A Photo Finish

Gabriel T

gt824519

A Photo Finish

Photography and film are rare, immense innovations in the presentation of images. They are able to portray scenes, moments in history, or scenes from a day in the life, in great detail. Yet as such they are not always the full picture. While film and cameras can share a moment in time, it is rather the context surrounding these photos that can also be key when presenting events. What happens around the picture, or around the film, can be just an integral in telling the whole story.

An example that’s not quite ‘news” related, though is in the same ballpark, is early photos from the 18 and 1900’s. Often characterized as stoic and never smiling, often giving off the appearance of a somber mood. It’s interesting when you read more into it though, as it illuminates a whole other truth that could be possible.

It’s said that there are many reasons why people in early photographs weren’t smiling, not that the time period was particularly dreary. One potential reason suggests that it is partially because of the technology at the time, and that to take a photo that was sharp and unblurry, one had to sit very still to let enough light to come into the camera to get clear exposure. There were even posing stands created for holding positions to help people who were sitting for photos remain relatively unmoving.

Library of Congress/ LC-USZ62-19393

Though, around the same period, there are actually a lot of photos where people were smiling! Even a whole Flicker gallery is dedicated to preserving these smiling photos. In this particular one for instance, taken just moments apart, a couple is seen sitting still, and then further on, laughing. Though if the former photos are used more prevalently than the latter, it can give off a different impression. It’s a misnomer, it’s a distortion of the truth potentially.

www.vintag.es: Couple smiling in photo series

This shows how the background and context of an image can portray a very different picture altogether! :) When photos come about in news stories, or galleries of photojournalism, it can be very important to describe, show, or otherwise mention the context that the photo was taken in, and any surrounding info that may give more clarity to the time and place.

As The Washington Posts Video Checker guide states, altering a video can potentially change the narrative. Which can even extend to not only the video (or photo) itself, but also the image chosen for a story as well. For instance, I’ve sometime seen news stories about say, a political figure, and it will have a certain photo, and then later, I’ll see the story again from the same site with a different photo. This could be possibly testing the story with different cover photos to see how they are responded too. Even changing the tone of a story. Choosing a picture of a candidate or figure looking angry might make it seem as though they are being shown in one light, while a photo where they are smiling, may make it seem like the publication agrees with what they are doing.

The miscontextualization of photos or videos can make something seem different than it is, even though the images themselves may be clear as day. In these cases, it can be important to look at the context of the photo, find several sources about this particular time or event, and consider how one photo fits in to the larger picture.