Chapter 3

While reading chapter three, I became engrossed in the idea of people only having to Photoshop themselves into an already photographed location and saying that they have visited that place. This is all so unreal. Will some people even travel anymore, or will they just Photoshop themselves standing in front of the Parthenon? So many places have been visited and photographed that anyone could do this. There will always be that wondrous feeling of standing in front of a historical building or landscape, but will people continue to seek that out?

Ritchin also discusses the proposal of a “not-a-lens” icon on manipulated images. I think that this could be either extremely beneficial or possibly hazardous. In fashion magazines and commercials it would be beneficial to recognize that the figure has been Photoshoped to be skinnier, or a product made more colorful. However what if you were to see that icon in the bottom corner of a picture in National Geographic or Newsweek. One might question what was manipulated in the photograph, or if it even is real. It would be alarming to see an image of war with that icon in the bottom, because what would be real and what would be fabricated?