Out of all forms of media, I believe that the introduction of photography to society has been revolutionary in bringing positive change across the world. While creative expression is one of the main reasons I believe that photography has brought positive change, I’d like to focus especially on photography’s impact on visual documentation. Without photography, many historical moments that have impacted and influenced our understanding of the world wouldn’t have been captured. This is extremely important because if we don’t these types of photos that document historical moments, the only way to understand things like how bad the Holocaust was, how pressuring Black Lives Matter protests have been, and the groundbreaking nature of the Moon Landing had been through word of mouth and text. These formats leave too much room for imagination and photography eliminates this ambiguity and can even accentuate the emotions (severity, joy, and excitement) associated with said moments in time. Seeing is believing, and without photography we’d lose our ability to see in a sense. Therefore, having photography is a positive addition to society, as it allows us to understand, empathize, and self-improve, more than we could ever imagine before its existence.
Below I’ve attached some of the most well known photographs that serve to document:
