hearing is believing- photographic icons

I really enjoyed listening to "Hearing is Believing" it was a lot more interesting than the normal passages we have to read, but also a lot harder to focus on. I agreed with a lot of what Phil said. My favorite part was towards the end he mentioned how "Images do the work for us, they tell us what to see." I guess I've never really thought about it like that but it does make a lot of sense. When you're watching T.V. nothing is left up to the imagination it's already right there for you. If your listening to the radio you can make your own visual and stretch your imagination so much more. You imagine what the D.J's look like, what the studio is like how everything is set up you can play with it so much more rather then just actually seeing it. It kind of takes the fun out of things when you already see the image and don't get to create it yourself. It reminded me of those haunted houses when your little where you're blindfolded and u stick your hands in a bowl that they say it's eyeballs when really it's just grapes. It's a lot easier to imagine it being eyeballs or something creepy when you didn't see the bowl before hand. I can somewhat agree with what Phil mentioned about how music can still be good without understanding the words. However, I really enjoy music more and can get more into it when i hear the words and can relate to what the singer is saying. There are a few songs that have a powerful enough sound that you can feel the emotion without a single word being sung. I definitely enjoyed this passage and I thought the music in the background helped back up his thoughts because even the songs or clips without words proved what he was saying.

The passage Photographic Icons gave me some perspective on the way I look at pictures. I've never really thought about how much trust plays a factor when you see a picture. There could be a picture in the newspaper showing someone helping out somewhere saying that they've been helping for days, but in actuality that person could have just got there and did a quick pose and the sad part is most people automatically believe it. As Gefter says, the real truth is "measured in the circumstances that led up to the moment the picture was taken." This passage makes you really question the authenticity of any photo. Some photos being staged are acceptable, like ads, magazines, posters, etc. but when the picture is said to be spontaneous and random, a posed picture is the opposite and ruins the picture all together. I think that with some iconic images it really doesn't matter if the picture was set up or not, and it should not be looked into. When we know the event to be true, a powerful image reflecting that event is still a reflection of the event whether it was a pose or real.