The power of photography is, “To witness, to prove, to relate, to reveal, to celebrate, and to protect” (“National Geographic”). The basic concept of photography has been around since about the 5th century B.C.E., but when the camera obscura was invented around the 11th century, it changed how photography worked and how it was used. Photography is the, “method of recording the image of an object through the action of light, or related radiation, on a light-sensitive material” (Rosenblum). The word photography comes from the greek photos, “light” and graphein “to draw”. It has a positive effect on the world because it raises awareness for problems, assists doctors in their practices, and documents …show more content…
In 1839 a French physician and cytologist Alfred François Donné created the first photomigraph; a photograph of a microscopic object taken with a microscope, which was the first application of photography to medicine. Discoveries like this led to where we are now with using photography in medicine. Today, utilizing photography to share images with doctors, track the improvement and decline of a patient over time, or educate students is ordinary (Milam). Photography in medicine has made many people less paranoid about getting some procedures done, ”I am less anxious about it because i know that it is less invasive, they don't have to cut into me, they can just use a camera to see what is happening inside of my body” (McCarty, live interview, 3 Mar. 17). With photography, keeping track of a patient's progress is easier and more efficient in the way doctors can pull up and compare past photos to see if anything has changed. For example, “digital mammography is a form of photography more efficient at discovering breast cancer in a vast majority of patients than traditional mammography” (Schroeder). Digital mammography allows for a quicker diagnosis. Once the photos are taken, they are automatically sent a computer to be analyzed. Another example would be when people break a bone, they go to get an x-ray, and then about a month later they come back for a follow …show more content…
Without photography, life would not only be pretty dull and uninteresting, but there would not be a way to document a past that can be seen. Learning about the background of ancestors before would be difficult. For example, the importance of photos or portraits of civil war heroes tells a story and helps us understand past leaders and soldiers that helped shape and fight for America (“Can You Imagine a World without Pictures?”). Historical photos help us relive important moments in history, and seeing the faces of historical figures make learning the subject more interesting because it gives students a face to link all the information to. Most likely, if the concept of photography was never invented, people would have continued to use drawings or paintings to illustrate those faces. But every artist has a different way of portraying what they see, so there is usually a difference between the final product and the subject. But, “A photograph is a true emotional representation of a moment in time” (“Can You Imagine a World without Pictures?”), there is no way to take away what you see in a photo. Documenting the present with photography is also important because current photos can be used to show and relive memories in the future. For example, looking at family portraits of our relatives provide us with a glimpse back into the time when they lived. By