Practices of Looking Summary

The reading opens with talking about how the simple act of looking (specifically at images) is a choice or an influence. Living in an “image-saturated society” (11) it is important to understand what you are actually looking at. The reading then goes on to describe representation, basically stating that images and words allow us to construct the world around us and give meaning to what we see. It then discusses photographs as usually being seen as having the most truth in them. This is a little backwards considering photographs can be altered and edited so easily – and there is always a hint of subjective-ness in any photograph taken because the photographer must decide to take the photo in the way that he did. From these images we, as the viewer, interpret multiple meanings by looking at the image (signifier) and what we feel by looking at the image (signified). Overall, images are, and will continue to be, a very important part of our culture and it is important that we understand exactly what we are looking at.