ALPHA BETA OMEGA- PARTY LIKE A ROCKSTAR
So to make my point perfectly clear, I wanted to post this picture of a man who had tripped and couldn't get up so he slept outside. Okay.. so that's a little white lie to protect his dignity. He actually was at a party and passed out drunk. One of his buddies took the picture and its a great example for me to use.
No. That's a lie too. This is actually a picture I pulled after google searching the words "a man that fainted". He is an actor showing the effects of a drop in blood sugar.
Now.. who's telling the truth and who is telling the lie?
At the Cafe, Chez Fraysse by Robert Doisneau
A picture is worth a thousand words. We've all heard the expression used, but what is it exactly that photographs are trying to convey without using text to state their point? This man, Robert Doisneau I've come to believe upon looking at some of his other work, simply had a thing for couples, or pairings, or even just twos and evens instead of odds. If the content of the picture will reflect the character of the photographer, then one might could say that he simply liked the atmosphere of bars.
So much insight, and yet it goes nowhere. He had taken the picture of the couple because he fancied the translation of their relationship on film. And yet after that this picture was used for an anti-alcohol campaign and a prostitution claim. Had I read the paper handed out in my photography class that Gisele Freund wrote about Doisneau's couple and it first stated that the man was a well-on-his-way mobster in New York city with a chip on his shoulder and a woman in his eye, I would have glared at the photograph with a harder judgement toward the gritty lifestyle. But because he stated the preface to the photo being taken, and that the pair were a normal couple Robert had fancied in a cafe in Paris, I was taken aback at the accusations of the woman being a prostitute.
A picture is worth a thousand words, but someone else may be shoving them down your throat. This innocent composition can be skewed and perverted if the veiwer lets it, just like the man I made an example of could be a drunk if you wanted him to be. It is not the job of the photographer to make the lifestyle of the subject clean cut and well known. Life has grey areas and from grey areas come the beauty of diversity. Without it, life would be dull. So I must ask you the question, do you read the caption in bold text that is placed on the name tag under the photo, or look at the photo that is vague and nondescript first?
Take heed, yon veiwer, your eyes can be decieving, but the power of suggestion is just that- power over your opinions.
