Photography

I meant to post this last week or even sooner but my new "fantastic" google account wasn't working, lol.

Anyway, the class and blog discussions about photography have made me start thinking about and connecting photography to concepts that we covered much earlier in the class. I'm not sure if any of this makes sense buuuut.. the day that we all brought in our family photos, Sarah brought up how we usually can identify a photograph as a "family" picture by the way that the people in the picture have posed themselves regardless of whether they look like each other or not. I started thinking about photography in terms of what we discussed earlier about "convention" and language. Photographs are in a way another means of communication like speaking, and so like language,in a way they follow the same social "rules" or conventions, such as setting a family photograph up in a certain way. The difference is, in language, if a person decides not to follow the conventional rules, they end up speaking "nonsense" however, in photography, I think if a photographer breaks the conventional rules he/she is viewed as "creative" or "talented" ... anyways it was just something I was thinking about, not sure if it makes any sense?

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McLuhan

Although some portions of the McLuhan book was confusing in understanding his purpose, I found it very interesting to read. I have never witnessed a book such as this one using creative methods in order to convey a message. McLuhan's message that all media is an extension of us as humans is given more effectively, in that instead of just simply reading what McLuhan argues and forgetting it later, his creative methods force you to think about his purpose for displaying the message in that way and keeps the message with you longer.

I found McLuhan's point very interesting, and had never thought about media or life in that way before. The point Michael made in last week's lecture concerning the meaning of life and fulfilling necessity was helpful for me in providing clarity to McLuhan's point.

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Photos

Now that my Blogger is finally working..!

I agree with what Melissa and Jackie have been saying about photographs. I found this part of the course really interesting, because proof of what the media does with photographs is all around us. Everyday we are faced with new billboards, magazines, and the like displaying pictures featuring flawless individuals in an attempt to sell their products. Because of the constant retouching of photographs that takes place, it's hard for the viewer to distinguish between truth and false meanings behind it. I feel that although retouching photographs has benefited the companies that use them, it has caused societies to become obsessed with appearance in the last decade more than ever.

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