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Photography

Photography, a window into our perspectives, is a form of art in itself. Pictures help us capture memories, and describe emotions that words alone can't capture. In its purest forms, it is the most genuine practice in the world. However, society has found a way to taint it, and make it extremely fake and unreliable. Photoshopping dates back to the Renaissance, when altering images became a norm. Painters and sculptors repeatedly altered the model, to what society found beautiful and attractive. That practice wove itself into our culture, and took root in the field of photography, in which it wreaks havoc. Current advertising agencies, and modeling companies constantly photoshop pictures of their products, and of their models. By doing this, they are deceiving the public, and leading them to believe that they must conform to one set of standards in order to be deemed beautiful.What was originally an outlet into our eyes, has become a wall between what photographers actually see...
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This week in class, we read the piece "Words Don't Mean What They Mean" by Steven Pinker. After reading this piece, I started thinking about the school cafeteria. This week was earth week at school, and we had activities everyday to encourage recycling and cleaning up the school. I thought it was somewhat strange that the school provided plastic products. Even though they didn't have much to do with earth week, I thought that it went against what the school was trying to do. Why couldn't they provide a non-plastic substitute? Im on the JV lacrosse team at school, at the game, the concession stand workers sold a lot of food-in plastic and paper containers. We had a game on Friday, and it was extremely windy, couldn't the wrappers and bags fly out of the garbage cans? Or peoples hands? As said in the piece, "......hypocrisy is universal.." We willingly choose to ignore everything we do, and it is universal, almost as if it is a part of human nat...
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This week in class we read a piece called "Death of a Moth." It was written to describe the "insignificant" and "pathetic" death of a moth. The author Virginia Woolf wrote this piece after an encounter with a moth, and its struggle to live. To most of the population, the death of a moth is insignificant and petty, possibly because there are so many, and they are small and seemingly useless. But couldn't the same thing be thought about for people? There are so many of us, and one out of a couple trillion seems insignificant and petty right? Woolf uses this piece to describe the might and strength of death, and the supposed weakness and uselessness of life. She also uses this piece to describe the mocking nature of death. Before the moth died, it flailed around, as if it actually stood a chance against death, and Woolf watched, later attempting to help, but ultimately being just as helpless in the face of death.  The willpower of the moth was som...
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This week in class, we read a piece called, Marrying Absurd. This piece was about Las Vegas, and how weddings there appeal to the "boldness" and "convenience" desired by the American society. This satirical piece revolves around the self-centered nature of people in today's society. By eliminating the time factor of weddings, and the large and extravagant themes, the "once-in-a-lifetime" atmospheres are lost, and the supposed to be "once-in-a-lifetime" event feels like any other. Wedding are events that kids and parents alike look forward to, so giving all of that up for the convenience and popularity of faster, less sentimental weddings truly seems absurd doesn't it? In the piece, the author mentioned a young, pregnant bride who was crying after her wedding, claiming that it was as nice as the one she has always wanted. Did this seem absurd to her? This could also be turned around, to reflect the shallow and materialistic nature of ...
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This week, in class we read about the "Nacirema", a group of people who seem very strange in comparison to ourselves. The Nacirema have been known to have some very "exotic customs". They have been known to be concerned with vanity, out of fear that their loved ones will desert them if they do not perform their daily mouth rituals. They also put a lot of faith into the "holy-mouth men"-people who gouge holes into their teen, and put questionable substances into them. The Nacirema also have charm-boxes- which are integral to their survival. The Nacirema aren't anything like us, they do all of these unnecessary and dangerous things, and don't even seem to question them! Why do they choose to do/not do more civilized things like us? I'm sure, this is what everyone in the class was thinking at one time or another, but upon closer examination we learned that they are like us. Nacirema is American spelled backwards. All of the "uncivilized...
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Pantone-equality This week in class, we read "Serving in Florida," by Barbara Ehrenreich. This piece was about how society often demoralizes people who work hard, by still manage to get nowhere. Society often ignores these people, and discourage the goals that they work towards. Ehrenreich demonstrates this inequality by attempting to understand the emotions and lifestyles that her coworkers abide by. Her attempt however, is inaccurate, due to the fact that she had a high-paying job to fall back on, meanwhile, her coworkers were stuck with that one job, and they had to live under difficult, and at times unhealthy situations. This is demonstrated by the fact that one of Ehrenreich's coworkers had tried to steal a bit of food form the restaurant-thus indicating his lack of food. He also got home late, and could only go to sleep after one-because that was when a bed was available. In another piece, "On Dumpster Diving," by Lars Eighner, this inequality was s...
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Red- Anger, embarrassment, and passion

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