Is Photography A Game Of Inventing Meanings

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.

Abbott finds that extensive post-processing often inhibits the creativity of photographers (182). Instead, creativity in photography lies in the selection of significant content, which differs between photographers (Abbott, 183). A good photograph should be a strong statement with direct connection to reality; otherwise it will be worthless regardless of its artistic merits. Thus photographers should strive to develop a keen perspective to pick relevant content. Good photographs are also good documents, as evidenced by earlier works that have survived (Abbott, 184).

Though photography does help us to see the world, it has a way of manipulating the true picture. Images allow us to have proof of the past. However, images do not show the honest emotion that the photographer or even someone who is photographed has felt. Images do not show what

Thorough research of the works and techniques of Tina Barney and Elliott Erwitt led me to a simple conclusion: their art is simple and meaningful but, meaning is what an observer makes of it. What does this indicate one might ask? It means that although they both have very distinct ways of taking a photograph their common goal is to evoke emotion in their observers. Elliott Erwitt put it in the simplest terms when he said, “I think you should just look at the stuff and if it enriches you in some way or knocks you out, that’s all you need” (Danziger 89).

The technological innovation of a camera allows people to mentally travel back in time. Photography has the magical ability to capture unique experiences and atmosphere. Writers such as Susan Sontag explore the idea of photography as a mode of documentation that allows for different interpretations. The gelatin silver print, Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation, by Aaron Siskin expands on the idea of photography being more than just a copy of the original, but a documentation that manipulates the emotional importance. In Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation, Aaron Siskind captures the elegance of fear through the subject, composition and quality of light.

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

In John Berger’s essay “Another Way of Telling,” Berger argues that photographs contain a “third meaning.” Berger claims that the third meaning is personal and relies almost completely on the individual viewer. As a result, no photograph can convey the same message to any two people and no two photographs can convey the same message to any one person. Here, the validity of Berger’s assumption crumbles. All photographs communicate one absolute truth.

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.

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.

“What is important to my work is the individual picture. I photograph stories on assignment, and of course they have to be put together coherently. But what matters most is that each picture stands on its own, with its own place and feeling.” This quote is from Steve McCurry; an American photographer that is mostly recognized as one of the world’s best contemporary color photographers. His images were poignant and even mysterious; which grabbed attention and served to spread awareness about different cultures and current events.

After a steady progression, pictorial photography as a movement emerged. Pictorial photographers believed that their field is more than just an objective, mechanical media. Photography was not just about capturing the documentation and information contained by an image, but rather, about the effect and the mood they translate. The images began to have meaning and a reason for their capture, completely transforming the images produced.

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

We’ve all heard the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words.” It’s the mere fact that an idea can be conveyed with just one single image. We come across tons of unfiltered images everyday, whether we see them in newspapers or magazines. These images move us, they have an impact on some of us, deep to our core. When a photograph directly impacts an individual, one will recount an image long after they have seen it.

Photography’s assigned social uses are to be regarded inimitably realistic and objective recordings of the visible world, an aspect of reality is

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