Photography has been around since the 1830’s and the first important camera was called the brownie. In the 1900’s people had to glue photos onto paper to make a photo magazine. Photography has advanced in many ways since the 1830’s, but one way photography has come a long way is by being able to print color photos and by being able to print photos directly on paper. Photography has not only advanced, but become a universal language because now days we use more pictures to tell our stories with than words. Photos are also a great way to capture moments and keep them to have memories of something special in your life. In this essay I will expand on the uses of Photography, how it has changed and evolved since the 1830’s, and lastly how photography throughout history has influenced the world.
Photography has become a universal language to tell our stories with. Photography has become very powerful and now days we will use fewer words and more pictures to tell our stories. Another reason photography has become a universal language is because it is the only language that can be understood in all parts of the world. There are different cultures in the world and some people don’t speak English or the same language, so photographs can help them understand a story without words because with photographs they can tell what is going on. Photos help us keep records of something being done in our life and memories from the past that we can show people when telling our story so we can use fewer words and more of a visual aid to tell our story with photos.
We use photos to capture moments that we can look back on and talk about what was going on in that moment especially in history. Photography influenced history in a way that we can gather information from the photos that were taken and record moments of history that will never be forgotten because of photos. Examples of this is when the military man was coming back home and kissed a nurse that he didn’t even know because it represented the end of World War 2. Photo’s also helped in science because they can take a picture of each step at in the experiment and know what happens and how it reacted and they can also observe patterns in science with photos. Photos can also be a truth and evidence to history because people will read descriptions of what happened in history, but won’t believe it so photos can be the evidence to prove history is accurate. Photography has also influenced social, cultural beliefs and perceptions by photographers changing or manipulating the photos and then claiming that the picture is accurate even though they can make people look bad by this technique which teaches people bad morals. Photographers manipulate photos to influence perceptions of what people think about that person such as making a star look famous and glamorous by posing them in a certain way for the picture which makes people think they are so beautiful and that they want to look just like them, but in reality they may not even be gorgeous. It might just be the photo trying to give them a glamorous look by manipulating the photo to remove things such as acne or body weight. Next I will talk about how photography as an art form and how photographers have grasped techniques and claimed it to be an art form.
Artists transformed photography as an art form by manipulating photos. Back in the early 1900’s people didn’t think photography was an art since they claimed the camera does the work for you and all you have to do is press a button so photographers invented ideas of making photography an art. One example of how they tried to transform photography as an art form was by putting Vaseline on the camera lens to make it look like a painting. Some landscape artists used the two dimensional image of a scene that they captured with the camera to reproduce the perspective on their canvas and from this they claimed to create art that was more true to life. Photographers also used various darkroom techniques, tricks, and manipulations to produce staged photographs that they claimed required an extra step to do and claimed that was another way photography could be an art form. They thought this was taking an extra step like you would have to do when making handmade art which they said would make photography an art form, but really photography needed human invention to become art.
Photography also made a big influence with advancing technology because people could know what was going in the world through photographs being printed onto paper and being turned into magazines. At first photos had to be sent to Kodak and then Kodak would have to print them out or send them back to you. In about 1936 photographs didn’t have to be sent to Kodak anymore. Photography advanced enough that photographs could travel over telephone power lines and also photos could be developed on a photo plate. Photos used to have to be glued onto a sheet of paper, but then photography came a long way with a new advancement called halftime making it able to print photos directly onto a sheet of paper. Photography advanced technology by not only making it able to be printed directly onto paper and being able to turn it in to a magazine, but also by photography inventing postcards. In 1918 the first postcard was invented with pictures. One last way photography advanced in the 1900’s was because at first there was only black and white images and then in about the 1990’s photographers were already shooting colored images. Photography advanced technology so much by being able to make magazines, post cards, colored images, and by the technique of halftime that we still have in the world today. Also photography advanced through inventing tabloid papers and the first example of this is the New York daily news. Advertising with photos also advanced in the 1900’s because people started advertising with powerful slogans to attract people to buy products. Also these advertisements were making sports players become famous celebrities. An example of this would be Babe Ruth because he played baseball and earned 50,000 dollars with baseball, but as a celebrity he earned 1 million dollars. Photography was adding a new dimension to fame because if you look good in photos you could become famous. Still today local magazines advertise objects and celebrity’s and makes them look good on the cover of a magazine to draw people’s attention even if it involves manipulation of a photo.
