Reality or Fanta-Sea?

     Contemplating reality is always great way to start the day at 7:20 in the morning, as we did on Thursday upon reading On Photography by Susan Sontag (only after enduring the incessant "awwing" of some classmates over others' baby pictures). In her piece, Sontag claims that photographs promote a skewed, false reality, and that the camera "hides more than it discloses" (13-14). While the latter statement may be true, her assertment that a picture has little semblance of reality is not.
      The Miriam-Webster Dictionary defines reality as "the quality or state of being real; a real event, entity or state of affairs". Looking at a photograph, one cannot deny that what is being depicted in the picture happened, thus making it a reality. However, there are many ways to interpret said reality, as demonstrated in Sontag's Nazi example. One's interpretation of reality does not make it any less real- it is real to them, thus becoming their own reality. So, while a photo may not show all perspectives, it does have a semblance of reality.

Me during Thursday's discussion