2. Walker Evans was under pressure to portray the government in a positive light in his photographs. Can you recall other similar situations / times in the past when images have been created to help tell a certain truth or untruth? Were these attempts successful? Moral? Immoral?
Photographs, as well as other types of art, are often used to portray one persons rigid ideology or beliefs in an attempt to bring others to their way of thinking or simply to ridicule those that disagree with them. In the past decade in the United States their has been a virtual flood of political cartoons as well as pictures that have fulfilled these roles. Some of these pictures are taken during poor moments much to the chagrin of the pictures subjects and others are taken at the behest of the subject.
These two pictures show two examples of pictures later regretted by their subjects. In the picture of President Obama it appears that he is starting inappropriately at a girl we later find out to be underage. This picture shows both a truth and an untruth depending on a persons point of view. As we cannot tell exactly what it is that the President is looking at in this picture, it was successful only in igniting a media storm. The picture of President Bush shows a truth and an untruth. On the one hand, a mission of the war had been achieved, on the other hand, this mission was not the main goal of the war and we still remain in Iraq to this day. This picture was successful to everyone that used it as it infuriated those that sought an end to the war only to see its continuance and made President Bush look good to his supporters because of the dramatic fashion of his arrival as well as the message of the entire event portrayed in the picture. These two photographs are themselves moral, it is the way in which they were used that was immoral.
Photographs, as well as other types of art, are often used to portray one persons rigid ideology or beliefs in an attempt to bring others to their way of thinking or simply to ridicule those that disagree with them. In the past decade in the United States their has been a virtual flood of political cartoons as well as pictures that have fulfilled these roles. Some of these pictures are taken during poor moments much to the chagrin of the pictures subjects and others are taken at the behest of the subject.
These two pictures show two examples of pictures later regretted by their subjects. In the picture of President Obama it appears that he is starting inappropriately at a girl we later find out to be underage. This picture shows both a truth and an untruth depending on a persons point of view. As we cannot tell exactly what it is that the President is looking at in this picture, it was successful only in igniting a media storm. The picture of President Bush shows a truth and an untruth. On the one hand, a mission of the war had been achieved, on the other hand, this mission was not the main goal of the war and we still remain in Iraq to this day. This picture was successful to everyone that used it as it infuriated those that sought an end to the war only to see its continuance and made President Bush look good to his supporters because of the dramatic fashion of his arrival as well as the message of the entire event portrayed in the picture. These two photographs are themselves moral, it is the way in which they were used that was immoral.
Interesting, Dom.
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