Photography: Changing the World

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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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Bellis, Mary. “History of Photography.” n.d. (accessed May 9, 2010).

Blake, Alfred H. Photography. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1901

Leggat, Robert. “The Beginnings of Photography.” 2000. . (accessed May 10, 2010).

Marien, Mary W. Photography: a cultural history. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2006.

Rosenblum, Naomi. A World History of Photography. New York: Abbeville Press, 2007.

History In Photography. dir. Carl Van Baelen. 2009, n.d.

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