Holly wood influenced identity because people start to mirror a person’s identity. Back in the visual ages photographers would pose people in positions and make them look like they are famous and then people start to aspire to become like them. Photographers would make famous stars look glamorous by editing out flaws and having them pose a certain way to draw people’s attention and make people think they could look like that famous star if they tried. So from these glamorous shots of famous celebrity’s, people would mirror to look like those celebrity’s.
Magazines had a big impact on people and their way of life because magazine companies would print lots of glossy images on the magazine especially advertisements to make people not only buy the magazine, but to promote the product. Photographs made objects become the objects of desire by photos worshipping the object. People think they have to get the object if it is being advertised on a magazine by a celebrity or a powerful slogan so much that sometimes people can’t resist or let go of their feelings telling them to buy the object. Since people can’t let go of their feelings to buy the product so it became the object that people desired to have because of the way it was promoted in the magazine. Also magazines would put famous celebrities on the magazine to attract people’s attention. Valentino was a famous celebrity who everyone loved back in the 1900’s so if he was on the front cover of a magazine people would want to buy the magazine to see more of him. In fact Valentino was so popular that people were making photo scrapbooks of him. It was almost like some people couldn’t resist buying the magazine because they had a celebrity addiction. People not only wanted to see more photos of their favorite celebrity, but wanted to learn more and become more like that certain celebrity. Pictures are used to capture people’s attention and so magazines captured people’s attention with the pictures it contained or the slogans they used to advertise a product.
A photograph can be more powerful than words because Pictures reach audiences more directly than just words alone. Pictures help people understand what is going on because some people can’t read or understand a different language so text and writing would be impossible for them to understand, but through pictures, people could have their own understanding of what is going on. A picture can be processed easier in a person’s mind then a bunch of words on paper because photos provide a visual aid so you can see what is going on and visualize it in your mind rather than having no pictures and just a bunch of words. Pictures also do a better job of grabbing a person’s attention than words do because of the visual impact pictures provide. For example if you are driving by and see a billboard advertising a product it is harder to read words while driving so a picture would do a better job of catching someone’s eye.
Pictures have the ability to make us sad, happy, excited, curious and disgusted. Also Pictures can invoke greater emotions in people than just words do because if it is a sad photo then it could draw tears to the people who saw the photo. An example of this would be photos at war such as D-Day. D-Day photos would be very graphic of people dying at war and this would be terribly sad and disgusting to look at especially if the picture was of someone you knew. Text can describe an event with vivid words, but we can actually believe it more if we see a photo taken because it gives us something to look at instead of just reading and believing what the text says. If it was a bright and happy photo of something such as a childhood memories than it would spark some happy thoughts in your head and make us happy. Images are very powerful to the human mind and how they can convey deep emotions to a human when looking at the image.
Social advocacy is the representation done by anyone committed to the concerns of a particular group in society. Examples of social advocacy in photographs would be like civil rights and trying to end segregation because it wasn’t fair to people. Certain groups such as black people wanted segregation to end and photos were a representation showing how they protested against segregation and how segregation had been raging. People back in the 1900’s took photos of segregation and how it was unfair because certain people didn’t have the same rights as other people had. An example of this would be like how colored people had to drink out of a different water fountain than white people and how they couldn’t use the same bathroom. Photos representing these protests would include pictures of signs above water fountains and bathrooms saying “Whites only” or “colored people only”. Colored people would protest against not having the same rights as white people and photos help illustrate what this is like because you can read any text about segregation but you might not believe it until you actually see photos of it.
