Don’t Judge a Snapshot by its Color Sara Eagle Photography and Text English

All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth. -Richard Avedon Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies. -Diane Arbus

Good Ole’ N.Y.C. At first glance, this photograph may seem particularly easy for an outsider to interpret How is an outsider to know the relationships these teenagers share? How can a stranger know where these girls are? What did they do after the picture was taken? Although some photographs may be deemed easily interpretable, all photographs have a story behind them that could not possibly be told without a narrator present to recount the tale Essentially, I shall prove that no photograph is easy to interpret

The Truth… This photograph was taken over Winter Break in Manhattan, Rockefeller Center Corine Haener is on the far left, followed by Deirdre Kelleher in the middle and I am on the far right Directly behind us is the legendary Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree We all actually met at the University of Michigan, but live about an hour away from each other at home We are all close together in the photograph because I took the picture with my left hand. “It would be interesting to discover the identity of the photographer of this piece. Perhaps it is another friend…maybe the mystery photographer is a passerby…” --Alex Sadovsky We did contemplate asking someone to take the picture for us, which seemed like a good idea until Corine told us a story about when she was in Spain. Her family asked someone to take their picture and the person not only ended up taking the photograph, but taking the camera as well. We came to a general consensus that it would be best for one of us to take the picture.

Reasons for Not Understanding Photographs Don’t know relationships Don’t know what has just happened Don’t know stories

Who Would’ve Thunk? Clip One -Who would’ve thought that my friends and I just been in a fight regarding what movie to see… Clip Two -Who would’ve thought that these two girls have been up for 29 hours at this point…

Movies Where Photos are Misleading Amelie Original Sin Bringing Down the House One Hour Photo

Friends, “The One with the Engagement Picture”

In Conclusion… It is true that a photograph can often times speak for itself. However, there will always be small details that will be overlooked if a photograph is glanced at quickly or hastily and with no explanation. As celebrated photographer Ansel Adams once said, “A photograph is usually looked at – seldom looked into”. In the end, even the most seemingly simple photograph is difficult to fully interpret. Without any prior knowledge, this interpretation becomes almost impossible. However, even with a small amount of background information on the subjects, photographs are often puzzles that are not easily solved.

Works Cited Retrieved April 6, 2003, from Retrieved March 27, 2003, from