In Freeman Patterson’s Barriers to Seeing, Patterson mentions a quote from Susan Sontag about cameras and experiences. Sontag writes, “‘A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it – by limiting the experience to a search for the photogenic, by converting into an image, a souvenir’” (Paragraph 12). Essentially, Sontag is elaborating how people are distracted from their surroundings and experiences to find a photogenic picture or to record what they think to be an experience. While the objective of photography is usually to capture an experience or feeling, many are instead obsessed with finding good lighting, searching for a good background, and are focused on taking the best picture to post on social media. In many cases this is very true, and I myself can see it in people’s photos as well as my own. In Freeman Patterson’s Barriers to Seeing,” he quotes Susan Sontag’s statement that one’s camera can be a barrier to seeing and experiencing a moment. Through other’s picture taking as well …show more content…
While the picture itself may be very nice to look at, and it may be sharp and have nice colors and lighting, it typically lacks depth, emotion, and feeling. Many of us forget to look for that when taking pictures. Especially in a world where social media is a habit and cameras are in our pockets, we take pictures for others to see, and we take photos for proof – proof that we were somewhere, proof that we did something. Due to that, we forget about what we are actually doing. We forget about the experiences we should be taking pictures of, and we lose the feelings that we should capture. With our cameras in hand, our objectives are changed. Rather than having the intent to have enjoyable experiences, then taking pictures of it, we have the intent to take pictures, with the experience being a
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
Another significant reason that has played a vital role in photojournalism of recent times is the emergence of imaging technologies. Imaging technologies has undoubtedly played a major part in the works of a photojournalist today. Based on earlier accounts on how photography itself is an inherent manipulation, the question is no longer directed on how has imaging technologies manipulate photojournalism' but how much more has imaging
R: Through this passage, McCandless conveys how even though there is disappointment that his camera malfunctions and he cannot journal his journeys, it is a minor setback because the true goal of his adventures is to live life to the fullest. His goal is to leave all earthly materials, such as money, cars, and society behind him, in order to remove his “baggage” and focus on what matters most to his life. This statement struck me as quite resonant because as technology becomes a more and more prominent portion of everyone’s daily life, the amount of time and effort that we as a society put into appreciating nature, our friends, our family, and our daily activities become less and less. Instead, we take pictures so that we may “revisit” moments in our lives that were “touching”, when in fact the actual moments themselves
Sontag believes that photography limits the understanding of the world however, contrary to this claim, I believe that photography does not limit the understanding of the world, but rather enhances it.
In “Why We Take Pictures,” Susan Sontag discusses the increase use of technology and its ability to impact the daily lives of mankind. Taking pictures is a form of self-evolution that slowly begins to shape past and present experiences into reality. Sontag argues how the use of photography is capable of surpassing our reality by helping us understand the concept of emotion, diversity, and by alleviating anxiety and becoming empowered. Moreover, according to her argument, people are able to construct a bond between the positive or negative moments in life to cognitively release stress through reminiscing. Therefore, Sontag claims that photography itself can help with reshaping individual’s perspectives of reality by being able to empathize with the emotions portrayed through an image. Thus, giving
Teju Cole, in his essay “Against Neutrality,” dissected the tones behind photography- which he believes are thought of as unbiased towards the subject. The power of words and of photos is crucial to Cole’s essay. He states that images can “make a grim situation palatable” because of the photographer’s craftiness in selection (Cole 1). To anyone who isn’t an experienced photographer these tricks can be hard to see but Cole provides further insight from the historian, John Edwin Mason. Expectantly, Mason sheds light behind the misconception on photography, how the “manipulation in photography isn’t really about Photoshop or darkroom tricks”, but the style, angle and other aspects of taking photos (Cole 1).
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 picture is the unspoken word that can mean millions of things. For example “at least a century, the wedding photograph has been as much part of the ceremony as the prescribed verbal formulas.” The wedding picture can be the most deceiving picture for both individuals appear happy. However, they might be in an unstable and unhealthy relationship. This true since 50 percent of marriages in America end in divorce. Some causes for divorce are domestic violence, miscommunication, financial instability, cheating, etc. With an increase in technology pictures can be used to deceive on social media due to cat-fishing. For those who don’t know what cat fishing is, catfishing is when a person on the internet pretends to be someone else? This can lead to identity theft, fake relationships, loss of money etc. The reason I am saying this is because there are so many disparate in the internet, as
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
Susan Sontag’s ‘Regarding the Pain of Others’ 2003, revisits an argument she made in her previous book ‘On Photography’ 1977, where she claimed that the photographs of suffering were no longer making an impact because of the mass production and distribution of this kind of images, images of horror that people became used to seeing, she said:
When you see a well taken photograph what's the main thing you think? Well a great many people trust that photography is just connected with top of the line computerized cameras, however a differed number of experts think this is not true anymore. Another medium iPhones photography gives the two experts and non-the capacity to take wonderful pictures without all the specialized weight behind it. In a meeting when asked How might you react to feedback that iPhone photography is less important than conventional film photography, where each shot must be created Julian Calverley expressed, "It's about observation. You don't need to shake off heaps of shots, you can at present simply take 10. I could never backpedal to film. The quality is better now, the capacity to support something on a shoot is there it goes out on a limb. You can go out and shoot and process a film and after that play with it in the darkroom much like you take a photo carefully and do the after creation. Nothing's extremely changed just discernment. Individuals say, 'Gracious it's been photoshopped,' yet in the days of yore, it was extremely worthy to avoid and consume on a print. It's simply the same (Hoyle standard). To be more correct what she implies is suppose for instance one individual likes to take photographs on film and alternate likes to take photographs on an advanced camera both take awesome pictures it only about the impression of which one they like better finished the other. Which conveys me
Susan Sontag discusses the reality of the modern person’s addiction with “needing to have reality confirmed” by photos. Sontag says “we accept it as the camera records it” then goes to say “this is the opposite of understanding.” I agree with her wholeheartedly, as accepting photos as they are limits ones understanding of the world. The trust in photography led to the rise of pictures hoaxes, in which people take pictures out of context and assign it a new background; as well as Photoshop, which becomes increasingly popular as the years go by. Photoshop allows one to manipulate a photo to portray what they desire it to.
Ever since the invention of cameras in 1839, the photographic image and its steady progression has molded reality. The book On Photography by Susan Sontag, is a book of many ideologies and aspects. The main aspect of this book is how pure reality is being captured through photography. Through history, reality has been associated with images and philosophers who have subsequently diminished our trust on representations by directing our eyes at ways to grasp reality through paintings and images. Susan Sontag says that in the modern day and age, we prefer to take photographs of the reality. This is widely accepted in modern culture, because we are always “producing and consuming photographs to such a degree that photography has been made
Have you ever taken a picture or been looking through a photo album and felt a sudden rush of emotion? Do you wonder what caused that emotion? Many find themselves captivated by a photograph and overwhelmed by the emotions that the photograph arouses. Believe it or not the arousal of emotion from those photographs was not caused by the content of the picture but by certain elements within the photograph. When a photograph is viewed it is not only the subject that triggers the overwhelming emotional response, it is the length of time that the film was exposed to sunlight, the way lighting is used and played with, and the strong detail of colors or lack thereof. While many believe that the subject acts as the primary stimuli to emotions, the