Lastly photography has impacted my visual culture by allowing photographs to tell my story. I can keep a bunch of photographs from past moments in my life and still go back and be able to give a description of the photo. The visual type of media such as photos has influenced my life to let me know what is going on in the world and how I can keep a visual story book of my story with photos. Photos help to capture special moment’s that I will look back on with the photos I have kept. I can explain my story with photos and An example of this is Instagram because on Instagram people post photos to let you know what is going on in that moment. Photos can impact your visual culture by social media such as the internet serving as a visual platform.
Photography has become a universal language to tell our stories with. Photography has become very powerful and now days we will use fewer words and more pictures to tell our stories. Another reason photography has become a universal language is because it is the only language that can be understood in all parts of the world. There are different cultures in the world and some people don’t speak English or the same language, so photographs can help them understand a story without words because with photographs they can tell what is going on. Photos help us keep records of something being done in our life and memories from the past that we can show people when telling our story so we can use fewer words and more of a visual aid to tell our story with photos.
We use photos to capture moments that we can look back on and talk about what was going on in that moment especially in history. Photography influenced history in a way that we can gather information from the photos that were taken and record moments of history that will never be forgotten because of photos. Examples of this is when the military man was coming back home and kissed a nurse that he didn’t even know because it represented the end of World War 2. Photo’s also helped in science because they can take a picture of each step at in the experiment and know what happens and how it reacted and they can also observe patterns in science with photos. Photos can also be a truth and evidence to history because people will read descriptions of what happened in history, but won’t believe it so photos can be the evidence to prove history is accurate. Photography has also influenced social, cultural beliefs and perceptions by photographers changing or manipulating the photos and then claiming that the picture is accurate even though they can make people look bad by this technique which teaches people bad morals. Photographers manipulate photos to influence perceptions of what people think about that person such as making a star look famous and glamorous by posing them in a certain way for the picture which makes people think they are so beautiful and that they want to look just like them, but in reality they may not even be gorgeous. It might just be the photo trying to give them a glamorous look by manipulating the photo to remove things such as acne or body weight. Next I will talk about how photography as an art form and how photographers have grasped techniques and claimed it to be an art form.
Artists transformed photography as an art form by manipulating photos. Back in the early 1900’s people didn’t think photography was an art since they claimed the camera does the work for you and all you have to do is press a button so photographers invented ideas of making photography an art. One example of how they tried to transform photography as an art form was by putting Vaseline on the camera lens to make it look like a painting. Some landscape artists used the two dimensional image of a scene that they captured with the camera to reproduce the perspective on their canvas and from this they claimed to create art that was more true to life. Photographers also used various darkroom techniques, tricks, and manipulations to produce staged photographs that they claimed required an extra step to do and claimed that was another way photography could be an art form. They thought this was taking an extra step like you would have to do when making handmade art which they said would make photography an art form, but really photography needed human invention to become art.
Photography also made a big influence with advancing technology because people could know what was going in the world through photographs being printed onto paper and being turned into magazines. At first photos had to be sent to Kodak and then Kodak would have to print them out or send them back to you. In about 1936 photographs didn’t have to be sent to Kodak anymore. Photography advanced enough that photographs could travel over telephone power lines and also photos could be developed on a photo plate. Photos used to have to be glued onto a sheet of paper, but then photography came a long way with a new advancement called halftime making it able to print photos directly onto a sheet of paper. Photography advanced technology by not only making it able to be printed directly onto paper and being able to turn it in to a magazine, but also by photography inventing postcards. In 1918 the first postcard was invented with pictures. One last way photography advanced in the 1900’s was because at first there was only black and white images and then in about the 1990’s photographers were already shooting colored images. Photography advanced technology so much by being able to make magazines, post cards, colored images, and by the technique of halftime that we still have in the world today. Also photography advanced through inventing tabloid papers and the first example of this is the New York daily news. Advertising with photos also advanced in the 1900’s because people started advertising with powerful slogans to attract people to buy products. Also these advertisements were making sports players become famous celebrities. An example of this would be Babe Ruth because he played baseball and earned 50,000 dollars with baseball, but as a celebrity he earned 1 million dollars. Photography was adding a new dimension to fame because if you look good in photos you could become famous. Still today local magazines advertise objects and celebrity’s and makes them look good on the cover of a magazine to draw people’s attention even if it involves manipulation of a photo.
