Assignment#24: "TED"

During the TED talk, I was shown many photos which helped to answer the question, "How does photography connect us?" During the talk, David Griffin showed photos from around the world and then explain them and how they were taken. Photos of the animals in the wild had to be taken without the photographer, so that the photos would show the animals in their environment. The photos that showed the poverty in a city, made it easy to see the pain that went along with living there. The houses and buildings were all boards, instead of concrete. These photos showed me how lucky I am to be living here, and how I should donate more so that hopefully, one day, they may be able to live how I do.

Photography is a great way to show photos of other places to people that don't travel that far. These photos help to show the problems that are going on in different countries. They are then able to see how real something as big as poverty, or killing elephants for their tusks, can be. People are then able to use the photos that they have seen to try and help. Photography gets information out in a way that words and paragraphs can't. You can write an essay on these problems, but without photos, it will be very hard to explain the pain and suffering that goes with these topics.

This talk has altered the way I look at photography because I now realize that it shouldn't just be about taking a photo of something random because it looks beautiful. It shouldn't be about getting good lighting, or a good angle. Photography should show things that we don't necessarily see everyday. For example, it's easy to get a photo of an animal at the zoo, but very rarely do we see photos of animals in their natural habitat.