In class we looked at ten famous photos that had been edited, and it was a little frightening. I know very little about photoshop and other image doctoring programs, and had I not seen the original photos before examining the finished product, I would have been clueless about the change. It's a little unnerving to think that the photographs that we see all around us, in advertising, in news, in politics...may not be what they seem. After looking at the pictures, we watched a video, part of a campaign by dove to promote true beauty. The model is beautiful to begin with, but the transformation is really quite amazing, and it really made me rethink where my standards of beauty come from. Visual media is such a powerful tool in our society, and part of being literate is understanding the difference between truth and propaganda.
Visual literacy is especially important in school settings. Students are bombarded with countless messages about what their lives should look like. The pressures of measuring up to this image can cause a lot of emotional anxiety, which prevents students from excelling. It is very possible that in my career as a teacher I will have the opportunity to counsel children who suffer from low esteem, and instructing them in visual literacy will help them to determine the legitimacy of the sources of their standards. But going beyond issues of self-worth and the media, it is the obligation of the school system to educate children on the value of thinking critically and being wary of the compelling images that are provided as rational for certain actions. As a teacher that responsibility will become partially my own.
Here's another example of what's done with photoshop to images of celebrities, it really makes you think twice about the images that you see in magazines of cultural icons:
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