Authenticity of Photography

Photography has become a principle device for experiencing something, and making that experience a memory you will cherish forever. However, with photography so widely available to society today, it makes me question the authenticity and value of photos. What’s important enough to document? “Images transfix. Images anesthetize. An event known through photographs certainly becomes more real than it would have been if one had never seen the photographs. But after repeated exposure to images it also becomes less real.” (Sontag, 2006, p.9) For example, Instagram profiles get over 10k followers just on images of food. “The immediacy of photo sharing in the social sphere is that certain photographs are associated with a particular situation and thus loose their significance over a period of time hence making it feel like it is essential for the user to share the image at that moment in time” (Villi 2010).

The change in the digital era of technology has made it capable for the everyday person to capture photos and share them instantaneously. This has been transcended from Susan Sontag’s concept on amateur photography and the idea of immediacy depicted through Mikko Villi’s concept.