    PS: I forgot the post nominals Jack (ChOHSP)

    Reply
    • Rob long says

      June 8, 2020 at 5:03 PM

      The more letters the more professional. Fauxtography indeed.

      Reply
  5. bernardcorden says

    June 8, 2020 at 8:34 AM

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ6SrhhFYk0

    The following sounds like an ICAM investigation or TapRoot RCA

    This is the horse and the hound and the horn,
    That belonged to the farmer sowing his corn,
    That kept the that crowed in the morn,
    That woke the priest all shaven and shorn,
    That married the man all tattered and torn,
    That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
    That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,
    That tossed the dog that worried the cat,
    That chased the rat that ate the malt,
    That lay in the house that Jack built.

    http://www.tmponline.org/wp-content/the_real_truth_sun.jpg

    Reply
    • Admin says

      June 8, 2020 at 1:39 PM

      That is hilarious! So the Farmer that sowed the corn requires more training and Jack to take more care in regards to storing his malt……….

      Reply

Leave a Reply to bernardcordenCancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Search and Discover More on this Site

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,511 other subscribers.

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Recent Comments

  • Matt Thorne on Myth Making and Why it Matters to Safety
  • Rob Long on What’s Funny About Safety?
  • Rob Long on Perfection is Safety Child’s Play
  • Rosa Carrillo on Hopkins-Dekker on Reason and Other Laughs
  • Brent Charlton on Perfection is Safety Child’s Play
  • Anonymous on What’s Funny About Safety?
  • Rob Long on Zero Hour part 6 Knowing Yourself
  • Rob Long on Safety Cops and Safety’s Adoration of Power
  • Rob Long on Book Launch – “Zero, The Great Safety Delusion” – Free Download
  • Rob long on Don’t Be Dumb Like Me, the Typical Safety Keynote
  • Anonymous on Don’t Be Dumb Like Me, the Typical Safety Keynote
  • Joseph D Zinobile on Book Launch – “Zero, The Great Safety Delusion” – Free Download
  • Jason Martell on Safety Cops and Safety’s Adoration of Power
  • Rob Long on Safety Cops and Safety’s Adoration of Power
  • Peter Collins on Safety Cops and Safety’s Adoration of Power
  • Rob Long on Zero Hour Part 4 – Zero and the Unconscious
  • Chiara on Zero Hour Part 4 – Zero and the Unconscious
  • Rob Long on Zero Hour Part 4 – Zero and the Unconscious
  • Yasmin Saunders on Zero Hour Part 4 – Zero and the Unconscious
  • Rob Long on Seven ‘Golden’ Rules for Zero and Yet No Ethic

RECOMMENDED READING

viral post – iso 45003 and what it cannot do

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

7 Golden Rules that are NOT Golden

Why Zero Vision Can Never Tackle Mental Health

If Psychosocial Health Matters, Stop Hot Desking

Effective Strategies in Mental Health at Work

CLLR Newsletter July 2023

Playing With Mental Health in Safety is Dangerous

STOP ‘BREAKING’ PEOPLE! The notion of Psychological Safety

Learning to Learn Socially

Not Just Another ‘Hazard’

Hazards Near Me

More Posts from this Category

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Footer

Top Posts & Pages. Sad that most are so dumb but this is what safety luves

  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • BIGGEST COLLECTION of WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
  • Safety Acronyms
  • Icebreakers and Games that Safety Trainers Play
  • What Is Safety?
  • Embodied Enactivity in Safety

