Category: Reading Responses (Page 8 of 10)

To maintain focus on this response when examining photography’s ability to reveal and conceal I and going to examine it under the pretense of concealing and revealing as relative deviation from an experience that would be firsthand.

There are philosophical questions to consider regarding this topic. Firstly, is the experience offered by photography a degradation of the real experience or something separate, with intrinsic value as a unique medium, despite its limitations? It serves as a form of documentation, capturing moments in time that undeniably occurred and often offering more accuracy than our own memories. Photography is an art form that mirrors the truth, conceals it, and reveals it to the world, granting immense power.

Secondly, what is truth? Is it your truth, my truth, the objective truth, or the truth an artist wishes to express and frame in a photograph, distorting the image into something new and unveiling what was hidden in plain sight?

There is a duality when examining photography’s power as a medium that can simultaneously unveil and obscure the truths of the world. Overall, it has democratized knowledge, but its mass accessibility has profoundly influenced contemporary culture attitudes engendered a false sense of certainty and serves to conceal.

Our world is analogous to Plato’s cave, an allegory Sontag used to discuss the deceptive appearances of things we encounter in reality. Photography, as Sontag argues, offers us “mere images of the truth” (1), constituting the initial layer of concealment in our experience like mere shadows observed in a cave. Photographs freeze moments in time and space, transforming our relationship with the true experience into a secondhand one through the medium of photography—a deviation from the truth. This secondary experience also desensitizes us to the actual experiences captured, as it cannot fully communicate the depth of those moments, thereby it can numbs and conceals the horrors and tragedies in our history.

Secondly, in a world flooded with easily accessible photographs capturing nearly everything, a dilemma emerges: the human experience is not as limitless as the photographs we collectively accumulate. Consequently, we must become selective with our attention, reshaping our notions of significance and altering the way we engage with the world. This unique relationship leads us to choose, for instance, what is worth photographing at the expense of mundane aspects of life that we cast aside, or rare sights that have become overly accessible, losing their sense of urgency.

Thirdly, the manipulability of photographs can work to conceal the truth. “Photographs, which fiddle with the scale of the world, themselves get reduced, blown up, cropped, retouched, doctored, tricked out.” (2) Photos are mere snapshots without context of complex situations which can be highly misleading. It reminds me of an optical illusion where one person’s foot is positioned in a way that, when viewed from a certain angle, creates the illusion of the knife depicting a situation where the truth was the reverse of what is depicted.

Nowadays, almost everyone has a camera in their hands at any given time. With the increased reliance on social media as a means of receiving attention, our instincts as social media users overpower our instincts as photographers. For instance, a popular trend that most of us have come across at one point walking down the streets of New York City is sidewalk art– drawings, paintings, or graffiti similar to the one shown below, which I took a photo of as I was walking near Madison Avenue. While these artistic pieces are not considered photography themselves, the artists, through their street art, encourage pedestrians to stop and to snap a photograph of the sidewalk display. Many of these observers later upload their findings to social media or share them with other friends and family. 

By encouraging almost every pedestrian who passes by to participate in the art of photography, the original artist brings his work to life through the hands and minds of the hundreds of New Yorkers. Every person who comes across this sidewalk art and decides to take a photograph, or even those who decide it is not beautiful enough to take a photo of, suddenly becomes a “director, stage, and costume designer, make-up artist” (Martinique), but this form of photography is somewhat different from the allegory of “Plato’s Cave” in the way that Sonia Sontag describes the art of photography in her piece, On Photography. In her analogy, the photographic world consists of a series of “unrelated, freestanding particles… and faits divers” (Sontag, 17), or “miscellaneous facts.” However, with street art, the same so-called “particle” is captured, yet each photo is unique. Each photographer establishes “a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge– and, therefore, like power” (Sontag, 12)

