A Snapshot into Manipulation

When we were doing our mediated artifact discussion on Thursday, John’s project about his photos really interested me. His thoughts reminded me of a discussion we had in my introduction to photography course last year. My professor showed my class a picture of rubble with a Mickey Mouse doll in the forefront of the war scene in the Middle East. This picture caused an eruption of emotion worldwide, but not for the reason that we all had thought. Apparently, the photographer put the doll in the scene, in order to change the feeling of the scene, so it would bring out emotions of sadness and sorrow in all of its viewers worldwide. This demonstrates that a photograph is simply a scene that the photographer wants us to see. He/she manipulates us. He/she chooses the scene: the lighting, the angles, and the subjects. The viewers are simply like puppets and the photographer is the puppeteer, he/she moves us in the way that he/she desires. Do the viewers ever get the freedom to see a completely unbiased picture? I do not think so. Every photo is taken with a specific purpose, and therefore, every picture has a bias, no matter the intensity. I believe that putting the Mickey Mouse doll into a heated scene war scene of the Middle East is completely unethical. The photographer lied in order to control his audience. I think that this example illustrates that the power of photography is endless, because it continues to show the photographer’s story, rather than the “true” story.