Have you experienced a train of thoughts flooding you with memories when you were handed a photo of a dear one long gone. It is not uncommon to see photos of loved ones tucked away in the insides of wallets and purses or adorning the walls at home. Why do we carry around photos with us? Looking at a photo comforts and reassures us that everything is fine. We live around photos and they have become an intricate part of our lives. As we are exposed to so many pictures in our daily lives, we tend to take it for granted, and often underestimate its full impact.
It is hard to assume a world without photographs. Pictures and photos are all around us: on the Internet, on TV, in newspapers, or magazines. The profound impact a picture can have on our senses can be fully understood when you come across a picture that depicts an evil face of humanity, portrayal of cruel expressions, or extreme poverty. Such pictures force us to introspect and in the process, inadvertently make us more humane. A happy face can bring a smile to your face too, especially if the subject is a tiny tot or a playful toddler. Toddlers, by the way, are the most photogenic beings on the planet and they look endearing and adorable when they are amused.
A picture has the ability to speak a thousand words as you don’t always have to read the content to understand the full story. A picture without accompanying content, leaves a lot to imagination, and this fact tempts us to dwell more into this media to unearth its latent implications. Photography has the power to change the way you see the world around you. It may be a picture that deeply saddens you or that which gives you extreme delight, the fact remains that photography is a powerful medium of communication.
The most striking example of the omnipresence of photography can be found on the Internet. Online media uses it to convey hard-hitting news from across the globe depicting terrors and truths of war, and poverty. The pictures throw open a window to a world outside our world. The realities of the streets draw us closer to the realities of life. It engages us to change our perspective and outlook towards the outside world. Who can forget the pictures from the post-Vietnam war era of prisoners with guns pointed on their head? Pictures such as these affect us in inexplicable ways, often altering our thought process.
Today, it is not easy trying to tell a real photo from a fake one. There is a good number of photos being circulated online that appears to be fabricated or edited through editing tools of the likes of Photoshop. With the advancement in technology behind image editing, it has become possible to alter an image in ways that can provide a complete makeover leaving few traces of the original image, or transform the picture into an artwork. Large photography companies use professional help for adding life back to lackluster photos or providing a complete revamp. You can assess the quality of a picture, and safely assume that it has undergone a post processing touch-up in a professional editing environment or an offshore location like India, by a smart outsourcing photo editor. Whether it is engineered or not, the quality is important as the true impact of a photo can only be derived once the picture has reached its topmost quality, hence adding a “wow” factor to the picture.
Photography continues to occupy the interest of millions around the world. Those posts that you share on Facebook can’t be complete without an accompanying picture. Photography is so woven into our psyche that each time we get down to reading something, our eyes involuntarily look for photos. The world today, has many catalysts for change, one of them certainly is photography.