This form of photography, which derives its nature from an artist who left a piece of himself on the street and may never knowingly come across his photographers, is a testament to Sontag’s idea that photographers are “still haunted by tacit imperatives of taste and conscience” (Sontag, 4) No two photos of the same piece of art will ever be the same because embedded into each rendition is a reflection of the photographer’s own identity. The distance from the art, the highlights, the lighting, the shadows, the saturation are all details that make each relationship between object and photographer distinct. However, depending on social media to dictate for us when and how a photo is taken strips us of that freedom and identity. We become confined to the rules of social media trends and, more generally, society. The beauty and story behind each photo is what drives people to post their work on social media. As a result, individuals begin to limit themselves by “search[ing] only for the photogenic” (Sontag, 6) As social media users adopt this mindset of valuing only the surroundings that are beautiful and good enough for their feed, they reject everything that is ugly, “naughty,” “disreputable, taboo, marginal” (Sontag, 9), which is the true essence of photography. Photography is meant to capture a thought and allow that relationship between the photographer and photo to exist. When we capture thoughts only to post them on social media for others to see, we only capture a superficial part of life. The choice to take a picture of this artist’s figure on the street is simultaneously the choice not to take a picture of the graffiti art on the wall or of the living homeless veteran and his dog down the block. The thoughts about our feed dictate what we choose to capture more than our thoughts about the world in front of us do. Social media forces us not only to look merely for the beautiful and desirable but it also forces us to abandon the ugly and unwanted. 

Photography is the procedure of cataloging an image – a photograph – on light-sensitive film. It means drawing with light. It is derived from the Greek words “photos”, which means light, and “graphos”, which means drawing. However, photography has long since developed since the time it has been invented. Photography, as defined by Susan Sontag in her writing “On Photography“, is the idea of being able to capture the world through the lens of a camera or photographic device, as well as preserving the past and the present for the nearing future.

One such example that Sontag emphasizes the importance of photographs is by reflecting upon the uses of photographs in the past and how that has shaped the present within the field of criminology, being one of many examples. Sontag states, “Photographs furnish evidence…photographs became a useful tool of modern states in the surveillance and control of their increasingly mobile populations.” (Sontag 3). Through the use of photographs, police were able to lead investigations based on “solid” evidence. They presumed that “something exists, or did exist, which is like what’s in the picture.” This use of photography has long since evolved and has shaped the way of gathering evidence to this day and being able to influence investigations to bring criminals to justice. This use of photography helps to capture the world of criminology and has led to its advancement in several ways.

Another example Sontag mentions that highlights the significance of photographs is the idea of keeping memories or records of the past and the present. Sontag stated, “Through photographs, each family constructs a portrait-chronicle of itself—a portable kit of images that bears witness to its connectedness.” (Sontag 5). Photographs help keep long-lasting memories of families that can be cherished for generations. They bring life to the idea of a family and allow for a greater connection when the memories are developed through the use of photography. These photographs will bring to light the idea of both being able to preserve and share the memories with future generations. Photography is beyond the spectrum of art, it is the essence of capturing and preserving memories/history for the long term, being powerful enough to distort or shape anything. Photographs help to achieve an archive of memories from the past, leading to the present and the eventual future.

Photography has had many uses throughout history, but in my opinion, it has made some of its greatest impacts in capturing moments to help lead to bringing criminals to justice as well as safeguarding memories. As Aaron Siskind states, “Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”

Photographs as defined by Susan Sontag in her essay, “On Photography” enlarges what is worth looking at and what we have a right to see. Through a photographic medium, the intrinsic meaning of images is left up to the interpretation of the audience, allowing them to uncover what a photograph reveals. I believe that through a photographic medium, nuances of the environment and the circumstances surrounding the period in which the photograph is taken are revealed, painting a larger picture of the challenges faced by society during their respective periods. As alluded to by Sontag, the 1930s consisted of photographers who photographed a pressing issue during their time period: Sharecropping. To do so, they would take pictures of “the precise expression on the subject’s face that supported their own notions about poverty, light, dignity, texture, exploitation, and geometry” (Sontag 4) therefore choosing to push forward the struggles of sharecroppers through a visual medium.

Furthermore, on a sociological level, photography reveals challenges faced by society through its representation of circumstances surrounding interpersonal relationships and the way in which we act toward each other. Examples of these circumstances can be seen in Sontag’s analysis of the presence of photography within families, where she indicates “Not to take pictures of one’s children, particularly when they are small, is a sign of parental indifference, just as not turning up for one’s graduation picture is a gesture of adolescent rebellion” (Sontag 5). Photography, in this case, helps to give an overview of the circumstances within society by giving interpreters insight into interpersonal behavior.

