A photograph is memory in the raw

Writing is the process of using language to discover meaning in experience and to communicate.

(Murray 1982)

MURRAY (1982) believes strongly in the power of words and language. He deems that the power of persuasion and manipulation lies on how the author pens down his words. However, in today’s temperamental and digital savvy society, is it entirely possible to transmit an effective message across without the use of visual aids? Kress and van Leeuwen (2001) challenged the notions of traditional literacy emphasis on print in the essence of the growing dominance of multimodal texts and digital technology. Written text is now no longer the dominant part of the message. Heath (2000) deemed that a new type of community requires a new type of text with different conceptualizations to enhance creative thinking.

For instance, photographs of the unfortunate series such as wars would be able to reach out to the audience better. The images could be used as an idea to concentrate and make people more aware of these conflicts and with hope, the government are able to understand the sufferings of the innocent before sanitizing another new war.

The above pictures showed the sufferings of the innocent during the Lebanon war
Source: emaddana.com

Furthermore, the emergence of technology today has introduced us to an abundance of photography software and tools. Adobe Photoshop for example. This software is vastly used for editing images. Nevertheless, in WhyDontYouBlog.com, Aleisha Dixon made a BBC3 programme about how all magazine pictures are Photoshopped. One of the misuses of Photoshop is this picture of Clive Owen, advertising an anti-ageing cream for men. In the effort to improve him, it manages to make him look averagely young and good-looking.

Edited picture of Clive Owen

Source: WhyDontYouBlog.com

Generally, this scene of editing is able to channel and mislead the society because it can create a false sense of security. Therefore, using photo editing software onto images is able to produce a new form of message altogether if it was not used wisely.

Here are some examples of celebrities pictures before and after photoshop:

Actress: Nicolette Sheridan

Before

After
Source: Hemmy.net

How images are edited before publishing:

Famous talk show host: Oprah Winfrey

References:

1. Heath SB 2000, 'Seeing our Way into Learning', Cambridge Journal of Education,
vol. 30, no.1, pp. 121–131.

2. Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2001, Multimodal Discourse, Arnold, London.

3. Murray D 1982, Learning by teaching, Boynton, Montclair, New Jersey.

4. Quote Garden 1998, Saying for photographers, viewed 14 June 2009, <http://www.quotegarden.com/photography.html>.

5. WhyDontYouBlog 2008, Faking everything, viewed 14 June 2009, <http://www.whydontyou.org.uk/blog/tag/aliesha-dixon/>.

6. YouTube 2007, Oprah's Photoshop Makeover, viewed on 14 June 2009,
<http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6817928177077137080&postID=558660605772324807>.