Blog Entries 5-7

Blog Entries #5, #6, #7:

#5.
“Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.” ~Edward Steichen




I like this quote a lot. I think it's a good representation of what photography is. Photos really can capture feeling of people's faces, sometimes even better than you can in person. Because the image is only an instant of an expression, you can sometimes glimpse an expression that was quickly hidden in real life. Photography also allows us to concentrate longer on an expression and analyze it more as to interpret the thoughts behind them. The statement about how photography explains man to man is very appropriate, and i think that photographers really help people think about the human condition and people's place in the world. By capturing images of everything around us as well as people themselves.

#6.
 In your opinion, when is it beneficial, ethical, or appropriate to digitally alter photographic portraits? When do you think it is inappropriate or ethically wrong?

I think that digitally altering portraits is kind of fun to do for personal use. For example I like changing my hair color to rainbow in photoshop. I think that it is fine as long as it serves a good purpose, like creating drama or effects that couldn't be done without altering. When it gets inappropriate is when the manipulator specifically does it for a bad reason, like to emphasize physical qualities in a person that aren't real with the intent of passing them off as real and influencing the people who view them.

#7.
Pay close attention to the types and number of photographic portraits you see in one day. Where did you see them? How do you think that the content of the portrait changes based on the context in which you see the image (news, facebook, magazine, advertisement, television, youtube, etc)? In other words, what is the difference between the portraits you see on facebook vs. those on the news? What is the difference between the “viewpoint” of the photographer in each situation? What is the difference between their “intents”?

There is a huge difference between the way people view photos on billboards or ads or the news, and the ones of your friends on facebook and other personal websites. Because you know certain things about a person in advance, when you view a portrait of someone on facebook or other personal website you treat the photo as a more casual, accurate depiction of a person. Even if you don't know the person at all, just by knowing that the picture is something that they chose to represent themselves gives you a more intimate idea about themselves. Their intent in posting each photo is to tell the viewer something about themselves, and the intent in viewing the picture is to learn something about the person. In advertisements and other commercial portraits the viewer understands that the photographer has more of a viewpoint and input into the image. Likely, the person portrayed did not have that much input into the image, and therefor no one considers those types of images as accurate representations of the person.