Photographic Truth

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In Chapter One of The Practices of Looking, Sturken and Cartwright explore Roland Barthes theory of ‘the myth of photographic truth’. Barthes opposes the shared view that “A photograph is… an unmediated copy of the real world, a trace of reality skimmed off the very surface of life”. Barthes declares that every photographic a myth. It is impossible to be objective when taking a photograph. Barthes argues that the person taking the photograph unknowingly imposes their own subjectivity on the photo, therefore it cannot be viewed as truth. Barthes believes that the myth of photographic truth is partly attributed to the fact that images can be manipulated through framing, editing, lighting and angles or staged in order to create a false truth or create moral …show more content…

The shocking images of Hiroshima or the Chernobyl disaster serve as a horrific reminders of tragic situations. The photographs are important in order to remember and honour those who died. In Paul Messaris and Lee Humphreys book Digital Media: Transformations in Human Communication, the two writers discuss the myth of photographic truth stating “Photography can communicate a reasonable truth - the best truth humans can achieve… The alternative is not to look, not to see, not to know at all” Messaris and Humphreys argument is important to consider when analysing Barthes theory of the myth of photographic truth, as a weakness of Barthes theory is that he does not provide a stronger alternative than photography and instead condemns all mediums as they all lie to the viewer. Despite the facts that photographs can lie and often can have hidden political agendas, they are the strongest form of credible evidence in modern society and are indeed ‘the best truth humans can achieve’. The main problem is identifying what is truth, as this is question in itself is subjective to

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