"Whether or not the subject is already dead, every photograph is a catastrophe", wrote Roland Barthes.

We feel the lure of potential veracity and want to believe in the photograph. We engage in the literature of imagination and construct meaning around an image. Like celestial bodies whose movements have been affected by their gravitational pull on one another, proximity alters the trajectory of the narrative constructed around a photograph. Connotation, the imposition of a second meaning on the image, brings with it implication. Interpretation is based in part on fear or desire and aligns the audience with the defenders of the gates or those throwing themselves on the palisades.  It is human nature to want access and to feel disenfranchised when entry is denied. Historically, the desire to throw oneself on the palisades is strong. It is through our parallel narrative that we incriminate ourselves by interpretation.