Myths

As I began reading 10-22 i was impressed with the pictures that they had in the reading. Normally when you have to read something from a textbook for school the picures in the textbook are cheesey or lame. But the pictures in the reading, every one seemed to be real, true, and they showed great emotion. The first picture, of the women and children seeing the dead gangster wasminteresting because of all the different reactions in the photo.Some looked disgusted, others looked sad, others look shocked or excited.
As I went on to read, about Weegee, the man who captured this photo you learn that he actually has a portable dark room in his trunk. I thought that was very neat. i went on to read about Emmet Till. Hearing stories about hate crimes or prejudices always give me a stomache ache. In this photo you see a picture of a black man after a group of white men were done beating his to death for whistling at a white women. When I was reading this i couldn't help but wonder, where was the white women when all this went on? Why didn't she try to stop it? Anyways, so The picture of Emmet Till goes to show that pictures hold truth, and they can show you things or let readers know way more then just simply telling story.
On a happier note, I went on to read about still life and saw the beautiful paintin by Henri-Horace Roland. Still life is one of my favorties and this picture is just gorgeous. But as I went on to read I saw how Marion Peck had done a little spin on it and I loved the outcome. I thought that this painting was awesome! i loved the detail and all the little faces on each object on the table.
I then went on to read about the pipe. I thought that this is true, the painting is not a pipe, but this is why I am not an artsy person, because I don't see the menaing in going threw all the trouble of painting a picture perfect pipe, and writing on it "this is not a pipe". I just this it is silly. Of course we should all know that it is not actually a pipe.
I went on to read about the myth of photographic truth. "he french theorist Rolnad Barthes noted that the paragraph, unlike a drawing, offers an unprecedented conjunction between what is here now (the image) and what was there then (the referent, or object, thing, or place)."page 17, last paragraph. As you read you begin to learn that sudium, a term Barthes used , means to descibe this truth function of the paragraph. It goes on to explain how photographs hold truth. a statement which i agree with. However some people may see things differenlty and this is why photographic truth is said to be a myth. Then you go on to see one of your last pictues. By Robert Frank, Trolley. It is a picture of a trolley with half white people in the front and the rest are back, in the back, you get to see segregation at its finest. All of the white people look miserble, and the blacks terrified. it is really a scarey picture to me because you can see the truth on everyones faces. how everyone actually felt at the time,and how they were treated.
To answer the question What is the myth of photographic truth? I think that the myth to photographis truth is that people will see what they want to see. Two people can look at a picture, and see different things. If a old rich white women looked at the photo Trolley, she say see nothing wrong with is . Where as if a black man or women looks, they may see segregation. I think that people block what they really see with their own thoughts and feelings.
Lastly, the different ways tht theorist Roland Barthes uses the term myth is, torefer to the cultural values and beliefs that are expressed through connotation. To Batrthes, myth means a hidden set of rules and conventions through which meanings, which are specific to certain groups are made to seem universal, and given to a whole society. Myth allows the connotative meaning of a particular thing or image to appear to be " denotaive, literal, or natural"pg 20, last paragraph.