Voices and silence Whether in the presence of Nature or contemplating the Footprints of Mankind, we may underscore the frequent connection between sound and beauty, word and vision, “looking at words and listening to images”. And today perhaps, more than ever, human beings need to contemplate and listen, to rediscover the importance of silence. As well as looking (at times a difficult thing to do) it is important to live and look with a slow open gaze, to penetrate and grasp the beauty that is in knowledge. The culturally active gesture of taking a photograph is a way of learning more about someone or something; it follow that in the end - and above all - it is a way of learning more about oneself: sometimes by preferring silence - a basic element of communication - in contrast with the “noise” of present day visions.