Photogaphy

Hawa Fuseini
English AP
Mr. Stagliano
19 October 10

What is photography? Dictionary.com defines photography as “the process or art of producing images of objects.” Photography can be any inclined thought of brilliance or drawing. Photo is derived from the Greek term “phos”, which means light, and graph which comes from the Greek term which means to draw. Sontag’s perception on the effect of photography is refutable. Photographs fill in the blanks of our memory, manifest thinking, and give off a deeper understanding of the world around us. An orphan who has never seen her parents, and sees a photo of them dead can comprehend the detrimental outcome of their death more intensely. Also, the famous 1945 photograph “The Kiss”, taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt changed and opened up the worlds interpretation on happiness after a long strife. Sontag claims that photos box in our thoughts, and limit our understanding to expand on reality. When in reality photographs give us a different view, which opens our minds to think in depth without having a narrow perception. Photographs enable us not only to look at the treasure box, but to look at what is inside and have multifarious reasons on why.
“Not accepting the world as it looks”, Sontag’s statement implies that the world is how we see it. The worlds versatility can not only be depicted through the naked eye. Photographs open the doors for new emotions and the rebirth of subconscious thoughts. For example, my childhood best friend Francine was an orphan, and she always behaved nonchalant towards her parents death. She never told me how her parents died, but her family members mentioned that they were both shot on there way home from work on a cold December evening in New York . The image of her parents being shot kept replaying over and over in my head. I could only imagine how much pain that Francine was hiding.   One day when I was in   Francine’s room her grandmother came in with a concerned look on her face. “ I have...