There are multiple events illustrated in the video that relates to our current events. One event being how people and media both use photography for social justice and change. Other relations of photography to current events can be seen in protest movements, war, government control, politics, and court cases around the world.
The way I see photography impacting these historical events leading to today’s events starts with the Civil rights movement. The civil rights movement was something powerful to document to create awareness and change. The pictures from the civil rights movement showed the reality of segregation. For example, people who were considered minority groups had to use different water fountains, different hospitals, and different methods of transportations compared to white people. Lynching was showed in historical photos showing people what was really happening during this time around the world and around the country. This caused people to move out of their state of denial to reality and push for change. This can be seen in current events of the media especially now. Pictures of segregation being displayed of how different life can be depending on what race you are. In the film, it mentioned pictures taken in Birmingham that showed a new reality of seeing police dogs and water hoes used on African Americans by police officers. This shifted a big change of the public’s opinions on the police force. This is hitting very close to home with the current movement in America today specifically the black lives matter slogans. The killing of George Floyd by police officer went viral worldwide. Almost every person worldwide with a phone posted a picture of George Floyd, a protesting slogan, or a dark screen representing black lives matter. Protesting broke out almost everywhere in America. This was all due to the impact photography had around the world. Forcing people to feel the pain of the police brutality George Floyd went through. In the film, it showed students protesting form Kenn state. The students thought they were using their freedom rights to protest, and they were all killed for it by the national guard. Today there are images of multiple people are being beaten, hospitalized, and even killed from protests against police forces around the world. Photography was used for protesting to make a change and get the world to notice. These are all images reaching deep into your emotional soul showing you what happened and how they felt. In the past and now the photograph still has a fantastic power of surviving and making an impact on change. The still image is still the way we cataloged history events in our minds.
Photography has impacted the war’s historical events that have led to today’s events. Photography during the Vietnam War showed war better than any film or any other photographed war because it’s something that sticks in your mind. There was a photo of a young Vietnam girl getting chased by the police in terror crying. There was a photo so vivid during the Vietnam war showing a policeman executing a suspect in the picture and seeing the bullet hit his head. Gruesome photos of killings, bloodshed, terror, and survival showed people reality of what was really was. The news magazine decided to show off the faces of the dead soldiers to the whole country. The whole country mourned for them and ultimately changed everyone’s mind about how they feel about the war. These historical events of war seen through photography led to change in today’s photography of war. After the Vietnam war, there were restrictions placed on images that photographers were able to take and share with the public. For example, there was control on the gulf War images. The government gave the people pictures of what they wanted them to see. The government tried to make the public forget what they saw during the Vietnam war. After Vietnam enlisting numbers for the war dropped after seeing pictures of the reality of war. The film it talks about how it is dangerous to let the government feed us all the photos or reality of war. They are just letting you see what they want you to see through photos. This shifted today's pictures on war with guidelines that you are not able to photograph any casualties of War. A still picture has an impact than seeing it in the news and on TV it is impacted dozens of times in your brain and causes you to have a lasting memory of that certain event. This is something that hasn’t changed from the history of photography to now.
The last major was I see photography’s impact from historical events to now is through government control and politics. In the film, it talked about Buddhist monks elder being burned to death. A fellow monk poured gasoline over the older Monk. The eldest monk then lit himself on fire. The New York Times would not print it because it after the government stated that was not suitable for a family newspaper. Just like history, the government learned to manipulate an image is to control people. This halted photography’s right to show reality in scenarios of war photos, newspaper photos, and social movement photos. One example of a social change the political leaders prevented was stopping mass killings of people in Cambodia and concentration camps. The film talked about people throughout the world that stopped the slaughtering of Cambodia and concentration camps only after seeing the photos of the mass killings happening there. The public stopped the slaughtering that the political leaders didn’t ever stop before, but only after the world released their opinion after being exposed to those photos. Photos were used in politics for presidents too. Photos reinforced people’s feelings of their presidents. President Kennedy was said to be the best photographed. He always posed for the camera and was always camera ready. President Nickson was not a good in photographs, he always looked upset, depressing, and unfriendly. This in conclusion made the public love Kennedy and hate Nickson a lot had to do with photography. This can be seen now in today’s photography of presidents. Donald trump has many pictures on social media giving him both negative and positive character. This is just another example of how photography can be manipulated. We create the reality we want to see in both past and present. The only somewhat difference between the past and present is when photography came out it was first seen as truth. The problem is now pictures can be manipulated a great deal. Digital photography is taking over history and can help create any kind of reality. One thing that stays true throughout time is that whether it is reality or a mislead reality pictures do stay with us if we look at them a long time and if they get repeated.