The Image Culture

Three different authors discussed their views and arguments regarding the essence of photographs and how they affect our culture. However, each author had drastically different views on this topic. John Berger, an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet, argued that photography is not fine art but rather just a picture someone found important enough to record. In his article “Understanding a Photograph.” Christine Rosen a senior editor discussed both the positive and negative sides of photoshop and how it can be misused or incorporated in artist's photographs. In addition, how images such as photographs, gifs, and even television affect our culture in her article “The Image Culture”. Lastly, Susan Sontag’s focused more on how people …show more content…
Rosen spoke about photoshop in her article pointing out that people misuse photoshop as it is a tool and naturally there will be people who will misuse it to constructing misleading images and making an unrealistic reality. For example, after a picture is taken of a model the photo is wiped of all flaws through photoshop presenting an unrealistic goal for people to reach. On the contrary, Rosen points out that photoshop can, in fact, be used properly to let artists make their own vision play out in a photograph. “But the digital manipulation of images can also be employed for far more enlightened purposes … Some artists use Photoshop merely to enhance photographs they take; others have made digital editing a central part of their art.” (Rosen p. 35&36.) This ties back to Berger’s arguments as it shows that photographs can be abstract and use not only external events but also visions and creativity within the artist giving it arrangement. As Rosen pointed out artists such as Andreas Gursky a German photographer use photoshop to encourage us to look at places that are well known to us in a new or “unfamiliar” way. In Gursky’s photos of Montparnasse, he took a picture of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and a 99- cent store which was then photoshopped by artist Loretta Lux. (Rosen, 2005) As stated by a New York Times critic …show more content…
Her biggest argument was how we are able to detach ourselves from horrific events that are portrayed all over the media such as the newspapers, facebook, snapchat etc. Sontag explains we have made it “normal” to think if it's not happening to me or anyone close to me just switches to something different and shrug it off. It’s almost as if we created a bubble around ourselves because if we didn't just shrug it off all those images those people those horrendous deaths would haunt us forever. The first explanation she said is that due to this images being so widespread and seeing them on a daily has made us almost “numb” to them. Sontag quickly realized there was so much more to the reason why we easily look away from events such as war. War can make us feel like it can not be stopped as if there is nothing we can do about it. Creating a reluctance to become involved in the events is actually indications of feeling powerless and dreadful. Causing people to become less responsive to the events. A woman from Sarajevo that Rosen met explained when the news showed the damage of Vukovar not too far from her the only thing that went through her head was ‘Oh how horrible.’ while she proceeded to change the channel. (Sontag 2003) “Wherever people feel safe- this was her bitter, self accusing point- they will be indifferent.”