The Gabby Petito story, or for that matter, numerous commercial / Hollywood film production which were disasters on the set but produced classic or much-loved films, suggest that even video may well fail to capture or distort the true essence of a situation.
Narrative tools can be used to project truths or fictions. Which they do is rather at the mercy of the author / creator, editor, and often audience and/or reviewers. The latter becomes clear where the reception to a work changes long after it has been completed, through changing contexts.
That a photograph is a capture of a specific interval of light, with framing and exposure, does mean that an individual image can distort or project a false narrative in ways that might be more difficult with a longer and more contextually-grounded set of registrations. But there are plenty of examples of manipulation in video as well. Framing, context, juxtaposition, the Kuleshov effect, ... Auteurs know and use these.
Narrative tools can be used to project truths or fictions. Which they do is rather at the mercy of the author / creator, editor, and often audience and/or reviewers. The latter becomes clear where the reception to a work changes long after it has been completed, through changing contexts.
That a photograph is a capture of a specific interval of light, with framing and exposure, does mean that an individual image can distort or project a false narrative in ways that might be more difficult with a longer and more contextually-grounded set of registrations. But there are plenty of examples of manipulation in video as well. Framing, context, juxtaposition, the Kuleshov effect, ... Auteurs know and use these.
Largely: you've got find a trustworthy narrator.