Errol Morris video response

Errol Morris notes that we have forgotten that photos are connected to the physical word. This is shown in the title of the video. He goes on to talk about how separate from reality these photos are. There is a strange duality in how he approaches the idea of photography that is not quite contradictory, but close. Morris talks about how photos are cropped and decontextualized, making that which is not in the photo just as important as what is included in it. He notes that photos are often framed to give a certain effect, using the example of the early Crimean war photos of the “Valley of the Shadow of Death.” The connection he draws between photos and the physical world is actually people.

            With photography being a more recent art form, many more of the photographers, and people included are still available to ask questions. Morris notes this in the example of Abu Ghraib prison and how much information is assumed about photos without inquiring about the people involved. Photos are often far separated from the real world, but they represent aspects of it through, through the medium of the photographer and the people being photographed. This is an interesting way to approach the subject of truth in a photo. Morris notes that searching for honesty in a photo is useless since they idea of truth is set in words and not in art. However, a representation through a photograph may be very far from “reality,” but to the person formatting the photo this false representation may carry a tone or emotion that closer matches their own perception of the reality of that moment.