As I was sitting in what was sure to be my last bath (not shower) for three months. I wondered to myself, “What the hell (I’m presuming I can say hell now because I am in college) am I going to write this paper about?” Photographs are simply a single moment in a long train of events, not some median to convey an important piece of information. Suddenly, my phone, which was just randomly selecting songs from a playlist, sung a familiar tune that lit up a light bulb in my head. I sank lower into the tub as my phone continued to sing, “Every picture tells a story, don’t it. Every picture tells a story, don’t it,” a song by Rod Stewart. Just then, I realized what Rod Stewart and Sandra Sontag messages were saying to me. Pictures tell the story. One can view an old picture, and remember the exact feeling there were experiencing at that time. Or, a person can look at another persons photograph and understand their emotion better. However, just like an oral story, photos can falsely portray a feeling or emotion, also.
In Plato’s Cave, a group of prisoners are lead to believe that the shadows they are seeing are the shadows of the actual objects. This, however, is untrue. Plato deceives the people into believing they are seeing a book while in actuality they are viewing a combination of objects made to look like a book. This concept can be applied to photography. In many cases, photographers have a knack for creating an image to prompt an emotional response. For instance, a photo could depict a tired, hungry, filthy, small girl bowing on her knees with outstretched hands toward merciless American soldiers. All the while, it is never made known that the girl is waiting in line to receive food from these soldiers and her arms are outstretched in a position of gratitude. Photos like these are extremely biased due to the fact we are unable to see the background or any other relevant information. Like the people in Plato’s Cave, we are led to believe something that is not.
In some cases, a photograph has more affect on the reader’s opinion than the long article in which the picture is meant to depict. Often, the audiences is daunted by the lengthy reading therefore one relies solely on the image to make up their mind. Newspapers use this very powerful method of persuasion because the common public believes the truth that lies in all photographs. The truth is that the image being shown was an actual event at some point. This fact only attests to the power that an image may hold. This is why a talented photographer is paid a large amount of money to do something, which to the ignorant, may seem like a simple ordinary task. Channels, such as gossip magazines, that rely on images to portray the majority of their information realize the importance of a powerful image. Thus, the cycle continues and the public continues to draw conclusions from biased photographs.
To be able to better understand a photographs message, one must distinguish between looking at a photograph and actually seeing that photograph. More often than not, you quickly glance at a photograph, not recognizing what hidden value this image may hold. A person may only look at the photo but never actually see it. At first glance, one may see that the women, in Dorothea Lange photo exhibition from the Great Depression, to be in an unhappy state. But to those who are able to actually see the photograph, we can learn a lot more from it. For example, one who looks beyond the obvious will notices the deep creases in her creases in her brow which suggests that suffering has commonly plagued her face. I see, in this photo, the suffering and hardship this woman and her two children must have endured during this economic crisis. Just because your eyes are open, doesn’t mean that you are seeing. To really apprehend the context of a photograph, one must study the fine details to gain success.
Photography gives us the opportunity to see into things that one may never physically encounter. The image is the median that connects you to a previously unknown event. Once exposed to this image, it can create a lasting effect on a person, sometimes positive or other times negative. In Susan Sontag’s, On Photography, she compares the jargon of the photography world to that of gun phrases. She explains how a photographer aims the camera and shoots a photograph. Phrases like these only reinforce the idea power that the camera. Just as a gun is used a weapon, a camera can be used in the same way. How can we forget those terrible images that came from the depths of Abu Grave prison? The American public flew into an outrage although the vast majority of people had never seen the prison personally or was knowledgeable in any of the foreign prisoner practices. A photo provides undeniable proof of an event therefore the public cannot ignore these images. At that point in the war on terrorism, stories of torture were no stranger to news stations. However, the fury was not recognized till those photos were released. Photographs are worth a thousand words and these photos were more influential than any news story could ever have been.
Whether a camera is used as a personal instrument of documentation or to capture a novel piece of information, the message still remains the same. A photo captures something that after a blink of an eye would be lost forever. A moment, a feeling, an expression, or scene that after the camera flashes will be never occur again in the same way. Documentation saves these precious seconds and gives them staying power for the rest of your life. At the time when the ends becomes closer than the beginning, you will look back on your photographs and be eternally grateful that you decided to aim and shoot.
