I once heard that if you don't write something down, it never happened. I believe that that is a profound statement, but that in today's world it is necessary to include all forms of media (photography, film, etc). Photographs are an essential way to document what happens in life. But are they always accurate? The reading brought to my attention that at times a photograph may be hard to access and not easily interpreted. A photograph is a moment without context. It is our duty as active viewers to search for a meaning in our daily intake of media.
I found it interesting to read the two chapters for this week in tandem. They both touched on interpretation of images, but in different ways. The essential point of both chapters was
It may sound redundant, but what is most important to me is media that has worth. By this I mean that there must be a purpose that I can derive from it; some deeper meaning. Many movies, sadly, are largely focused on the action, but very much lacking in depth of character and meaning. These media forms are sad excuses for entertainment. It is important to me that media have an emotion attached to it. When I see a photograph, I don't want to see some grandiose exploitation of the artist's talent. I want to feel the emotion of the scene and derive a story from it.
I do admit, some media is over my head. At a glance I am not able to find its worth. In these challenging cases, I try to find contextual clues, such as historical background of the piece, or the background of the artist. Or even, just looking at it, try to devise my own application for the media. This is especially true for Shakespeare, Plato, etc.