Communication in Photography

Photography has always been something I have enjoyed. Although before this class it was just with my digital camera setting up perfectly aligned photos, it is something that to me captures a memory. If you had asked me this question before taking Photo I, I would think that photography is about just displaying memories. Taking photos is a means of capturing the past to help you recall the events in the future. Most of the photos I had seen up until this point, were different events or places in which a memory is formed.

However, now when I think about photography and communciation it is very different. A quote I came across while reserching the history of photography I think portrays a lot of what photography is about. It stated that, "Today, photography has become a powerful means of communication and a mode of visual expression that touches human life in many ways." It is not only about creating and saving these different memories but also photography itself is a method of communication, whether it be to a friend, within a country or across the world. When you really look at a photograph whether it is of a simple tree, or a person crying, there is something more to those pictures then meets the eye. You have to really sit back and examine the photo. The photographer in the photo was expressing some point, whether it is that they themselves liked this scene and wanted to take it, or like us students, trying to create a perfect picture that represents light and shadow, or displays different aperatures. The photo could just be of a birthday party and was only created for the memory. No matter what the photo was taken of, it is expressing a statement that the photographer felt at that moment. I can't remember at the moment, but when we were in class there was a photographer who would tell different stories through his photos. This made me think about that even when you are taking a photo to express some feeling or story, that someone else could get a different feeling or story from that picture. Photography is truly a way to communicate with one another. A photo could be taken here in America and someone in a different country who speaks a different language could get the same feeling from the photo, which is amazing to me.