“The Thing Itself”

The thing shown in a photograph I would say is just the surface. Like a first impression, is what you first notice wen you see it for the first time. Also when just looking at it you tend to have some type of an emotional response, whether it makes you happy, sad, or angry. Photos being seen from a further perspective may look truthful, but sometimes things are not always as they seem. Many photographs have a deeper message when looked at carefully. Some photos can be staged but others are true to heart. Sometimes the subject matter can be completely different from what is being shown and that is where a deeper message comes into play. Photos can be very specific to subject, but very vague in meaning. The photograph is more important than the thing itself because it is what we feel and what we see, and what we interpret at that given moment. William M. Ivins Jr. said, “at any given moment the accepted report of an event is of greater importance than the event, for what we think about and act upon is the symbolic report and not the concrete event itself.”