Even through history, we can see the ramifications of photography as it pertains to drawing a greater societal picture. A perfect example is used by Sontag when she mentions the photography of the horrors of World War Two that serve as “ethical reference points” (Sontag 16) emotionally charging readers and drawing a larger picture of the challenges faced by society during times of war. In conclusion, photography helps to build on our knowledge of society, painting a picture that represents societal struggles as highlighted by the interpreter.

Photographs can be a physical or immaterial form of art that is widely accepted and utilized by all. Photographs help capture a moment and preserve the memory within them so that others who also view it, are able to see what the photographer saw through similar eyes. Every person has taken a photo, whether it’s of a building, a piece of food, or another artwork from their phone or digital camera. In Susan Sontag’s essay, “On Photography”, she discusses how photographs have been essential throughout history and people’s everyday life because of how they certify that the moment taken was real and that the experience was lived. Photography, according to her, furnishes evidence and reveals the moment and what was happening. 

Photographs mirror what has been seen by the photographer and captures experiences as it was viewed. Sontag describes photography as the remains of a memory that allows people to take “…possession of a past that is unreal…”(6). She provides an example of how a one full-page ad showed a small group of people and they’re all pressed together being excited. We don’t know exactly what they were happy about, but through the emotions and facial expressions taken by the photo, we know how they were feeling and we end up feeling it too. Photos reveal emotions and portray them even though we never experienced the exact memory. However, Elena Martinique in her article “When Staged Photography Becomes Art”, believes the opposite. She illustrates how photos conceal because there are staged photographs now that have been manipulated for artistic purposes. People could be posing for a photo acting joyful but the second the camera goes down, they can think differently since they had a “director” to tell them how to create the emotions and events. 

In my opinion, photographs are able to reveal, but they are limited. We will never know the thought process behind the photographer and how they were feeling but we are able to be empathetic with the photo illustration based on how it is expressed. If it was a photo of a scenery, like poachers hunting a lion, emotions are revealed. I am made to feel sorry for the lion through a single photograph that was taken and I’m also able to interpret the scene and what is going on, as it could be self-explanatory. Even if it had the potential to be staged, it still delivered the message of feeling pitiful. Furthermore, if it was a photo of a tree, what I see is revealed to me. The only thing concealed is why a photographer would want to take a picture. It could’ve reminded them of a different tree and that’s why they took a photo or maybe they just wanted to share with viewers what they thought was cool. The photographer’s thought process behind the photo is concealed, but the exact photograph is able to reveal emotions and imagery exactly how it has been taken.

Photography and the way things are photographed can have different impacts on the human brain and perception. This is especially true on social media. Where, when, and how images are taken can have an impact on the average social media, especially for social media ads or for companies using social media for marketing. The visual appeal of these photos combined with the trending themes of the pictures help to greatly increase viewership of these posts, leading to increased sales for that company. I have direct experience with this through my beauty blog on Instagram.

In my area of expertise on Instagram, beauty and skincare, companies will post photos of their to their main accounts, as well as send products for influencer such as myself to photograph and promote on their individual accounts. Most of the time these photographs are “staged photographs” as they are called in the Widewalls article. They have images in the background that reflect the product itself, represent the ingredients in the product, or match the product’s packaging. For example, a watermelon scented product may be placed in front of a pink or red background surrounded bye slices of watermelon. The visual appeal of the photographs helps to draw attention the posts and therefore sell more products.

Social media trends also help to sell products. By hopping on a trend that is gaining popularity, brands can ensure that more users will see their product, and these fun trends also add to the visual appeal, which helps to bring attention to these posts encouraging people to go out and buy the product. Having experience with taking these photos myself, I definitely agree with Jeff Wall from the Widewalls article when he says these photos take preparation and thought before they are actually taken. It was interesting to consider how this is a fairly new type of photography that emerged with the birth of technology, but it makes sense since these images are taken in order to attract a younger consumer who is most likely more invested in their social media usage.

Both of the most impactful trends I’ve seen with my blogging experience occur every Wednesday through hashtags. There’s #watershotwednesday and #pinkwednesday. For watershot Wednesday companies and influencers take pictures of the products in front of some sort of fun water scene. For example I’ve stuck products under runnign water for an artistic shot. Pink Wednesday is inspired by the iconic quote from Mean Girls, “on Wednesdays we wear pink.” Whether the background or the product is pink, the eye catching color certainly draws attention to these posts.

