The following article touches on the question: Have images lost their power? Reading this article made me reflect on how people’s interactions with images has changed throughout the last couple of decades. In 2018, seeing hundreds of images a day via social media has become such a common occurrence that no one stops to think about what they are actually looking at anymore; people just scroll past pictures aimlessly, disregarding what they represent and the messages they are trying to convey. However in the 1970s picture weren’t posted to online platforms, they were more sparse, and therefore held more meaning. Upreti uses the extremely upsetting example of “Napalam Girl”, taken by Nick Upt. The photograph encapsulates the horror of the Vietnam War, targeting human emotions and consequently asking for a solution. The image shocked and touched the hearts of many; it was unlike photographs people had seen before, thus sparking numerous anti-war protests in the USA. Yet, as people now live in the online world, a place that is built from millions of photographs, meaningful images that aim to promote change or tell a story simply get forgotten. Photographs aren’t powerful unless they are seen and standout. Therefore while I believe images are still powerful, it is the context and environment in which an image is seen which makes their power effective; if an image gets circulated among hundreds of others it will do nothing but get neglected.
*WARNING* – Article includes images of war, death and nudity
The following article touches on the question: Have images lost their power? Reading this article made me reflect on how people’s interactions with images has changed throughout the last couple of decades. In 2018, seeing hundreds of images a day via social media has become such a common occurrence that no one stops to think about what they are actually looking at anymore; people just scroll past pictures aimlessly, disregarding what they represent and the messages they are trying to convey. However in the 1970s picture weren’t posted to online platforms, they were more sparse, and therefore held more meaning. Upreti uses the extremely upsetting example of “Napalam Girl”, taken by Nick Upt. The photograph encapsulates the horror of the Vietnam War, targeting human emotions and consequently asking for a solution. The image shocked and touched the hearts of many; it was unlike photographs people had seen before, thus sparking numerous anti-war protests in the USA. Yet, as people now live in the online world, a place that is built from millions of photographs, meaningful images that aim to promote change or tell a story simply get forgotten. Photographs aren’t powerful unless they are seen and standout. Therefore while I believe images are still powerful, it is the context and environment in which an image is seen which makes their power effective; if an image gets circulated among hundreds of others it will do nothing but get neglected.
*WARNING* – Article includes images of war, death and nudity
https://qrius.com/images-have-stopped-wars-and-sparked-revolutions-but-in-this-age-of-oversharing-have-they-lost-their-power/