The influence of photographs

According to the text book, one of the paradox of photography is that "although we know that images can be ambiguous and are easily manipulated or altered, particularaly with the help of digital technology, much of the power of photography still lies in the shared belief that photographs are objective or truthful records of events" (Sturken & Cartwright, 18). This is a really important aspect, because this influnences people a lot, often in bad ways.

http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/24/french-politicians-want-photoshop-warning/

This article tells that photoshoped photographs might be banned in France because they give bad influnce to people, especially young girls. As the article says, most of people feel sad, or miserable after they take a look at magazines or advertisements with celebrities, having 'perfect' figures(Becuase most people do not have those 'perfect' figures.). The fact is that those figures do not exist. They are produced. However, people, espescially young girls, think that those figures do exist, and regard them as ideal. So they do not satisfy with themselves, and be on a diet (often harsh). This usually led to eating disorder, such as anorexia nervosa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

This advertisement tells that those perfect figures are all produced with the help of developed technology; they are not real. We need to pay attention to the end of the advertisement: 'the dove self-esteem fund'.(In my opinion, it implies that because of those 'produced figures', people are even losing their self-esteem, so Dove company wants to cheer up people.)