I have done posts for both these trends in collaboration with different companies, and checking my insights for these posts you can see that using social media trends helps to bring traffic to these posts.

These social media trends and the fun and vibrant photographs posted to these Instagram accounts impact the consumers’ perception of the products. It makes them excited about the product and encourages them to even hop on the trends themselves after purchasing. The photography therefore helps to also increase companies’ profits.

“Moreover, cultural heritage is not only limited to material objects that we can see and touch. It also consists of immaterial elements: traditions, oral history, performing arts, social practices, traditional craftsmanship, representations, rituals, knowledge, and skills transmitted from generation to generation within a community.”

An important aspect of cultural heritage is its varying implications in the lives who carry it. When that heritage is intangible, it is carried into later generations only through those who continue in its practice. This places a great responsibility of members of that culture to purposefully bring their practices into modern times because, without them, these acts will be forgotten.

An intangible aspect of cultural heritage in my family is the tomato sauce my grandmother makes for our family dinners. The tradition of making this sauce for other members of the family to enjoy comes from my great grandmother, the daughter of an Italian immigrant family. This aspect of our heritage is intangible because the sauce itself is not the heritage but the action of making and sharing it. It is passed down by the cooks in our family, including myself and my grandmother. When I sat with her one day to watch how she makes it, she showed me her process and the tools she uses in creating it, one being a crooked wooden spoon she inherited from her mother, who used it for the same purpose.

When she makes and shares this sauce, it brings our family together. We sit for dinner and talk about or days, share our thoughts, and connect with each other. Without it, our family would be missing an event that connects us, and we would be incomplete without it. As I have grown and taken an interest in cooking myself, my grandmother has shared her recipe with me, and I will continue to make it for others and give my relatives a space to relate to one another. As this skill is passed down, it becomes a part of our heritage.

I was born and raised in New York City; however, I always refer to myself as Chinese American because of the way I was raised by my parents. With my American identity, it always felt like a given to me: I grew up listening to artists like Maroon 5 and watching shows like Full House. In other words, I was surrounded by so much American influence as well as consuming so much American culture that it felt easy for me to take on my American identity. This was a different case for my Chinese identity.

For some time now, it was hard for me to take on my Chinese identity. It wasn’t because I wasn’t proud of my Chinese background. More so, I didn’t feel worthy enough to call myself Chinese. I always felt like I had to prove my Chinese identity. For example, while speaking English is a given to me, I am not as proficient in Cantonese, and this always made me feel not “Chinese enough.” The hardest part is, my lack of ability to read, write or fluently speak Chinese isn’t due to a lack of trying. I have attended Chinese school on the weekend, but it just so happens to be that Chinese is one of the hardest languages to learn.

Currently, my mindset has changed. My proficiency with Cantonese is still not as good as it can be however, I realized that my Chinese identity also comes from the way my parents raised me. They raised me under the Confucius concept of filial piety which raises emphasis on respecting our elders, our parents and those who came before us. One way we reinforce this concept is by observing Tomb Sweeping Day.

On Tomb Sweeping Day, my family honors our ancestors by paying them a visit and providing offerings. I vividly remember annually going to the cemetery to visit the tombstones of old family members and friends who have helped my family greatly. On this visit, my family would clear away grass which may have covered the tomb stone, plant new flowers near the tomb stone, lay food and wine in front of the tomb stone (offering food to the ancestors), and burn fake money and gold near the tomb stone (it is believed that the ”money” and “gold” we burn will reach our ancestors for them to use).

As mentioned by Elena Franchi in her article “What is cultural heritage?”, “cultural heritage is not only limited to material objects that we can see and touch. It also consists of immaterial elements: traditions…” With that being said, my family’s tradition of honoring our ancestors through participating in Tomb Sweeping Day is an intangible aspect of cultural heritage. With my family’s tradition, there isn’t necessarily a material item which can be passed down generations to ensure our Chinese heritage is preserved making this aspect intangible. The part of our heritage that is passed down is the action of honoring our ancestors, the action of burning fake currency, and the action of providing offerings of food and wine.

