Technology+and+the+Social+Sciences,+Photography+and+Visual+Sociology

What is Visual Sociology?
__http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g0OC9DEFJM__ This video demonstrates more about what visual sociology is. It starts off by showing all of the common photographs of what Americans see muslims as, and then eventually the video shows pictures that are not seen on a daily basis. This demonstrates how we are __**socially constructed to view people a certain way**__ based on the images that we see, which is mainly what visual and photograph sociology is. This is also a way that you can examine how photographs are taken and how they are viewed by their audiences. This is also shows the concern for representation and interpretation, in that we interpret things that are represented to us in certain ways (that might not always be positive).
 * the study of visual material and relating it to the social world
 * simply put: they are social constructions, by reporting what we think we know
 * film, video and photographs can all be ways of demonstrating visual sociology
 * can also be the study of visual artifacts of a societies
 * can be manipulated into teaching people things that are partial or not true at all (see the video posted below)
 * since there is rewind, slow down/fast forward and editing
 * people are then taught to believe what they see
 * kind of like what we learned in class about women feeling the need to look a certain way because of what is seen by celebrities in the media
 * Photojournalism:**
 * **producing images into newspapers and journals**
 * **it is supposed to be factual, unbiased, story-telling and eye catching**
 * **since it is supposed to be eye catching, and ultimately for the purpose of selling articles, some of it might not be the complete truth**
 * **people wind up having an ideology based on the photos that they are seeing**
 * **usually just show what is already expected, few journalists and photographers show the contradicting side**

**Advertising vs. Documentary Photography**
The Howard S. Becker article "Categories and Comparisons: How We Find Meaning in Photographs" talk about the differences between advertising and newspaper photographs and documentary photographs. In order to actually see the differences between these two different types of photographs I have found a pictures to illustrate each.

The Lego advertisement photograph was one of the winners of American Best Advertising Photography (APA) in 2009. Here we see that the all detail have been removed so th//a//t it only calls attention to the product in which the advertisers are trying to sell. The only color is within the Lego logo which calls more attention to it.

The "Migrant Mother" picture is by Dorothea Lange, a picture of a woman and her child in migratory farm labor. This picture does not "reduce the surroundings" in order to get a purpose across. It is "Looking for photographic truth" and "let what's there be there" (Becker, 4). The picture holds a lot of detail and information which allows it to be interpreted in many different ways depending on the viewer.

Participatory Photo Mapping (PPM)
I found a website which uses the PPM method which allows people to share their experiences, and in this particular case with their community about health and place. The site describes it as a "method [which] allows communities to document, analyze, and communicate information about their neighborhood. PPM is useful for assessing neighborhood food and recreational environments." This information is then relayed to policy decision makers, giving citizens who normally feel left out the power to shape their own policies. There are 4 steps to the PPM method:

Here is the link to the website for more information on PPM.

[|Walker Evans] This video features some of Walker Evans' work (along with Dorothea Lange) during the Great Depression. Although this actual presentation was not available during the actual time period of the Great Depression, the photographs give insight to viewers today.

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 * Photosynth **

Photosynth is a recent software application which has the ability to accumulate and process an seemingly endless amount of photos that exist on the web and generate three dimensional photos. The program has the ability to register photos that “match” so that thousands of different photos can be integrated into a fluid three dimensional image. Any image can be used from professional cameras to personal cell phone cameras. The program takes data from everyone and is able to link them together. A model immerges from the real environment we live in and is able to grow and become more complex as more and more people contribute. And as more people contribute, the social experience grows more in-depth and increases the experience for everyone. Creating a different way we can interact and view our world. “My enthusiasm for photo elicitation also comes from the collaboration it inspires. When two or more people discuss the meaning of photographs they try to figure out something together. This is, I believe, an ideal model for research.”(Harper) media type="youtube" key="p16frKJLVi0" width="425" height="350"

The ability to capture moments and to carry emotions through these images give photographs a particular skill. But to me this can be seen most strongly through photographs of war. Here I have posted a photo taken by a famous combat photographer Robert Capa. He documented photos in over five different wars, mostly including the European campaign of World War II. He was also a cofounder of the first worldwide freelance photographer agency. This photo made Capa famous around the world as this was introduced into a Life Magazine. The photo known as the “Falling Soldier” taken in Cerro Muriano. The photo shows a Loyalist Militiaman who had been shot and is in the act of falling to his death. The photo remains one of the most symbolic war photographs of all time. “Photographs appear to capture the impossible: a person gone; an event past. That extraordinary sense of seeming to retrieve something that has disappeared belongs alone to the photograph, and it leads to deep and interesting talk.”(Harper)