JOURNAL WORK 8

Re: Photography and truth

1. Please email Bettina one of your own family snapshots before class on Monday and please indicate what section you're in, 12 am or 1 pm. The snapshot could be from any time in your past but it should have you pictured in it. How true is this snapshot? Are you posing? What is really going on behind the photo? (It would be helpful to insert the snapshot in your journal entry as well--thank you)

2. We will be discussing Errol Morris' essay on photography and truth ("Photography is a Weapon"). You may notice that he wrote a whole series of these for the New York Times, and you may also know that Morris is an Oscar winning documentary maker (Fog of War; Gates of Heaven; Standard Operating Procedure; Thin Blue Line--if you have not heard of him LOOK HIM UP). After reading the essay, what resonates and would be worth addressing in class? Think about (and select one to write about) the following questions: Why do we trust photographs? How do we use photos and other images to verify the truth? How can photographs be a stand in (or not) for what really happened? What are some of Errol Morris' examples of photographs easily subverting the truth? What does he have to say about “fauxtography”? How does the institution of Photojournalism try to combat "fauxtography"? Who is John Heartfield (also called Helmut Herzfeld)? Why did Boing Boing host a contest, "Iran, you suck at Photoshop"? And are photographs "weapons"?

John Heartfield photomontage, 1933