Please analyze this picture (N/A)

[RJM62]

No, this isn't some kind of projective psychological test.

I took the attached picture, which has been rejected by almost every stock company I submitted it to, while some of my pictures that I consider far inferior have been accepted.

In a nutshell, the editors tell me that this picture is unsaleable because no designer would want a picture of broken telegraph wires. I maintain that the picture could very easily be used to illustrate a broad range of ... I'll just say "things," so as not to put any ideas into people's heads.

I'm just asking for people to suggest a few ideas that come to their minds when they they see this picture, or a few ways in which it could be used. In other words, what could it be used to symbolically represent?

I have my own ideas, which I'll list later.

The editors had no complaints about the technical quality of the picture in it's full-res version. They basically say that it's a very nice picture of broken telegraph wires, as pictures of broken telegraph wires go; but that no one would need such a picture. They don't see the symbolic potential that I do.

So... am I crazy, or are they dense?

Thanks,

Rich

 

[Jim Logajan]

Okay, two of my ideas already have been roughly validated:

1. Technological progress obsolescing older technologies.

2. Broken lines of communication (with other possibilities under that heading, which I'll keep to myself for now).

Thanks.

Not being a photographer, it took a bit for the "stock photo" phrase to sink in enough to know how to respond. So I presume one way to frame (ahem) the question to be answered is "In what kind of advertisements would this picture appear to support some idea being presented?" Then those two ideas and their variants come first to mind. I'm almost tempted to write a fictional ad using it, but I'm not a copywriter either!