Photography and Smithsonian National Museum Essay

Submitted By christophermarzan
Words: 339
Pages: 2

Out of the seven videos that were presented to the class, the video that stood out the most in relation to the significance impact to society was “photography changes what we remember “. In my opinion the reason why that video builds a strong relationship to society is because to me, the purpose of taking a photograph is creating memories and remembering the past events that occurred in someone life and able to reflect on them as time goes by. The video presents a great example of how photography changes what we remember. In the video we are introduced Hugh Talman who is a staff photographer at the Smithsonian National Museum Of American History. He talks about how he was being sent to New Orleans to take photographs of devastating destruction of hurricane Katrina. The many photographs that were displayed in the video were pictures of destroyed buildings, a picture of a little on a boat on top of water that flooded the home, and many more. Furthermore, along their adventure through the tragic event of hurricane Katrina, they located and found objects that they took photographs of. The objects included a family holding a sign “have we been forgotten” that was spray painted on a piece of plywood a toy castle, mailbox, and a wooden clock lying on the ground. Both the mailbox and the clock were retrieved from the scene and brought into the studio and photograph individually with a blank background. When the side-by-side picture of the clock with the destroyed buildings at