The "real" World of Photography

Photography can help us see objects in different and unusual ways, evoke a multitude of emotions, and offer us a way to capture and preserve the past. Susan Sontag said that "a photograph is not only an image, it is also a trace, something directly stenciled off the real." Although we cannot possess reality, we can imprison it. We can capture life and force it to stand still by taking a photograph. Essentially, photographs are an experience captured. In our country, we have become obsessed with photographs. Susan explains that "we seek to have our photographs taken, to feel that we are images and are only made real by photographs." "To collect photographs is to collect the world because movies will end, but with photographs the image is cheap to produce, lightweight, and easy to store."

Susan believes that "today, we get most of our knowledge about world happenings from photographs and people are frequently disappointed, surprised, or unmoved when they see the real thing." There are many times when we find ourselves filled with more emotions when looking at a picture then when actually experiencing it. Photographs can also cause strong feelings each time they are looked at, whereas actually experiencing it will only cause those strong feelings once.

When looking at a photograph, it is easy to be deceived; things are not always as they look. When looking at Duane Michel's "This Photograph Is My Proof", I think I saw two people very much in love with each other, but after reading the caption I began questioning whether she ever loved him at all. He kept insisting that she did love him, but true love never dies so I believe that all of her emotions were faked. In reality, the entire picture could have been faked as well; there are so many ways to edit and 'doctor' pictures that we never know if we are seeing something real or the figment of someone's imagination and hard work.

The proverb "A picture is worth a thousand words" explains that just by looking at a single still image you can formulate a story; sometimes looking at that still image is can stir more emotions than any amount of text can. So in the end, pictures are priceless, they have different meanings to different people, and all the true emotions will surface in them.