Holly wood influenced identity because people start to mirror a person’s identity. Back in the visual ages photographers would pose people in positions and make them look like they are famous and then people start to aspire to become like them. Photographers would make famous stars look glamorous by editing out flaws and having them pose a certain way to draw people’s attention and make people think they could look like that famous star if they tried. So from these glamorous shots of famous celebrity’s, people would mirror to look like those celebrity’s.
Magazines had a big impact on people and their way of life because magazine companies would print lots of glossy images on the magazine especially advertisements to make people not only buy the magazine, but to promote the product. Photographs made objects become the objects of desire by photos worshipping the object. People think they have to get the object if it is being advertised on a magazine by a celebrity or a powerful slogan so much that sometimes people can’t resist or let go of their feelings telling them to buy the object. Since people can’t let go of their feelings to buy the product so it became the object that people desired to have because of the way it was promoted in the magazine. Also magazines would put famous celebrities on the magazine to attract people’s attention. Valentino was a famous celebrity who everyone loved back in the 1900’s so if he was on the front cover of a magazine people would want to buy the magazine to see more of him. In fact Valentino was so popular that people were making photo scrapbooks of him. It was almost like some people couldn’t resist buying the magazine because they had a celebrity addiction. People not only wanted to see more photos of their favorite celebrity, but wanted to learn more and become more like that certain celebrity. Pictures are used to capture people’s attention and so magazines captured people’s attention with the pictures it contained or the slogans they used to advertise a product.
A photograph can be more powerful than words because Pictures reach audiences more directly than just words alone. Pictures help people understand what is going on because some people can’t read or understand a different language so text and writing would be impossible for them to understand, but through pictures, people could have their own understanding of what is going on. A picture can be processed easier in a person’s mind then a bunch of words on paper because photos provide a visual aid so you can see what is going on and visualize it in your mind rather than having no pictures and just a bunch of words. Pictures also do a better job of grabbing a person’s attention than words do because of the visual impact pictures provide. For example if you are driving by and see a billboard advertising a product it is harder to read words while driving so a picture would do a better job of catching someone’s eye.
Pictures have the ability to make us sad, happy, excited, curious and disgusted. Also Pictures can invoke greater emotions in people than just words do because if it is a sad photo then it could draw tears to the people who saw the photo. An example of this would be photos at war such as D-Day. D-Day photos would be very graphic of people dying at war and this would be terribly sad and disgusting to look at especially if the picture was of someone you knew. Text can describe an event with vivid words, but we can actually believe it more if we see a photo taken because it gives us something to look at instead of just reading and believing what the text says. If it was a bright and happy photo of something such as a childhood memories than it would spark some happy thoughts in your head and make us happy. Images are very powerful to the human mind and how they can convey deep emotions to a human when looking at the image.
Social advocacy is the representation done by anyone committed to the concerns of a particular group in society. Examples of social advocacy in photographs would be like civil rights and trying to end segregation because it wasn’t fair to people. Certain groups such as black people wanted segregation to end and photos were a representation showing how they protested against segregation and how segregation had been raging. People back in the 1900’s took photos of segregation and how it was unfair because certain people didn’t have the same rights as other people had. An example of this would be like how colored people had to drink out of a different water fountain than white people and how they couldn’t use the same bathroom. Photos representing these protests would include pictures of signs above water fountains and bathrooms saying “Whites only” or “colored people only”. Colored people would protest against not having the same rights as white people and photos help illustrate what this is like because you can read any text about segregation but you might not believe it until you actually see photos of it.
Lastly photography has impacted my visual culture by allowing photographs to tell my story. I can keep a bunch of photographs from past moments in my life and still go back and be able to give a description of the photo. The visual type of media such as photos has influenced my life to let me know what is going on in the world and how I can keep a visual story book of my story with photos. Photos help to capture special moment’s that I will look back on with the photos I have kept. I can explain my story with photos and An example of this is Instagram because on Instagram people post photos to let you know what is going on in that moment. Photos can impact your visual culture by social media such as the internet serving as a visual platform.