The photograph chosen for an announcement carries decisions about what remains outside the frame.

Choosing a picture is choosing a story. Whatever falls outside the edge, the mess in the room, the people not invited, the year that came before, is not lied about so much as left out, and the version that circulates becomes the version remembered. Nearly everyone does this and almost nobody experiences it as dishonesty. Knowing the frame was chosen makes you a fairer reader of everyone else’s news.

When something of yours goes out this week, notice what you cropped and why. When someone else’s arrives, assume a wider picture and resist filling it in with envy.