MDSC62H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Industrial Revolution, Canadian Literature, Chinese Head Tax In Canada
Document Summary
= photographs are typically associated with realism, and as objective representations of the world that offer an unbiased truth. = there is an aura of objectivity that sticks to mechanical and electronic images, whether they are photographic, cinematic, electronic, or digital, so that photography tends to be understood as more objective than painting or drawing. Alan sekula: photographs achieve semantic status as fetish objects and as documents. The photograph is imagined to have, depending on its context, a power that is primarily affective or a power that is primarily informative. Both powers reside in the mythical truth- value of the photograph. (thinking photographs) = is both a historical era spanning the rise of the industrial revolution (18th -19th c) to the present, and a set of social values with an emphasis on the individual, rational order, efficiency, and a rejection of tradition.
