Reality and Images

Norman Bryson says "In its perfect state, painting approaches a point where it sheds everything that interferes with its reduplicative mission; what painting depicts is what everyone with two eyes is his head already knows: 'universal visual experience'." In other words, an ideal image would show reality just as it is, nothing added or left out. Since the first painting and up to a certain point, the artist that was able to create the most realistic works was considered the best. Creating something just as it is seen is what Husserl called "natural attitude." Even a certain style that an artist might demonstrate in his or her works detracted from the art if it didn't capture "natural reality," the world as it appears to us.

However, artists such as Picasso became very popular in their time with art that did not necessarily reflect the world as we see it. Still, it can be argued that the imagination is a part of human reality, and transfering an image from the imagination to canvas exactly as it is imagined counts as containing natural reality.

The idea that images have been forever created to portray reality means that images hold quite a lot of sway in society. When people look at images, they tend to give them credit as true representations of reality, especially since the invention of photographs. The truth is, though, that images, even photographs, hold the mark of the artists and photographers - images are always influenced by their creators in some ways. That's why it is always important for us as a society to consider what images we use to portray certain ideas; and it's equally important for us as individuals to be aware that no image is reality. One much used example of an untrue, yet extremely popular, image in American society is that of super thin , beautiful women. American females are exposed to these images day-in and day-out. It is often discouraging to the majority of women who do not look like models to see these unattainable pictures, even though they know that that kind of beauty is extremely rare and often fake. Images can never reflect reality as it is, even if that is their purpose.