How Photography Has Changed Our Lives

Photographs are special because you can tell an entire story with them without using a single word, it can convey emotions, and feelings. Photographs make connections, photographs can show challenges in our world along with celebrating the greatness in the world.

It is said that “The true content of a photograph is invisible, for it derives from a play not with form but with time”. This makes me think that the real content of a picture, which is what the photographer tried to express, is not evident to perceive unless an explanatory text is provided. In fact, I believe that our perceptions of pictures changes over time as the historical context do. In addition, our opinions are never fixed as they are influenced by our environment. Therefore, when looking at a particular picture at a given time, it is certain that our perception of it will be different in the future based on what happen between the first time and second time we saw it.

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but maybe they are worth far more than that. Pictures, although seemingly simple in nature, are extremely complex. Far too often, people overlook what a picture truly is. When a person looks at an image, they most likely see only the image, nothing else. Many people do not look deep enough into an image to fully comprehend the true meaning of it. However, when an individual begins to truly study an image in an attempt to understand the true complexity of it, they will be surprised at what they overlooked before. As stated by French Realist Painter, Gustave Courbet, “Fine art is knowledge made visible.”

Before photography was invented, the only way to see what someone or something looked like from that time period was a drawing or painting. Before the invention of photography, there was no true way to know what a person looked like as Pey sketches they had could be inaccurate. Photography changed the world not by only showing accurate depictions of objects but also by introducing a new form of art. Anyone can take a photo, but a photographer uses the principles of art and design to capture a moment and astonishing images.

Photography gives you a small sample of reality, but these realities have been changed to what the photographer wants to present. However as Sontag stated, “Of course, photographs fill in the blanks in our mental pictures of the present and the past.” Pictures show proof that all of the history that we learn is true, but although it confirms that, pictures does not show us the entire picture of how people felt about the situation. For example, one might have a picture from WWII and show us the setting, but does that picture really show the feeling of the people? That is why we say that photography only goes as far as to how the photographer wants to show the

For many years photojournalism has been considered a transformative form of media, meaning that through the use of photographs photojournalism has the ability to transform our way of thinking by reconstructing the conscious of our society. Photojournalism achieves this effect by forcing society to reconsider its actions as it relates to humanity by using photographs to both illicit emotions and cause reactions that, if done properly can result in social change. Photojournalism is an important branch of visual media when

A photograph is a powerful tool for life. A single, unchanged image of reality can be utilized for a variety of situations. For one, one photograph could decide the lifestyle in the foreseeable future of a person that committed a crime. Furthermore, one photograph could reveal the horrors of a particular event. On another note, one photograph could hold heartwarming memories forever. In addition, one photograph could stir a controversy that will have people debating whether an entity is real or not. Overall, as Susan Sontag mentions in her book Photograph, “Photographs furnish evidence.”(Sontag); in other words, whether if it is, good, bad, or misinterpreted, one photograph can be used as evidence that something in fact happened or is real.

No matter it’s effect, photography was and is very pivotal throughout society. Photography can be a beautiful but yet haunting form of art. It displays an image which is characterizing

Our memories often time embellish the memories we once had of such great people, places, times, and etc. We live these times up to standard that makes us reminisce, hurt, contemplate and so much more. The power of a photograph has been described to have worth a thousand words, metaphorically meaning of course, that what an image can capture in one instance, something that may not ever be captured through words. For too many centuries we have been without, what many of us now take for granted, the photograph. What we capture in a picture, has much more value than we often time see in our commercials, people, places, they tell a story to the ignorant, paint a picture for blind, give the deaf something to listen to, and so much more.

When an artist paints, he puts all his emotions into the stroke of his brush. Same application can be made of a photographers. When a professional photographer takes a photo they think of all their emotions and ideas, so that all things come together in harmony. When photography was first created it changed the world because it was capable of showing the world as it is. Instead of hearing stories from people, people were actually able to see for themselves.

The violent markings of the photo album and its images, however, produce an equally powerful message that jars the memory as it disrupts and distorts the photographic chronicle of her life and that of her family and friends. The result is a complex visual experience that addresses the use of images in producing knowledge and making history.

The photo can stir something within us; make us look within our being. The photo should not frighten or stigmatize, rather it should be reflective to cause a revolution (Barthes, Camera Lucida, 38). For the contemplation component of examining photography begins only after it executes a feeling within us (Brown, 29). There are photos that we view that make us say “this one is saying something for me” or “this exists for me”. Diana Markosian, photographer of the project 1915 did exactly this in her work. Markosian is a photojournalist who captures photos by immersing herself into the community in which she is photographing. Her photos are very intimate and bring in a mystery of past times, the place between the dimensions of memory and place

A world without photography seems merely impossible to the modern age humans. Photography is seen throughout our everyday lives, from the television, to smartphones, and on our computers, it seems impossible to avoid it. But why would we want to? Photography is a vision, a memory, a moment captured in time that makes it possible for humans to share these moments with others. But more than times than not, these moments, visions, photographs are altered, manipulated, and distorted to influence, and change the audience’s view. By analyzing the many methods the photographer’s ways of manipulating, altering, and the distortion of the truth of their works, one can conclude that not everything shown is accurate and often overlooked by the

Because of this, words and images cannot be put together without a direct context to lead the reader; otherwise, a message would be interpreted incorrectly. Due to this, there was a crucial overlap which linked Mitchell’s work with any other photographic essay. I noticed throughout W.J.T Mitchell’s work the main theme of perspective to be emphasized. Most importantly, Mitchell, Mollison and many other photographers that depend on words and images find a way for each reader to develop a distinct idea, to understand what the writer is conveying, and to develop a relative idea to others in interpreting the image from all other perspectives.

A picture cannot be measured in words, money, or tangible objects, it is a priceless piece of a person’s history. Nothing in the world compares to a photograph, an authentic view into the past that is only accessible through the lens of a camera. Drawings and paintings are tweaked by an artist’s bias on how they remember a moment, videos take away interpretation, which can keep people from thinking, and cause them to only focus on watching. Snapshots are the only representation that exist in the world that isolate a moment in time and let the mind wander back to the time when it took place. Scott Momaday expresses that, “Photography, at its best, is authentic art, an