w06 Belief in the Image

[jessicalaw04]

Legrady suggests that photography is accepted as documentation of history, which allows something that is non-permanent to become permanent. We live in an environment full of imagery, such as advertisement, news, television, everyday photos, etc. All of them have some impacts on our concept and belief about culture. Legrady states that our culture has somehow shaped the ways we look and perceive from images. Photography was always thought to be real and objective because photographers seemed to have less control over the image produced. However, Legrady points out, ” even though the photograph represents everything in front of the camera, photography is a symbolic practice where meaning is determined by beliefs and generated through the connotative strategies of subject selection, framing, and vantage point.” Photographers actually have some creative control over the images they produce by selection sections and angles of the object to create different kind of emotional feelings.
Technology nowadays allows us to easily edit photograph, and makes it harder for audience to tell if an image has been edited or not.

Example:

A great example would be how everyone can easily access to photo editing programs, and create all kinds of images. It has been commonly used on profile pictures in social network sites. In the picture above, it shows example of a girl before and after made up and photoshop effects. She looks like a totally different person after all the editing. The image has been wildly shared through facbook and reminds people not to easily believe in these kinds of photos.Also, looking at the after photo, we can tell how society and culture affect how people view beauty, and create images of beauty.

[j_j05ham]

Images have become a powerful medium of conveying messages. Within George Legrady's essay titled "Image, Language and Belief in Synthesis" he writes about the different purposes of images and how technology has advanced thus advancing the mediums towards using images. first off , an image can be powerful in communicating ideas. These ideas can be emphasized merely through a chosen angles captured. Along with digital cameras came computer programs. Many images now can be altered and therefore misconstrued. This is an effective technique in trying to persuade an audience into believing a false idea. The media is notorious for altering images so that the public can be persuaded towards or against a certain news. Ultimately this technology creates power through influence. The media decides what can and cannot be viewed.The synthesis of Images also creates a false sense of identity. The audience can either blindly believe whatever is shown to them or they can be forced to question just about every image shown to them. These altering image programs are so easily and readily attainable to almost anyone and everyone that it is never certain what image is an altered or simply false. Perhaps, one of the biggest problems is that the media provides the most readily available source of information. Data can be digital sent across the notion, in fact across the globe in a matter of seconds. A vast majority of the worlds population can attain that falsified image through a number of sources which will have it at readily display. However, the truth takes time to uncover; time that most people wont be willing to spare.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM6azIwmfAY

Recently this video surfaced of what was reported to be a woolly mammoth however days later it was discovered that the video was altered. It is actually a bear with a fish but the person who recorded the video altered it to the point where the blurry image looks like it could be a mammoth.

[karenyliu]

In his article, Legrady talks about the development of digital photography and the significance and reason why photography and digital images are accepted so widely and easy that people believe them instantly. Because internet and digital world are so convenient nowadays, people get access to digital world everywhere and everyday. However because of this, anyone is able to distort what the image is trying to portray and completely change the meaning as well. Because photography was supposed to be something that reflects the real world and the most nature and realistic side of the society, people did not think of somebody changing and distorting the original idea of the photos at first place. Legrady also talks about how people get idea and different meaning from looking at an image, both the detonated and connotative messages. The importance of bringing up detonated and connotative message is that any distortion of a digital image can change people’s understanding of it.

This type of photographic distortion comes up a lot in the media to promote an idea such as advertisement. I found this picture online with a bottle of Lancom’s eye cream and two images of the same panda with the same pose but one with the dark eye-circle and one without. I found this photo very funny and interesting that somebody would think of the idea of photoshop the eye of a panda in order to advertise the eye cream product. This kind of process in changing portions of a photo to promote a totally different idea is what Legrady was trying to convey in his article.

[goldgills]

Legrady makes many valid points in his article about digital photography and the images manipulation today. People are so very fast to believe what they see in front of them, and may not realize that almost every image put out there has been manipulated one way or another. The digital world has made photos so accessible to and easy to view via the internet. Since photos are meant to represent the real world people take that information and simply apply it to what they are seeing. The images are manipulated and play off of this idea. Different meanings are taken away from the photos, such as connotative and denotative messages. They communicate a certain meaning to the viewer.


With in this picture of Andy Rodrick, he even mentions that his photo has clearly been photoshopped. He knew it instantly when he saw his image. However, some viewers may not realize this image has been completely manipulated. They may buy into trying to achieve this "perfect" physique.

[erikbarrios07]

In the Legrady article we can identify different points related to photography and how digital photography has been pushed through society to present manipulated images that have changed the perception of how people view certain things. The idea of seeing things changed does not rapidly occur when one is presented an image, meaning one is not able to guess whether the image is an original image or has been manipulated in such way to either remove, enhance, or even completely change certain characteristics of an image. Many people in today's society may not even see the importance of digital photography in the way where they can be really affected by the manipulation of such photographers. The idea behind the manipulation of photography allows many marketing companies to either find an easy way out, present a different idea using same images with altered changes or even ways of marketing certain products that would give them a successful amount of consumers. It can be a great debate of photo manipulation and they way people interpret and understand this modern phenomenon that has changed every book, magazine, and ways media presents certain things.


Below is a perfect example of a magazine and how many marketing companies ect. can change the way they present certain things. In the Example we see in issue with two different ways of presenting it. Through this one must realize there was only one shot as oppose to two different guys and was later manipulated to present which one suited the magazine better or if not having a racial background.