As for how this tradition is being preserved and passed down, my parents continuously make the younger generation join along and actively help on Tomb Sweeping Day. By introducing this tradition to my brother, cousins, and I early on, it ensures that we know how to carry on this tradition once our parents may no longer be around to do so. Once again, in my family there is a big emphasis on obeying filial piety, and fulfilling this tradition and having future generations join along for Tomb-Sweeping Day ensures this concept and tradition will last far beyond our lifetime.

When defining cultural heritage, it is critical to account for the differences in meaning on a person-to-person basis. In the academic system, all students are held to the same standard but have endured a variety of distinct cultural experiences due to their family background.

The definition of cultural heritage that is conveyed to the reader through the passage, “What is cultural heritage?” by Elena Franchi, is one’s connection to the timeline of their respective community. A first-generation college student in the United States who is immersed in American culture can often lose sight of where their family has come from and what exactly their respective culture is. This exact point is why there is an increasing importance for recognizing one’s cultural heritage because it functions as a tie to the individuals who have come before them, the same people enabling them to go to college in this new country.

In Franchi’s section about the protection of cultural heritage, she mentions the selection process of what a society chooses what to preserve about their culture and what to let go. This question of “what is worthy of being preserved for future generations and what is not,” is a constant struggle for many first-generation students because these ideals may not have been incorporated into their lives causing a disconnect from cultural heritage. Building on Franchi’s point of protecting cultural heritage, the idea expressed to the reader is that to identify with a certain society/group, you have a responsibility to protect and share that culture so that it does not stop with this generation. Culture can only be tangible and recognized if it is shared with the community, and when individuals fail to acknowledge this responsibility, heritage is lost.

The article aims to bring awareness to the importance of recognizing cultural heritage, and its utmost importance to continue to pass down what was given by the parents of this generation. There is also a respect piece that Franchi mentions when culture is learned and comprehended by all types of individuals in a community. An era of “globalization” that Franchi alludes to, draws the conclusion that due to technological advancements and increased connectedness of individuals around the world, students must continue to not only be proactive and learn their own culture, but also the cultural heritage of their peers.

Ultimately, cultural heritage can be defined as one’s responsibility to preserve the legacy of their forefathers. Furthermore, it is having the ability to step out of their own shoes, and humbly peer into the stories of others to procure a more well-rounded world view.

While I had once believed that cultural heritage represented the roots of a community that held them together through shared histories and memories, my sentiment has recently been subject to change. I had viewed cultural heritage as those back-dated aspects of my life that seemed to follow me through changing times. However, I find now that cultural heritage isn’t something that necessarily holds an individual back. Instead, it is a never-ending map of generations that share a starting-point but continue to move forward.

Author Elena Franchi shares this idea as she writes, “it is also the result of a selection process: a process of memory and oblivion that characterizes every human society constantly engaged in choosing—for both cultural and political reasons—what is worthy of being preserved for future generations and what is not.” She expresses that the passage of time allows us to abandon ideologies that do not belong in the present without the guilt of leaving our cultural heritage behind. This is because we continue to appreciate the memories and simply evaluate for ourselves how we express our cultural heritage.

Born to immigrants who moved to America from Bangladesh in their 20’s, my Bengali culture has been infused with the American culture that was long envied by my parents. We continue to constantly listen to Bengali music, read Bengali poetry, and watch Bengali films. However, I believe that being raised here has given me the freedom to, as Franchi mentioned, “constantly [engage] in choosing.” One way that I have felt connected to my culture is through my gold nose ring. Almost like a rite of passage for girls in my family, the nose ring had once symbolized the marriage of a woman. However, over time, it has simply become a sign of womanhood—a choice that a girl made herself. This is one of the traditions that I value the most due to its ability to persist yet change with the times.

My religion and culture were also never forced upon me, which has allowed me to find its place in my life on my own. My family celebrates Eid and participates in Ramadan, which brings us closer together every year through shared meals and celebrations. We wear the cultural clothing that we would not wear otherwise, and we take the time to return to the heritage that often gets lost throughout the year. While each family definitely approaches these traditions differently, I believe that contributes to the beauty and appeal of culture. There are no rules or judgement. These times also allow us to bond with other families in our shared spaces, such as my local mosque, where we usually wouldn’t interact so frequently or freely. These aspects of our cultural heritage bring us closer together, but also closer to ourselves as we grow to understand where it fits in our lives.