Chicken or the Egg

Do images reflect reality or is reality created by images? Did the chicken come before the egg? For example, are Americans pressured to be skinny because the media places a high value on images of unnaturally skinny people? Or perhaps the media takes a lot of pictures of skinny people because Americans have an obsession with being skinny. What is reality anyways? The only true reality, according to Bryson in “Natural Attitude,” is when it is from the perspective we like. If we don’t like the perspective the image is from, it is not real. Bryson argues our culture’s role of the image is to become a substitute for the real.

As a whole, we judge the value of an image by how real it seems to bed. For example, video games have evolved since the first ColecoVision. Video gaming systems have become gradually more realistic with their images. The PS3 can easily trick the untrained eye into thinking it is real. Who knows what the next video game system will look like? All we know is it will look more “real” than the PS3? Because of this assumption of substituting the real, we devalue paintings from the past.

When we look at paintings, images, and photographs of the past, we capture only surface change. However, we don’t think about why. These past images give the impression that it happened, that it was there, and it just existed. The question why it was that way never crosses our minds. Therefore, our culture today lessens the value of history’s paintings and photographs.

According to Bryson in Natural Attitude, reality doesn’t give us images, but rather images construct reality. On the other hand, reality is different from person to person. We assume that photographs and films capture reality, but someone still had to take the picture or video. The perception of the photographer or the video’s director comes into play. Style and perception come into play. Essentially, style gets in the way; it takes away the purity of the image. As a result, just as the chicken or the egg argument continues so will the images reflecting reality or images shaping reality argument.