positive image, provided no part of the image is too dense, i.e., was subjected to bright light), and most early photographs were quite small, they were in general more accurate representations of the subject than most painters could render. They were also much cheaper, and, except for daguerreotypes and similar processes, reproducible (Newhall, 1986).
From the beginning photography was used as a method of bringing the far away world home. Travel photography was extremely popular from the beginning; now faraway places could be seen in the home. Such wonders as the pyramids were no longer subject to the interpretations of a painter or engraver, but were accurately reproduced by the camera. Photography, along with mass communication and mass mechanized transportation, made the world a smaller place (Newhall, 1986; Beloff, 1985).
Photographs are omnipresent in our modern society; one could hardly imagine a world without them. They are extensively used in advertising and the informational media, two of the more prevalent sources of information overload in our society. People take them for granted, rarely questioning the elements behind a photograph who made it, what is their purpose, what are they trying to say, to whom are they trying to say it, and what went on to create the photograph they are usually simply ingested at face value and the blatant, superficial message is taken in, if any message is taken in at all.
"However sophisticated we are about the construction of social realities, we must intuitively acknowledge the authenticity of a photograph. We believe it" (Beloff, 1985, ch. 4). But why are photographs so easily believed? To start with, anyone who has even the most basic familiarity with photography realizes that something needed to be in front of the camera in order to make the image; it wasn't painted there or drawn there. Since most people are not familiar with the techniques required to subtly distort an ima...