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Photography has become a part of our every day life, whether we notice it or not. Even though photography is not all that important to some, people should know about photography and it history. It lets us see beyond what our eyes can see and has changed the world. So how has photography changed the world?
Photography has changed the world in many ways. Everyone knows the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Images can bring the world pain, joy, sadness, and anger. If suddenly photography disappeared from the face of the earth, we would be no different than a blind person.
Since the ability to capture and image was discovered, we have opened our eyes to what the world is really like. Back the 1700s and 1800s, people were so sheltered in their region hardly considering what its like across the world. Photos have let us see beyond our eyes. In other words, we are no able to see things we otherwise might have never seen.
Photography, including film, has let us see the shocking photos of the starving children in Africa and Central America, the beautiful pictures of mountains and forests in distant countries, and exotic animals. Of course we would still hear and read about it, but nothing is better than seeing it. Photography has opened up the world to everyone. What has photography captured?
Photography has captured all aspects of life. It has frozen beauty in time. It has snapped little memories that would have otherwise been forgotten. Numerous summer camping trips, children playing the freshly fallen snow, Dad raking up the leaves into five foot tall piles, and so on.
Cameras have also captured life changing events. There has been way more than one event in history that has changed the entire world. Some exampl...
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Susan Sontag’s essay on how photography has limited people’s understanding of the world contains many interesting points that can be agreeable while at the same time having few that I tend to disagree with. Photography can be good and bad; it can open our minds up to new cultures and experiences through its imagery. However, at the same time it can limit our understanding of the world around us and of the world around the image it is portraying.
What is a photograph? Now, one might say a photograph is an image taken of oneself, another person(s), and/or a place using a camera. Others might say that a photograph is an image of a moment or memory captured in time that will be forever remembered. Both are correct of course, but I believe a photograph has the potential of meeting both of those ideas. In addition, pictures exist to portray any image of ourselves that we want noticed; by the world. Pictures and selfies can help create any façade one wishes to maintain in order to hide who they really are. These pictures, define who we are as human beings; They enhance our social standing and advocate our individuality. Each picture taken has an underlying message that is trying to be heard.
Television a modern visual format has been adopted in such a high time allocation that its impact is an important part of American history. The reason visual sources are import is because average citizens decide positions on large issues such as elections and disenfranchised populations rights using visual sources such as photos, film and TV. Consequently, in the decades to come, Visual sources will dominate the gathering of historical artifacts. While film is a newer visual format to capture history, photos have been around longer. Photos are very interesting as a source because when photography technology improved, a wider range of events and places were documented with photos.
Sontag, Susan. "Essay | Photography Enhances Our Understanding of the World." BookRags. BookRags. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
This article starts off with a video of different pictures put together just to have a physical affect on you after you look at it. Photography is the art of capturing the world's greatest and sometimes saddest moments that happen. It's not just pointing a camera and taking a few shots of something, it goes much deeper than what meets the eye. This article states that photography isn’t what it use to be, they never took as long as they do now to take pictures of things. They used to take one picture and put it and that was done and over with. This soon changed in the later years, everything just doesn't get taken care of as soon as it happens. Photography has grew over the years and people who were asked why they do what they do simply say
The industrial revolution created the societal circumstances necessary for photography to be born. The first and most obvious condition is that of technological advancement. Industry was advancing and expanding so rapidly that history appeared to be distancing itself from the present with unusual speed. Up until this time period life had not changed much from decade to decade or even from century to century. Photography’s popularity during the industrial revolution was, in large part, a result of people’s desire to slow down the perceived acceleration of history (McQuire). It has been argued that the acceleration of historical time is “leading to the possible industrialization of forgetting” and that “we will not only miss history…we will also long to go back to space and times past.” (Virilio)
The introduction of portable cameras has made it feasible for anyone with basic knowledge of how to use a camera to now go out and record what they see. However, what one chooses to photograph is still a reflection on them as well as well as the scenes they witness.
Photography has instilled its roots as a form of art in mid 19th century. Photographers and art were on a challenging race, resulted into building the photography as the new art phenomenon in that period. Due to both simple techniques and marvelous skills in that era, photographers from all over the world were competing on inspiring the world with this new art form. Each photo artist had a special
Due to the extreme cost of the medium, only the wealthy could purchase cameras. But over time as the cost lowered, the middle class began to be able to purchase and use cameras. The use of photography in everyday life helped to provide a new insight for the people today about many historical events in the past. Photography also helped to show the lives of slaves it the
...an take better photographs, even while daily activities. Now when people go on walks, they can bring their camera and take pictures of the beauty around them. The deer with her fawns eating the meadow grass, a bench in a park, or a picture of the orange, luminous sunset. The beauty is all around, people just have to go out and snap the picture.
In Sontag’s On Photography, she claims photography limits our understanding of the world. Though Sontag acknowledges “photographs fill in blanks in our mental pictures”, she believes “the camera’s rendering of reality must always hide more than it discloses.” She argues photographs offer merely “a semblance of knowledge” on the real world.
Photography as a profession has developed along with the advancements of camera technology. Photographers can be seen everywhere, whether they are highly advanced or a just a mere amatuer. Many people find a living in this business by taking professional photographs for families, sports events, and even the traditional senior pictures.
Photography has created an outlet for the masses to story tell. It has a way of speaking without words like most art forms and is a manner of expression in itself. To eradicate photography from humans would be equivalent to taking away a limb from humankind. Our society has grown an immense amount of dependency on it. Photography has become almost a daily menial task such as brushing your teeth; where we must take pictures of the things we deem important or equally unimportant, even more so with the invention of social media outlets such as Instagram and Snapchat, where photography is the main source of communication between people who use them. Susan Sontag offers the basis of what taking pictures can undertake in both our daily lives and moments that are not part of our daily lives, such as travel. Traveling to places where one is not accustomed can flare pent up anxiety. A way to subdue that anxiety could be through taking pictures, since it’s the only factor that we have total control over in a space where we don’t have much, or, any control of our surrounding environment. On the other hand, taking photos can also be a tool of power in the same sense as it allows for it to be a defense against anxiety. With the camera in our hands, we have the power to decide who, what, where, when, and why we take a picture. This in turn also gives the person who took the picture power over those who later analyze the photos, letting them decide the meaning of the photo individually, despite the intended or true meaning.
In today’s world, photography has become a part of our daily lives. People take photographs of food, c...
There was a time when the only way to capture a moment or surrounding was by a painting. Joseph Nicephore Niepce created the first photograph ever in 1827. Photography went thru many beneficial changes since then only improving and