Photography-Christopher L.

One of the things that resonated with me in the course were the discussions on photography and the impact pictures have on us. First of all, when Prof. Ewen brought up the fact that until photos came around, people hadn’t seen famous landmarks like the pyramids of Egypt unless they went there themselves. This seemed like a fairly common thing everyone was aware of but I hadn’t thought of that before and it made me feel so lucky to live in a time where we can easily see photos of the world just by using our phones. On another note, photos have such an impact I never considered before. In All Consuming Images, Prof. Ewen writes about how pictures are presented in a specific way by the media in order to impact the target audience. For example, how products are made more desirable by using bright colors to grab your attention. Companies don’t really think about whether an ad about fitness that has a muscular man driving a car surrounded by beautiful half-naked women is offending or not. They are just using imagery to manipulate your feelings so they can sell their “product”. Ever since that lesson I have looked at ads in such a different perspective and always asked myself, “Why do I like this ad and want this product? What caught my eye?” It makes me think and eventually realize what the ad is doing to grab my attention, and how the media is controlling me.