Close Comparison -- Compare and Contrast Comparison Essay

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 759 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 1

Page 1 of 3

Close Comparison -- Compare and Contrast

Comparison of Solomon-Godeau and Williams

Photography is an ethically complex art: unlike a painting which purports to be the work of an individual artist and reaffirm his or her 'true self,' a photograph at least superficially suggests that it has encapsulated 'the real.' The impression of reality conveyed by photography is so persuasive that the fact that a photograph is still one interpretation amongst many may be forgotten. "For Solomon-Godeau, looking at social subjects is voyeuristic, creating contradictions that course through the entire history of documentary photography. In its parasitism on the real and self-justification in the name of consciousness-raising, the genre always risks reducing the 'objective' record of human misery to aesthetic spectacle" (Apter 1992: 693). An excellent example of such reduction are the infamous photographs of Walter Evans of the 'Okies' during the Dust Bowl era of the America 1930s or modern photography today of war zones. The individual becomes reduced to a symbol of the tragedy of humanity. Thus, according to Solomon-Godeau, photography "seductively promises to show what is there, a promise that implicitly inducts the viewer into an ideologically blinding regime of scopic mastery.

Stuck Writing Your "Close Comparison -- Compare and Contrast Comparison" Essay?

View All Our Example Close Comparison -- Compare and Contrast Comparison Essay

Have A Custom Example Essay Written

Thus she endeavors to work out a somewhat perverse counter-strategy of 'not to show,' or 'not to read'" (Apter 1992: 693). For African-Americans, this is a particularly important question, given that images of 'blackness' are often used to represent 'the race' in a schematic fashion, as seen through the white gaze.

However, the collection of African-American photography by Debra Willis, rather than attempting 'not to show' or 'not to read' offers a different view of photography and its tendency to objectify. Willis and the contributors to her volume Picturing Us: African-American Identity in Photography instead explores the ability to 'reread' photographs from the past. Rather than distilling photographs of their assigned meanings and questioning the value of the visual to render 'the real,' Willis asked contributors to her volume to instead reinterpret famous photographs from the African-American past, such as those of anonymous lynched men and famous activists such as Marcus Garvey, in a manner in which they had not been previously.

In the essay, "The Erotic Image is Naked and Dark," essayist Carla Williams actively seeks to reclaim the body of the hyper-sexualized Black….....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Close Comparison -- Compare And Contrast Comparison" (2013, September 29) Retrieved June 30, 2025, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/close-comparison-compare-contrast-comparison-123291

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Close Comparison -- Compare And Contrast Comparison" 29 September 2013. Web.30 June. 2025. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/close-comparison-compare-contrast-comparison-123291>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Close Comparison -- Compare And Contrast Comparison", 29 September 2013, Accessed.30 June. 2025,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/close-comparison-compare-contrast-comparison-123291
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example