Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Important of photography in society
Important of photography in society
Importance of photojournalism
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Important of photography in society
“What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce” - Karl Lagerfeld
“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.” - Eudora Welty
Photography has become such an essential part of our lives, encouraged by the growth of smartphone technologies and the social networking sites. We snap and share almost each and every moment in our lives, from the food we eat to a little flower we find on our way home. Especially on the social media, a photograph can be a conversation starter and sometimes speak more than any words can. Accordingly, “pics or it didn’t happen” has become a popular saying among people on the internet, demanding for a proof of a statement regarding events or on perceived
things. Similarly, with the advance in technology, anyone can take decent photos and feel like photographers without spending so much on equipment. I too am a great photography enthusiast and so called “picture hoarder”; I delight in taking and sharing photographs of anything and everything. Conversely, I am afraid of losing memories and I cannot go a day without taking a picture. Clearly, we believe that taking photographs is the best way to share and keep memories, as they capture a moment as it is. - But is this really true? Is a photograph a perfect and accurate representation of an actual event? There are some obvious reasons why photographs may not be too accurate; on a photograph, things are converted from three-dimensional world to two-dimensional presentation. Similarly, the scales of subjects of photographs in real life differ to that of photographs. These two were only reasons I could come up with for photographs not being an accurate representation of an actual event. Besides or even considering these points, photographs still seemed like a pretty great representation. Hence, in this investigation, I shall be analyzing the reliability and accuracy of photographs.
For most everybody in the world, people tend to have two identities: one in reality and one online. Andrew Lam wrote an essay, called “I Tweet, Therefore I am: Life in the Hall of Mirrors”, in which he described how people are posting videos or statuses which is making social media take a turn. Instead of social media being a place to share very little information, people are now tending to post weird updates. Lam was describing an example where a boy that was going to surgery asked to have his picture taken because his arm got taken off by an alligator. Another example is when Bill Nye was speaking and collapsed from exhaustion.
There you are holding your camera an arm’s length away from your face, posing in the most flattering position to capture your best angle. There you are taking a photo of yourself to share with all of your Facebook friends. Taking a self-portrait photo, also known as a selfie, is something almost everyone has done in this new generation. This action is typically done without a second thought. In Alex Williams’ article “Here I Am Taking My Own Picture” that second thought is provoked through exploring the quickly spreading trend of self-portrait photography. In the article while Williams’ provides interesting examples on a changing generation as this trend progresses through social media and modern technology; Williams also leaves something to be desired within the article due to a lack of direction in the author’s stance on the topic.
A picture is more than just a piece of time captured within a light-sensitive emulsion, it is an experience one has whose story is told through an enchanting image. I photograph the world in the ways I see it. Every curious angle, vibrant color, and abnormal subject makes me think, and want to spark someone else’s thought process. The photographs in this work were not chosen by me, but by the reactions each image received when looked at. If a photo was merely glanced at or given a casual compliment, then I didn’t feel it was strong enough a work, but if one was to stop somebody, and be studied in curiosity, or question, then the picture was right to be chosen.
“Arty Pomerantz captured generations of movie stars and normal citizens—like you and me! He shot photos of real events and genuine happiness, which is hard to find in today’s generation of photographs,” said student Nathan
In general conclusion, this article shows that unlikely photo uploading/sharing shared by people is very usual experience because it kind of demonstrate how Facebook unsuitably communicate the impressions of someone in view of what the world is expected to see of his/her representation and somehow combating the negative side it might come with.
“The painter paints his pictures with paint, and I do it with photographs.”- John Heartfield, 1967
As seen in paintings of battle scenes and portraits of wealthy Renaissance aristocracy, people have always strived to preserve and document their existence. The creation of photography was merely the logical continuum of human nature’s innate desire to preserve the past, as well as a necessary reaction to a world in a stage of dramatic and irreversible change. It is not a coincidence that photography arose in major industrial cities towards the end of the nineteenth century.
For centuries, humans have used their interaction with one another to help shape outsiders' perceptions of them. Often communication experts refer to this as constructing one’s “social identity.” For many years, this projection of self-came through interpersonal communication; face-to-face communication or other forms of personal interaction. In the progress of technology, this development of one’s personal attributes has come to include photographs, letters, published and unpublished writings, and physical attributes. Many aspects of a person’s “identity” as others see it are difficult and almost impossible to define. In the modern age, such vague characteristics are both helped and hindered by using social media and the internet to “construct”
“Some photographs are destined to be ruined or forgotten. Some photographs are destined to be remembered and cherished. Such as his infamous portrait which almost did not make it.” (1946) Life Magazine.
Every day we meet a lot of people have seen their behavior, listen to what they say, think about them, try to understand them. We feel that we not only see what color eyes and hair of a person, tall or not, thin or full, but also sad to him or fun, smart or stupid it, solid or not and so on. Over the past decade, social media has seen growth to the point where it is reflects in our daily lives and even the lives of those who choose not to use it. Anywhere we go online, there are always buttons to click so that you can share something on Facebook or pin it to your Pinterest account.
Photojournalism plays a critical role in the way we capture and understand the reality of a particular moment in time. As a way of documenting history, the ability to create meaning through images contributes to a transparent media through exacting the truth of a moment. By capturing the surreal world and presenting it in a narrative that is relatable to its audience, allows the image to create a fair and accurate representation of reality.
Technology has advanced tremendously over the past decade, and appears to be advancing at a rapid pace each and every day. The social media is growing just as rapidly. Social media is an interaction between individuals that want to exchange information, photographs, and ideas in different types of networks. Social media users include people of all ages. These people have various experiences, have different cultures, and have various technical skills. (Brandtzaeg 1008) The social media depend on net-based technologies to generate the network for users to share. Social media includes everything that has to do with the Internet. By using the Internet, users can communicate with people locally and worldwide. People are no longer required to travel across the world to experience another culture. This can be done with social networking. The types of social media today come with many different types of communication such as social blogs, wall-postings, songs, photographs, and podcasts. The communication between users is informational, interactive, and also educational. However, unfortunately, most social networking sites keep track of all the interactions that take place, and this is a concern about Internet privacy for Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other social media users. Not only do they keep track of all interactions by the users, they also own all the content, including pictures that the users upload. The social network keeps this information on the user, even if the user deactivates their account with that particular site. Most users do not have any idea that the operator of the networking service keeps this information, and has access to all pictures and tags. By not having adequate security...
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.
We see photographs everywhere. It is printed on magazines, newspapers, billboards, brochures, packages, bags, and toys, etc. The world wide web is filled with photographs. Flickr alone holds more than 4 billion photographs. Facebook members upload more than 2 billion photographs per month (Stern, 2011).
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.