Written Assignment 1- Myth of photographic truth PDF

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As a visual consumer, I believe that digitally altered images are can be misleading and provide a false sense of truth for viewers. The myth of photographic truth, as well as images and ideologies of digital technology, can lead people to believe they should be living and acting in a certain manner among their social lives. Social media, television, and advertisements are present in our everyday lives and ultimately affects how we live. To begin, social media and television are two perfect examples of how people can acquire a false sense of truth within the ideology of images. “Ideologies are the broad but indispensable shared set of values and beliefs through which individuals live out their complex relations in a range of social networks. Ideology is manifested in widely shared social assumptions not only about the way things are but about the way things should be” (Cartwright & Sturken, p. 38). Those who use social media can easily be victimized by this false sense of truth since there is repetitive imaging of how friends and family are living their lives. However, posting a picture on social media is used specifically to capture publicity and are often not portraited as the truth. We can easily alter an image simply by setting up a background that you want people to see, or by taking multiple selfies until getting a perfect angle that we feel comfortable sharing with the public. To spice up an image more, we may use filters that provide false lighting and add extra color, so the image will be more appealing than it really is. In doing this, we not only are creating a false image to the public but, making it easier for others to follow the same trend of a false reality. This trend of false reality can be used to feel accepted or to fit in with others because we might not feel accepted providing truth to our personal imaging. Television and movies work in a similar way, glorifying ideas such as money, romance, and violence to a point that viewers believe what is portraited on film is an ideal life. Furthermore, advertising and marketing is a way in which images and ideology is perceived by the viewer as truth when in fact it is a false truth. Advertisements are often shown as a way in which people ought to live. “Images are elements of contemporary advertising and consumer culture through which assumptions about beauty, desire, glamour, and social value are both constructed and lived” (Cartwright & Sturken, p. 38). Many times, products are advertised in such a way to gain popularity and ultimately provide suppliers with money. Advertising can be very misleading in this sense because producers are only trying to capture the public’s attention for money. Advertising can also be a form of propaganda since assumptions can be made about a product in a bias and misleading nature. For example, AXE commercials are shown to make women easily attracted to men in a sexual manner. Does using the product make you more attractive to women, or make you more susceptible to wasting your money for a false reality? Moreover, digital imaging is usually perceived as truth because photographs are thought to be generally objective. “Photography has been associated with realism, even though the creation of an image through a camera lens has always involved some degree of subjective choice. The camera is a machine and many people associated machines with objective and nonhuman vision” (Cartwright & Sturken, p. 24-25). This statement from practices of looking provides a great explanation of what the myth of photographic truth is. Real world images are much easier for people to perceive as unbiased rather than a hand drawing for example. Currently, imaging techniques such as video can be used as evidence for a subject matter or even

in a case in court. However, not all images should be perceived as a truth because any photographer can alter the way an image is perceived by setting up a scene, or not photographing relevant information. For example, someone could easily lie and say they hunted and shot an elk with an image of a rifle and a dead elk carcass. However, the individual could have simply found a dead elk and photographed themselves next to it while holding a gun which ultimately looks like they shot the animal, when in fact it is a false reality. Additionally, editing software such as Photoshop can be used to create images that look undeniably true when in fact it is fake. Overall, I believe that the myth of photographic truth can alter our ideology of images to make people live and act in a certain way in conjunction with social culture. With my idea of social media, television, and advertising, it’s obvious that false images can affect how we live every day. Since people perceive digital imaging generally as true, it’s simple to see that a false reality can be influenced in our day to day lives.

Works Cited Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking an Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford University Press, 2018....