Part 1
"Photographs may have placed greater importance on the visual over the written. A picture, after all, is worth a thousand words."
The idea that Photographs could have placed greater importance on the visual over the written is most has some merit to it. Certainly identifying objects in a picture is as basic and natural a function as there could be for most people. Reading written language takes quite a bit more effort to do.
By comparison, the training needed to process even basic written language versus the simplicity of identifying objects with no training should make it clear that at our most basic level we can easily relate with images. Lets not forget that many children start off learning language by relating words to pictures when learning even their own native language. ‘Left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ verbally oriented or spatially oriented it all rests on a foundation set upon relating to the world first visually.
With this is mind it makes sense that the in 10 short years early American publications went from an average 100 pictures per week to around 903 picture per week (Keller 2007, 163). Pictures draw attention to themselves as a reader scans a page, and even in the modern world where photo retouching is commonplace a photo brings a sense of authenticity. A viewer can pick out the pieces of an image that they can relate too and carry that same relationship to the parts they are not familiar with. When a viewer sees a picture of savannah in Africa they can project themselves into the area. If they visited that same place they would be able to pick out the elements from the picture. A written description while possibly igniting a desire to visit an area being described intellectually or by a...
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...tion, department stores were, and still are, places where consumers are an audience to be entertained by commodities, where selling is mingled with amusement, where arousal of free-floating desire is as important as immediate purchase of particular items” (Williams 2007, 172).
Works Cited
Sontag, Susan. 2003. On photography. In Communication in history: Technology, culture, and society, 4th ed., edited by David Crowley and Paul Heyer, 166–70. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Keller, Ulrich. 2007. Early Photojournalism. 5th ed., edited by David Crowley and Paul Heyer, 161–168. Boston: Pearson A and B.
Williams, Rosalynd. 2007. Dream Worlds of Consumption. 5th ed., edited by David Crowley and Paul Heyer, 169–175. Boston: Pearson A and B
Crowley, David, and Paul Heyer, eds. 2007. Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson A and B.
For Emerson, the reticent beauty of nature was the motivator. To him, photography should be recognized because its still-life beauty was able to persuade the public’s appreciation of the life and nourishment
Johnson, Brooks. Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on their Art.” New York: Aperture Foundation Inc., 2004. Print.
Having such an image before our eyes, often we fail to recognize the message it is trying to display from a certain point of view. Through Clark’s statement, it is evident that a photograph holds a graphic message, which mirrors the representation of our way of thinking with the world sights, which therefore engages other
There is an old saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” which is very true. In the article, "Against Neutrality", by Teju Cole mainly focuses on how a photograph can change a person perspective in an entire different way. Coles states, “The camera is an instrument of transformation”. A photographer has the power to create multiple different perspectives, which can be good and bad. It depends on the person who takes the picture and with the intent of the photo. A photographer is like a writer because they want to send some time of message to their audience.
5 Light, Ken. Tremain, Kerry. Witness in our Time: Working Lives of Documentary Photographers. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000.
Rosenblum, Naomi . A History of Women Photographers . New York, NY: Abbeville Press Publishers, 2000.
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.
Castro, Katie. "Photography and Its Limits on Perspective." By Katie Castro., 11 Aug. 2007. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
"A photograph is not merely a substitute for a glance. It is a sharpened vision. It is the revelation of new and important facts." ("Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History."). Sid Grossman, a Photo League photographer expressed this sentiment, summarizing the role photography had on America in the 1940’s and 50’s. During this era, photojournalism climaxed, causing photographers to join the bandwagon or react against it. The question of whether photography can be art was settled a long time ago. Most major museums now have photography departments, and the photographs procure pretty hefty prices. The question of whether photojournalism or documentary photography can be art is now the question at hand. Art collectors are constantly looking to be surprised; today they are excited by images first seen in last week’s newspapers as photojournalism revels in the new status as art “du jour” or “reportage art”.
Schwartz, Donna. “Objective Representation: Photographs as Facts.” Picturing the Past: Media History & Photography. Ed. Bonnie Brennen, Hanno Hardt. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999. 158-181.
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.
"History of photography and photojournalism.." History of photography and photojournalism.. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. .
For this source I chose the article, In Plato 's cave by Susan Sontag. The source talks about all of the different ways society looks at photographs. In the quote by Sontag she says,
To begin with, photography appeared to me as something entertaining a simple step in which one took a camera and simply shot a photograph of oneself or a friend. When I was handed my schedule for Mrs. Jones’s class, I felt as if this class had in store a special reward for me. As the days went by, Instead of being anxious of getting out of class I had a craving for additional time in the class. The class kept my eyes glued to the screen ...
When dealing with reality, I think a photograph may represent an actual physical recollection of a person or object, but a painting created from scratch adds the reality of perception to the equation. Reality is always open to a different observation and interpretation.