The histories we make with pictures have always been testimonies to human dreams fulfilled and unfulfilled, promises kept and promises broken.
As witnesses to history, the photographer records events as they unfold, while making choices about what they see along the way. The visual, in this sense, can never be considered a precise and flawless replication of reality. Instead, pictures are akin to what direct quotes are to writers -- they help to add authenticity to an account -- they anchor reality to a particular truth. The assumption often made is that if someone is quoted saying something, that something must somehow be more "real" or "truthful" than if it weren't directly quoted. Pictures work the same way, only more so.
The question we must ask in viewing images is whether or not a picture remains truthful to the context in which it was made. So many pictures are removed from their original context and meaning in order to construct new meanings. In this way, pictures are used and sometimes misused as rhetorically persuasive devices.
Photo Credit: Reuters/Toby Melville
Here's a news picture taken of a person waiting in an airport. The problem is that the picture is being used to illustrate a story about a weight loss innovation. In truth, the picture and the story have a conflict of context.
As the caption reads:
A passenger waits for a delayed flight at Heathrow airport's terminal four in London August 12, 2006. Dieters may find some welcome assistance from a new nasal spray that could help resist the appetizing aromas of cinnamon bun stands, pizza parlors or tempting bakeries.
It is not clear that this image was originally made to illustrate a story on a medial innovation, but if it were true I am sure the photographer could have possible been a bit more honest and responsible about representing a person with a weight disorder.
We have no way of knowing why this picture was made originally, but it appears that some editor found it convenient to use, even if it takes the original meaning of the picture out of context.
Therefore, it is the responsibility of the viewer to seek out and understand the context in which images are made and presented to us as reality recorded.