Photographs are everywhere —on our work desk, in our wallets, on restaurant walls, and even at photography exhibitions. Every photograph has its own story behind it. However, each photograph does not tell us the complete story and instead captures only a part of it. For this reason, viewers sometimes find themselves confounded between viewing a photograph as fact or an interpretation because they only see a part of what has happened during that captured moment. Yet, we live in this world where most facts can be verified by photography; almost all photographs that surround our lives show evidence about events that have happened. However, some photographs leave out the “before and after” moments, leading us to interpret and hypothesize what could have happened before and after the photo was taken. Sometimes, those interpretations incorrectly lead away from the conclusion –the real fact—behind the photo. Moreover, the place where photographs are displayed is very important because it can give the viewers an idea whether they have accessed to an actual fact or a photographer’s fictional approach. Therefore, because photography creates a sense of actuality, it has the power to influence and shape viewers’ memories through the medium it is viewed, the photographer’s intention, and the usage of aesthetic elements.
To most people, a photograph is a piece of paper that contains information about a specific moment in time. A fascinating thing that humans can do is that they can
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.
Critically reflect on the positives and/or negatives of ethnic residential concentration as perceptible within specific landscapes in Sydney.
According to Gefter, “Truth-telling is the promise of a photograph” (342), where we can witness an authentic moment with our own eyes “while not actually being there”. A photograph reflects not only the divergent issues of the prevailing society, but also serves as both documentation and verification of historic events. But is it a proof of what actually happened in reality? When we see a photograph, we try to judge its veracity by the context in which it
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
Photos are just recorded information and how it is presented is actually based on individual interpretation by the photographers themselves. It is not absolute reality because the viewers themselves are not there to witness the event; therefore it is not entirely factual. The meaning of a photo illustration is also dependent on viewers' individual views and assumption. As the old metaphor says, "is the glass of milk half full or half empty?"
For this essay the works of Robert Draper, author of “Why Photos Matter,” and Fred Ritchen, author of “Photography Changes the Way News is Reported,” will be analyzed. Though both deal with the topic of photography, their take on the matter is very different. While Ritchen is a photographer who writes on “what professional photographers will be doing in the future,” Draper is a writer for the National Geographic writing on how the photographers of the magazine share “a hunger for the unknown.” Both writers, however, write on the topic of photographers having a deeper understanding of their subjects, Ritchen due to research and practice, and Draper because the photographers “sit [with] their subjects, just listening to them.” In both essays the need for a deeper understanding of the
Like Sontag, I believe that taking pictures is a form of liberation that enables people to release anxiety and increase their power by constructing a better society.
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.
Art critic Robert Hughes once said, “People inscribe their histories, beliefs, attitudes, desires and dreams in the images they make.” When discussing the mediums of photography and cinema, this belief of Hughes is not very hard to process and understand. Images, whether they be still or moving, can transform their audiences to places they have either never been before or which they long to return to. Images have been transporting audiences for centuries thanks to both the mediums of photography and cinema and together they gone through many changes and developments. When careful consideration is given to these two mediums, it is acceptable to say that they will forever be intertwined, and that they have been interrelated forms of
Since its inception, photography has been used to capture moments in time all around the world. This wonderful technology has existed since ancient times, and has only improved in recent history, changing society in the process.
The term photography means “drawing with lights” in Greek. My definition of photography is, seizing memories evermore. Now, without photography, our life would be dull and mundane. Reflect on it, photography can be used for numerous occasions, from mug shots to sports, to medical records. For instance, I adore captivating photos about reality, something mainstream photographers stay away from because it does not pay well. Photographers that do this for a living charge hefty prices because they depend on it. Now I ponder, like being able to capture a unique moment, is priceless. In all honesty, a single photograph can be more than a picture; it can tell a whole story. Many of my pictures, I can’t explain it in words. It’s captivating when you
Images contain arguments, whether if there are many or just a few. A series of images with no words but contains an argument is a pictorial essay. John Berger's Ways of Seeing (1972) contains both word and pictorial essays. The book is divided into seven sections, three being pictorials. In the very first chapter of the book, Berger made it clear that "the way one image follows another, their succession, constructs an argument which becomes irreversible." Having noted that, it would seem that the sixth essay argues that an observation painting provides more information than that of a directed or arranged portrait.
It creates an illogical connection between ‘here-now’ and the ‘there-then’. As the photograph is a means of recording a moment, it always contains ‘stupefying evidence of this is how it was’. In this way, the denoted image can naturalise the connoted image as photographs retain a ‘kind of natural being there of objects’; that is, the quality of having recorded a moment in time. Barthes stresses that as technology continues to “develop the diffusion of information (and notably of images), the more it provides the means of masking the constructed meaning under the appearance of the given meaning’ (P159-60).
What is a photograph? The simplicity of taking a photograph leads many to ponder its artistic value. Yet, it is undeniable that there are some photos that cause an emotional reaction deeper than simply observing a recorded point in time. Surely, there are photographs that cause more reaction than some modern art pieces. There seems to be two types of photographs. The first classification is the ‘time capture’ photo – an image with the sole purpose of recording a particular event or point in time. The second nature of a photo carries a ‘deeper meaning,’ which has the ability to change the observer’s mood and cause a reaction. But what distinguishes these two varieties? There are a