Sontags Discussion on the Increase in Photo Manipulation...

Susan Sontag discusses the reality of the modern person’s addiction with â€Å"needing to have reality confirmed† by photos. Sontag says â€Å"we accept it as the camera records it† then goes to say â€Å"this is the opposite of understanding.† I agree with her wholeheartedly, as accepting photos as they are limits ones understanding of the world. The trust in photography led to the rise of pictures hoaxes, in which people take pictures out of context and assign it a new background; as well as Photoshop, which becomes increasingly popular as the years go by. Photoshop allows one to manipulate a photo to portray what they desire it to. Sontag mentions how photos â€Å"hide more than [they] disclose,† which represents a pressing problem in the modern world.†¦show more content†¦Photoshopping happens in pictures one would not suspect, for example, the famous portrait of Abraham Lincoln, included in many popular publications about honest Abe. L incoln’s portrait originally displayed John Calhoun, but today displays Calhoun’s body with Lincoln’s face pasted on. This example portrays the restricted understanding of the world, people take for granted that everything they perceive depicts truth, and as a consequence, they receive the wrong information. One may also utilize Photoshop to make another suffer; a student wanted revenge on another student so they found a nude picture off the Internet. They then proceeded to paste their face on the picture and send it to others, and blamed it on the other student. The school nearly expelled the other student before the truth came out. Photoshopping aids in limiting people’s knowledge by presenting them with incorrect information disguised behind supposedly reliable photos. It may be argued that photography increases ones knowledge of the world, by letting them see things they never have before, for example, natural wonders. Instead of increasing their know ledge, this in fact restricts it; people assume since they saw a picture of a natural or man-made beauty, they can stay in their cocoons, and stick with what they know. This robs people of knowledge and experience. A person seeing a picture of a waterfall on their computer may assume they have now seen all the waterfalls they need to, or