What Does Photography Truly Do

396 Words2 Pages
Photography is a way to capture the moment and cherish memories. However, it is not the best way to aid people understand what has been recorded. I have disbelief in Sontag’s statement, “a photograph… reveals virtually nothing,” because a photograph at least unveils the main idea. Although photography restrains understanding, the main causes are because photos lack emotion experienced by the photographer and individuals are limited to the use of a single sense. Undoubtedly, the quote, “it can, finally, never be ethical or political knowledge,” helps in the understanding of photographs lacking the emotion experienced by the photographer. Pictures of accidents and deaths may allow the ones to see them feel an emotion of grief and grimness but this is where they will stop understanding the photo. These individuals will never feel the emotions the photographer felt first hand at the site of the picture. There is a popular and well-known photo of a burning monk that ignited the flame himself due to religious prosecution. When people see this they will know only so much without an explanation behind this motive because to them it will mean one word, insanity. Unquestionably, a human has five senses, but when it comes to photography individuals use only one of their five senses. Pictures of national landmarks such as the Grand Canyon may allow people to see what they look like, but they will never understand how it feels to actually be there. This is because they will not be able to feel the breeze, smell the air, or hear the wind but they will also explain it with one word, beauty. Photography limits understanding because people will only use visual perception of the world, and only understand the two dimensional function without the natural depth involved with the photo. Pursuing this further, during the Gilded Age in the US, many photos of meat packaging industries
Open Document