Images had played many roles along the history, giving information, capturing a memory, recording the evidence, using for entertainment, and showing self expression. From listening to “New Ways of Seeing, Episode 2: Machine Visions”, I got interested in the role of images in society that have changed dramatically throughout the history. John Berger believed that the images didn’t merely tell us something about what they represented, but because our way of seeing had changed over time, they also told us something about ourselves, and the society we lived.
“The invention of the camera has changed not only what we see, but how we see it.” — John Berger
The social roles played by images have changed dramatically throughout the history. Today, photography become more involved in our everyday life. The image is the universal language, it is generally accepted as one kind of an art.
In the 1990s, when Adobe Photoshop rose to prominence, the way people think about photos, especially digital photo is changing. It contains digital filters that are used in image correction, enhancement, and transformation of the image. It can control the contrast, colour balance, tone, and more. The photography is no longer a tool to make memory or to make a record of a history but the focus is shifting. While we might have expected the incredible availability of images and information online to allow us to see more clearly what’s happening, in fact, it is opposite. “The more images we see, the less we know.”
“From the moment of its sesquicentennial in 1989 photography was dead — or, more precisely, radically and permanently displaced — as was painting 150 years ago” — William J Mitchell
The images today is no longer just humans who produce, but machines becoming a part of image making process. With the social media platforms, many people care more about likes. The images are being adjusted, filtered, and edited that it look completely different from the real one. Nowadays, when I go to cafe, there will always be people taking photo around. There are many new cafes just open near my house. I saw many reviews on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, there are many beautiful pictures. But when I saw the cafes on the way back to my home, I feel that it is not as beautiful as the pictures that people post on the social media. They edited to make it look more clean and minimal as the trend, and those images gained more likes than the others. I also had been disappointed with the places that I went because I saw nice photos before. So I realise that we should not be expecting too much because people often post the similar spot of each locations which it might means that there is nothing more than that. There are also photos that are real but we have scroll down to it as it will not be show up on the top.
Images on Social Media
These are the images of a new cafe in Chiangmai. There are many reviews on Facebook and Instagram. Some of them have electric wires, while some don’t. People want to make it look clean and minimal on their feed so they photoshopped electric wires out. Is it wrong to post a review with photoshopped pictures? I think that it depends on the purpose, if it is for writing review, letting people know about the cafe, or with commercial purpose, they should be not overly edit the photos. If the purpose of editing is for just for posting on their feed, making it beautiful, I think that it is not wrong. In that case, it can be accepted as an art as well.
“The wildlife photography we see in films, books, and periodicals is often stunning in its design, import, and aesthetics. It may also be fake, enhanced or manufactured by emerging digital technologies that have transformed-some say contaminated-the photography landscape” — KENMTII BROWER
