Practices of Looking - Chapter 1: Images, Power, and Politics

They say a picture says a thousand words, and this chapter describes that cliche perfectly.

From reading this chapter I learned that images have a lot of power over people. They have the power to invoke feelings and to create other images in one's mind. Different images invoke different responses from people depending on their culture and the period in time as well as their frame of reference.

The most interesting part of the chapter I found was the part about photographs. I like most people believe a photograph to display the truth, especially when it comes to crime scenes and investigations. I never really thought that a picture can be stage to make something appear to be something else. However this makes more sense to me when I think of a family portrait. Often families look happy in portraits even though they may not be as happy as they appear.