When do Pictures Become Manipulative?

            I got back from attending my uncle’s graduation ceremony in Indiana yesterday. At the ceremony, my family and I had cameras ready to take pictures and videos, waiting for the speaker to call out my uncle’s name and watch him walk across the stage, clad in a cap and gown, to receive his diploma. It was a major event that he had been waiting for after years and years of effort, as any student would. Taking pictures in times like these are viewed as a necessity because they play such a big role in the future of our lives. Life-changing circumstances, such as graduating college or getting married, are worthy of being captured in a photograph to reminisce about later. They can be motivational reminders that hard work pays off or can simply serve as something to smile about.

            Nevertheless, this obviously isn’t the only reason that photographs are taken. People take pictures of anything and everything, especially as a result of the rise of social media. Users post images of their best moments to create the positive image that everyone wishes to have, making others envious as it seems as though their whole lives are of bliss and perfection. How would anyone know what goes on behind the camera or what happens right after that picture is taken? In this way, photographs can be the “most irresistible form of mental pollution” (Sontag). They are erroneous representations of life—not everything is what it seems. A photograph of a landscape can look beautifully appealing but hides the fact that the water is so polluted that it killed off the fish that once lived there.

            Let’s not forget what I stated earlier. Done for the right reasons, pictures are fine. But once that line is crossed, they are a form of corruption.