Richard Avedon

 

"The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph, it is no longer a fact but an opinion. There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph. All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth." 

I agree with Avedon's statement because it becomes the viewers interpretation rather than simply what is seen through the camera's lens when the photo is originally taken. The accuracy of a photo diminishes as soon as the moment in which the photo is taken ends. New emotions are formed immediately after, new thoughts appear, changing the facts as they previously stood. I chose this photo because I think that it ideally portrays temporary emotion. This man has a very distinguished emotion on his face. I read it as pained, tired, wanting for a change. Others could easily read this emotion differently, making it a different emotion in their mind and therefore it is that emotion to them, not just the emotion that the man in attempting to portray in the moment that this photo was taken. Interpretation of a photograph changes the emotion and therefore the facts behind it. This photo accurately portrays the man's emotion, but there is no truth as to what that emotion is. 

President Obama

This photo is iconic because it is not commonplace for a president to acknowledge his staff that does not directly communicate with him. I believe that this photo is an exemplar of the power of photography. Obama went out of his way to express his gratitude to a janitorial staff. If this were not documented as a photograph, a moment in which Obama's true kindness showed through, would not be seen by the world. If moments like this were not documented, Obama's reputation would be based on less little moments like this. Obama could have been seen as less kind and more inhumane if these moments were not documented. This could have shaped his entire presidency. If he has been less likable, he may not have gotten voted in for a second term. In his second term he did important things such as orchestrating the military operation that ended up being the reason that Osama Bin Laden was killed, and signing a major international climate agreement and an executive order that would limit carbon emissions.

Susan Sontag claimed that the context of a photo was very important. In this case, the context of this photo is that Obama is in the White House, as president, sharing gratitude for a worker doing an essential job that tends to go unrecognized. If this were Obama after his presidency in Hawaii, no one would really care. Because of his status, Americans eyes were on him at the time that this happened. That makes this photo more significant. This photo was most widely seen on the internet, which means it reached a large group of people. This gave fans of Obama the chance to boost this photo and get it even farther than it would be seen if it were just in a magazine or newspaper. 

In Platos Cave

 "Photographs, which fiddle with the scale of the world, themselves get reduced, blown up, cropped, retouched, doctored, tricked out." 

I think that this is an interesting point because it explains how a photo seldom stands alone. A photo is usually edited in some way before being presented to the world. Photographs tend to care more about whether or not their audience is pleased with the image than the integrity of the image itself. I think that in a lot of cases an unedited image can be very powerful, even if it isn't the most appealing to an audience. I think that photographers should take more time to consider whether or not it's a good idea to edit a photo. Plenty of photos could stand alone without the editing. I understand if there's a technical issue with the image, or if the image would look better with more saturation, but for most photos the appeal is in the illusion of honesty. 

"Thus, photography develops in tandem with one of the most characteristic of modern activities: tourism. For the first time in history, large numbers of people regularly travel out of their habitual environments for short periods of time."

I find this quote to be interesting because I never considered the effect that photography had on tourism. I think it's interesting that one form of art can influence people to spend large amounts of money to travel somewhere. I do understand it though. People see a bright, pretty, place and think "I want to be there." I just never considered that where people vacation and spend their time could be so heavily influenced by photography. I do also think it makes sense that tourism grew in tandem with photography. The unknown scares people, so when they got to see what all of these places looked like, they were willing to drop the money on going in person. 

"Thus, in the bureaucratic cataloguing of the world, many important documents are not valid unless they have, affixed to them, a photograph-token of the citizen’s face."

Another thing I hadn't considered before is how photography has become a tool to catalog the world. Photos have become such an important form of identification that they are ingrained into everyday necessities. It's even gotten to the point where technology-such as phones can identify us by our faces. I think because I was born in 2000 I never experienced a world that wasn't ruled by photo identification. I honestly can't imagine it. Photos are on drivers licenses, social media pages--which work as sort of diaries now a days with how people post their feelings and achievements on them, and any other place where self identification is. Photos are used on the news if a person is missing or in trouble with the law. Everyone has photos of themselves on hand. It's strange to think that self-identification could mean something other than a photograph.