Response To Sontag's Essay Uses Of Photography

A reoccurring topic of the essays, concerning photography, discussed during the course is the future of professional photographers/photojournalists. Some believe that the easily accessible spread of amateur photography can and has put a strain on the works of professionals. However, with magazines such as National Geographic still in print after

The Necessity of Truth: Censorship in Nora Ephron’s “The Boston Photographs” Originally published in 1975, Nora Ephron’s essay “The Boston Photographs” is both still relevant and controversial almost forty years later. It deals with the series of three photographs that were published in newspapers across the country. The most important one shows a mother and child falling off a collapsed fire escape. Both have their limbs outstretched. If both had survived, maybe the reaction would have been different. The child survived by landing miraculously on the mother, but the mother ended up dying. The question on everyone’s mind was why the photographer, Stanley Forman, decided to take the photographs instead of trying to help the falling

In Chapter 8 of After the Fact in the article, “The Mirror with a Memory” by James West Davidson and Mark Lytle, the authors tell the story of photography and of a man names Jacob Riis. Riis came from Scandinavia as a young man and moved to the United States. Riis firsthand experienced the bad conditions in the heart of the slums of New York. He worked from place to place, doing odd jobs until he found a job as a police reporter for the New York Tribune. Riis lived in a slum called “The Bend.” When he became a reporter, Riis aspired to make people see the awful conditions of “The Bend.” Riis was continuously disappointed because his articles did not receive much attention or sympathy he was looking for. He then vowed to write a book called

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.

Let’s Play Peek A Boo Today, when almost everyone carries a smartphone, information about everything is instantly right at our fingertips. In today’s society that may seem like a significant advantage over the past, however, in Neil Postman’s book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, he presents a different view. Written some

Early Landscape photography used the same principles as painters in order to create pieces of art. Before the 18th Century, artists used landscapes as backdrops and as a frame for the principal subject. Towards the later part of the century, however, artists such as Nicolas Poussin started to romanticize the environment, instead using it as a principle subject in paintings.

In “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger, an English art critic, argues that images are important for the present-day by saying, “No other kind of relic or text from the past can offer such direct testimony about the world which surrounded other people at other times. In this respect images are more precise and richer literature” (10). John Berger allowed others to see the true meaning behind certain art pieces in “Ways of Seeing”. Images and art show what people experienced in the past allowing others to see for themselves rather than be told how an event occurred. There are two images that represent the above claim, Arnold Eagle and David Robbins’ photo of a little boy in New York City, and Dorothea Lange’s image of a migratory family from Texas; both were taken during the Great Depression.

The When I was very little, my dad would read “The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norton Juster to me. I was intrigued by the silly pictures and couldn’t care less what they meant. Later, when I was in middle school, I read the book again. I lived Milo’s adventure vicariously through the book, but I only saw the surface of the plot. It wasn’t until I became an adult that I read it again, and this time the satire, hidden meanings, and puns finally hit me. The book never changed; only the way I viewed the book changed. An image such as the one displayed on page 61 of the textbook can show how people’s interpretations of other people change over time. Painting the word “HERE” on all of the babies shows that racism is not inherent in people, but rather it is taught. The image of OJ Simpson on the cover of Newsweek is another example of using an image to change the perception of a person (Sturken & Cartwright, 23). Before looking at this image, people who do not follow sports-related news may not have heard of OJ Simpson; the first image they see is one with the words “Trail of Blood” plastered in front of Simpson’s mugshot. This will steer them to perceive Simpson as a threat and an example of violence. Before looking at this image, they just see a mugshot. After reading the article, when they look at the image again, they see the face of a man that has

Famous Photograph Task ‘A picture says a thousand words’ this analogy often refers to photographs with immense amount of detail and meaning that it doesn’t need words or any description to exemplify its context. A photograph in particular engages an indicative role into promoting an issue that’s typical of the time. A photograph that highlights copious meaning is evident in Lawrence Beitler’s ‘Lynching of young blacks’. A role of a photograph is to provoke emotions and empathise within the subject of the picture. To do so, famous photographs often accommodate numerous conventions including the historical context, symbolic codes and technical codes. These codes and conventions operate simultaneously to epitomise the significance behind a

There is a old saying that says your eyes are they key to your soul, that saying must have came to the mind of this photographer when he say the eyes of this young lady. Even if she wasn't holding a cigarette, seeing only this girls eyes would be enough to make the most prideful of men cry their eyes out. Here eyes haunt anyone who looks at them and will make you feel sorry for her even without knowing any context around this story. The reason photographs become so iconic in our society is because you are able to capture a hole seen from one event in time, even if that event was from one hundred years ago, and still be able to have people feel so contented to this event. This photo can mean something different for every eye that sees it but the main message the author was trying to convey by taking this photo is a loss of youth and innocence.

Photographers often capture horrific events with a well-known background in order to convey messages that are not explicitly stated. As a student during the Kent College shooting, John Filo was able to capture the aftermath of the National Guard shootings. Officers shot at protesters who were voicing their opinions on the Vietnam War. Filo utilizes components such as the framing of the photo to draw the audience to a focal point as well as using the context surrounding the image in order to provoke strong emotions and demonstrate the unjust and problematic society.

When going for a walk, a person takes in the beauty around them. On this particular day, the refulgent sun is extra bright, making the sky a perfect blue. White, puffy clouds fill the sky, slowing moving at their own pace. The wind is peacefully calm, making the trees stand tall and proud. There is no humidity in the air. As this person walks down the road, they see a deer with her two fawns. The moment is absolutely beautiful. Moments like this happen only once in a great while, making us wanting to stay in the particular moment forever. Unfortunately, time moves on, but only if there were some way to capture the day’s magnificence. Thanks to Joseph Niépce, we can now capture these moments and others that take our breath away. The

Before there were cameras, camera phones, if you wanted a portrait of yourself or a family member you would have to find someone who could paint, and you had to stand for hours posing for a ‘painting’ of yourself. If you wanted to capture the beauty of the landscape you’d either have to paint it yourself or pay someone to paint it for you. Today we’ve come very far since then and today pictures are used for so much more than just portraits and landscapes. One of the major uses for photography is Art. The art of capturing and documenting a moment.

In the “Photo Essay Reviews” by Zeynep Dervrim Gursel and Alan Klima, one of the main points, was to point out what Hoffman tended to do in his photo essay, which was show how mining shaped the bodies of these younger step-by-step during the workplace. In addition, the authors go

In Roger Scruton's Photography and Representation the author establishes the idea that ideal photography is not art. In the same breath he says that ideal photography is not necessarily an idea which photographers should strive, nor does it necessarily exist. Yet, he bases his argument upon the ideal. In reviewing his paper, I’ll take a look at why he painstakingly tries to make this distinction between ideal painting and ideal photography. His argument is based upon the proposition that photographs can only represent in a causal fashion, whereas painters create representational artwork via intentional relations. Scruton manages to create a solid argument, but in the end I’ll decide it is not a fair assumption to say that photographs