Pictures: Accurate or Inaccurate?

Ever since the idea of historical record keeping arose from ancient civilizations, keeping track of the past has always been a struggle. No matter what method was used, it always failed to record some aspect of that time. However, with the technological inventions of the camera came photography and with the art of photography came the new method of saving memories of the past. Have we finally found the perfect answer to this historical dilemma of recording the past?

Well, the answer to the above question is both yes and no.

Photography is definitely a monumental improvement over the portrait painting method of the old age. It is said that a picture means a thousand words and for the most part, it is true. Photos can capture more realistic features of a scene or a subject without being distorted by an artist’s imagination. Photos can capture the reveal many minuscule details about a place that reveal a much deeper understanding of that moment in time. To illustrate, let’s take a look at one of the most famous photographers in history, Jacob Riis. Riis is infamous for his very descriptive photos of the city slums during a crucial period of social reform. In his book, How the Other Half Lives, Riis exposes the horrible living conditions of immigrants in the city. Due to the detailed and informative nature of his photos, the horrendous living conditions of city slums were finally recognized by Theodore Roosevelt who then demanded that city officials pass the first significant legislation to improve the state of affairs in immigrant neighborhoods. As a result of the great detail of city slums captured by photographs, positive social change was able to arise.

On the other hand, photography is still just photography; it’s not like it is immutable. With programs like Snapchat and Adobe Photoshop becoming ever more common in today’s society, photos can be edited in seconds and look completely different from the original image. For example, most of the pictures of fashion models are undeniably altered in order to make the model look as pretty and beautiful as possible. The reality behind these deceiving pictures is that on a regular day without blemish removal and glow effects, those same models may just be looking like me and you – just ordinary people. Therefore, pictures only give us insight into only one frame of life, similar to how a page in a book only details the information of only one page of an entire book.