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.
