The photograph--a moment in time; not reproducible; genuine. It is interesting to think that with each click of the camera and flash of light, the second gone by and we cannot retrieve it. The photograph, in this case, is truly phenomenal, but in this day and age its unique ability often goes unnoticed with the normal, everyday use of the camera, once highly idolized for producing the “perfect mirror image” of the subject matter documented. I never realized that a picture could, in a sense, freeze time. In today’s society, the digital image has over-taken the initial role of the photograph (as a mode of representation) when it first began in the 1830s. Imagery is constantly being changed and altered, distorted, perfected and has become unreal and has diverted from naturalism and realism and has in turn become, in essence, fake. Visually, no longer are accurate representations of the world regarded as valuable. Take for instance the celebrity. With the exception of the paparazzi, the advancement in technology has allowed photographers to change their physical appearance. Women, Britney Spears for example, tend to have softer features, smooth skin, soft eyes, seductive expression all digitally altered to give a more visually appealing effect. It is important to note such a distinction between the realistic and unrealistic representations of the body because of the effects it has on society. More and more people are giving in to false representations and in response, procedures and plastic surgery are common ways to alter ones inherited traits. The photograph/camera, in my opinion, loses its exclusive capability of reproducing a moment in time and genuine representations of the world.
Thus, I am finding that with documentary photography stories are told, full of historical facts and evidence present when the photograph is properly observed. These photographs truly hold the expectations of the original photograph.
Photographs have the ability to show the flow of time. Art History books are full of photographic representations of the art works themselves, which in return, tell a story. This is the type of photography that I find most intriguing. The fact that the world consists of the real, and there are pieces of it that are often missed—pieces that a lens can recover, such as the subtle subjects that one may not recognize unless fully exposed, or a different angle… these aspects to me, define the real, define life, and the photograph has a matchless quality that defines itself as the master of visual reproduction.