Recent Posts

  • Embodied Enactivity in Safety
  • The Meaning of Myth in Risk
  • Myth Making and Why it Matters to Safety
  • Icebreakers and Games that Safety Trainers Play
  • The Power of Safety Myths
  • What Do You Mean By Performance?
  • Hopkins-Dekker on Reason and Other Laughs
  • Perfection is Safety Child’s Play
  • Podcast – Dr Rob Long With John Morlan and The Risk Matrix
  • What’s Funny About Safety?
  • Zero Hour part 6 Knowing Yourself
  • Free Videos, Podcasts and Books on Zero
  • Don’t Be Dumb Like Me, the Typical Safety Keynote
  • If You’re Happy in Safety, Clap Your Hands
  • Safety Cops and Safety’s Adoration of Power
  • Zero Hour Part 5 – Surfacing the Unconscious
  • Zero Hour Part 4 – Zero and the Unconscious
  • Auditing the 7 Golden Rules of Zero, A Miserable Fail
  • 7 Golden Rules that are NOT Golden
  • The Non-Golden Rules for Leadership in Zero
  • Seven ‘Golden’ Rules for Zero and Yet No Ethic
  • Why Zero Vision Can Never Tackle Mental Health
  • Is this Your Safety?
  • SPoR Workshops Canberra 18-21 September
  • The Dominance of Zero as the ‘Common Denominator’ of Safety
  • Zero Hour Episode 3
  • Goal Setting and Zero
  • Zero as a Worldview
  • If Psychosocial Health Matters, Stop Hot Desking
  • Book Launch – “Zero, The Great Safety Delusion” – Free Download
  • Breach of Faith and Psycho-Social Risk
  • Zero Harm is Never Zero Harm
  • Why Would You Want to be a Safety “Geek’ or Hero?
  • The Mental Illness of Identifying as Safety
  • Zero Hour – Zero as a place holder
  • Zero Hour – Zero as a Philosophy
  • CARING ABOUT PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
  • Care is NOT a Factor and Yes, Your Model Matters
  • Care Ethics and the Ethics of Care, in Risk
  • FEAR AND CONTROL – Dialogue in a technological society
  • Of Course, Method Matters in Safety
  • Day 12 SPoR in Europe
  • Free Study Module Following-Leading in Risk August-September
  • Effective Strategies in Mental Health at Work
  • CLLR Newsletter July 2023
  • Playing With Mental Health in Safety is Dangerous
  • The Sacred and Profane, Rituals and Semiotics, A Lesson for Safety
  • Day 11 SPoR in Europe
  • STOP ‘BREAKING’ PEOPLE! The notion of Psychological Safety
  • Free “It Works” Download, Now Works

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

Practical Case Studies in SPoR Presented at Vienna Workshops

Why Myths in Safety Work

Safety-as-Persona

Compliance, Obedience and The Attraction of Risk

7 Incredible Ways To Diagnose Risk More Effectively

We need to make sure this can never happen again

It Takes Two to Tango–Reflections on Safe Behaviour

Sanctimonious Safety

Why Some People Never Achieve

Developing Our Inner Introversion

‘False Consciousness’ and Perception in Risk and Safety

Regulation Madness

Banning Head Protection is Safer

The Religion of Safety

SPoR Ontology and Methods – A Video

The Binary Barnacle

The Village Effect

Why Safety Doesn’t See Things

The SEEK Investigations Donut

Keep Your Head In the Game

The Fear of Freedom in Safety

More Realistic Swiss Cheese Symbol

Knowledge and Curriculum for Risk and Safety People

Balance in Risk and Safety

THE KING’S CORONATION

Safety as a Worldview

Mental Health, Risk and Safety

Social Media and Safety

Due Diligence Workshop Sydney 20,21 February 2019

Focus on ‘Meeting’ people, not legislation – a path to risk maturity

How was your break?

Understanding Language Influencing, A Video

An Introduction to Semiotics and Risk

Culture About Much More Than Structure

Target Trade-Offs and Numeric Goals

iCue Education Pack to Enable Learning in the SPoR Approach to Risk

Looking for Another Side

The Triarchic Mind, Risk and Safety

Tackling Risk, A Field Guide to Risk and Learning

Just Hangin’ Out…

More Posts from this Category

VIRAL POST – The Risk Matrix Myth

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,511 other subscribers.

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

What is Psychological Safety at Work?


WHAT IS PSYCHOSOCIAL SAFETY