The Power of Photography and Film

Before the invention of the photograph, people relied on stories and memories to translate the past. Although photographs have been useful tools in understanding the past, they have also allowed for the elimination of interpretation. Film and documentaries rose from photography and similar to it, the artist caters to a certain audience by placing emphasis and drawing attention to a particular theme or interpretation. Because Hollywood creates history through its clear manipulation of the public’s ideals, even documentaries must be viewed with skepticism and critical awareness. Film must be seen as a form of communication, rather than a chronology of history.

To Sontag, a photograph is a documentation of history. She believes that photographs are necessary to the understanding of an experience, “Such images are indeed able to usurp reality because first of all a photograph is not only an image (as a painting is an image), an interpretation of the real; it is also a trace, something directly stenciled off the real, like a footprint or a death mask” (Sontag, 350). Photographs are chronicles of the past. They tell a story, yet leave the viewer to his or her own interpretation. Critical Art Ensemble stresses the authority photography and film have over the viewer’s understanding of a piece, while Sontag believes that photographs are pure traces of history and powerless, in the sense that the interpretation is left to the viewer.