Gallery: Please visit the gallery to view images in full size. From the gallery, you will be able to add the images to the shopping cart and checkout. YouTube: I have a YouTube Channel (Hari PHL) where I post videos once a week. Please subscribe to my channel and share my videos. I appreciate your support. Thank you for visiting my site.
Since the invention of photography in the early 19th Century cameras have played a pivotal role in recording the human experience all over the globe. From major world events to amateur home and family photography, together this has created an enormous record of the lives of humanity over the last two centuries.
Photography as the Objective Witness of History and Events.
A photograph that you take from my neighborhood of Rittenhouse Square Philadelphia on a Saturday morning for example is mostly considered to be a completely objective way of recording an event, person or place that leaves nothing out. From a scientific perspective there is certainly some truth in this, for a precise image of a specific thing then a camera can document that in a way that no written text or verbal communication could ever match! For plant identification, anatomy or engineering, photography has transformed these fields and many others, allowing for a perfectly accurate documentation of the required subject.
Photography has also managed to bring the truth of war and conflict zones back home to the civilian populations, and has helped to expose the sufferings of famine regions, political persecutions and discrimination all over the world. These images are often used to good effect as evidence against the perpetrators who can then be brought to justice. The brutally honest pictures of people starving in famines has for example, helped to mobilize huge Aid efforts by more wealthy nations to help to end the suffering of their fellow human beings. In other cases, graphic and often shocking photography has helped to bring entire wars to an end including in Vietnam, Iraq and elsewhere!
Photography – An unreliable witness?
Joseph Nicephore Niepce, the inventor of photography and the first person to capture a permanent photographic image using a heliographic technique, famously said that photography ‘lies every day’.
Why is Photography an Unreliable Witness?
Every photograph is a only ever a small snapshot of the scene or context within which it fits. The photographer can completely change the entire nature of the image by framing it in a particular way or cropping it using post production software.
Focusing on certain characters in the scene will change the meaning of the photograph entirely, and as the audience of the picture you will never be able to tell for sure what has been omitted.
Photography can be used to change the emotional content of an event by highlighting certain focal points or features to transmit a different meaning than the reality that was existent in the moment. This should always be remembered when viewing any photograph or using it to 100% inform your opinion on an event! Extra research, not only into the motivations of the photographer but also into the surrounding context is always essential to fully understand a photo and the deeper meanings involved in its creation, production and distribution.
Photography and Propaganda – Using art to mislead the public.
Photography has long been employed as a tool of propaganda that has been used by despots and oppressive governments throughout the last century. The photography used for this purpose is carefully created to be misleading and promote the ideology of the regime that uses it.
The photographer has the Agency, not the camera.
The famous American sociologist, reformer and photographer Lewis Hine noted that although photographs cannot lie, ‘liars may photograph’. This is a very profound observation and can help us to understand the ways in which photography itself can be both a reliable and an unreliable witness.
Photographers, especially skilled ones, can easily use their camera to mislead their audiences. Oftentimes this is done in a perfectly innocent way and for justifiable reasons. Touching up a wedding photo for example, using some basic editing software, to show the guests in their best light is a harmless form of modifying the truth and is sometimes expected by clients.
However, there is a much darker side to misleading your audience using photography such as propaganda being used by oppressive governments to rewrite history. Joseph Stalin, the brutal leader of the Soviet Union, was famous for removing people from photographs after they had been executed on his orders! Stalin felt that it was necessary not only to execute these political opponents but also to completely remove them from history as if they had never even existed!
Modern Technology and Software.
With the widespread availability and affordability of a huge range of photo editing software and tools manipulating photography has never been easier. Changing the background, editing the sky and removing unwanted people from holiday snaps are all forms of deception however, in most cases this is done for artistic reasons alone.
Is a photograph a reliable narrator? Many photographers argue that the rise of new photo editing software in the last few decades has created a whole new art form in itself! This is a good observation that shows photo manipulation in a positive light. Using photo editing software to realize your artistic visions is not harmful and has added a wonderful new layer to the rapidly evolving art form of photography.
Photography as a Witness.
Photography, like any art form, will always remain a double edged sword with great power to persuade, inform and of course, deceive. How the camera is used, and for what purpose, will always remain in the hands of the photographer who must decide how they use their own skills.
Photography can be a fantastic tool to bring people together that speaks in a universal language bypassing all language barriers while educating each other about our ways of life and customs. When photography is used in a moral and good way it is one of the most important assets that we have as a society and so it is always a shame when it is used for negative purposes by people with ulterior motives.
However, as people in general become more aware of photo editing software and techniques most are able to spot manipulations and with this increased knowledge there is more transparency within the field, which can only be a good thing.
Photography will never be a completely reliable witness, although if the person holding the camera has good intentions then the results will always be more trustworthy! As a viewer, especially in highly charged political events, we must always be aware that although the camera cannot lie, the photographer certainly can.
NOTE: Shoot Philadelphia is supported by readers. Some of the links above are affiliate links. At no cost to you, I may earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. It helps me to continue to offer free content on this site. Subscribe below and receive notifications of new posts by email. Your privacy is important to me and I will not market your email ID. Visit the Affiliate Disclosure page and the Privacy Policy page in the About section for additional information.
Leave a Reply