356 || Week 2 || Myth of Photographic Truth

In the reading, I struggled with the concept of the myth of photographic truth. It shouldn't be so difficult to understand, but in my sleepy state, I must've twisted the meaning a little bit. When I got to class, that was clarified for me, but it seemed I'd missed a crucial step in the first go around.

When I'd defined it, I said it was because a photograph can't be taken as truth or a representation of reality, at least not anymore. At one point, it could have been, but now we have the technology to manipulate a photograph. Lisa reminded me that there is still the camera and the person behind the camera to account for, who can control the photograph and to some extent, what meaning we pull from it. He has a hand in the position of his target, the setting (in some circumstances), framing and focus. In that instance, we cannot always take a photograph as truth because the person shooting has full control of the shot to show things the way they want to, suggesting context in some cases. They even the ability to put in mind false facts, a trend not uncommon in todays fashion ads.