In today’s society, many people’s main focus is on their looks. This is something very widely expressed in social media such as VSCO and Instagram. We all scroll and like through the pictures but here is something that many people seem to forget. Is there really a lot of substance to those pictures we post?

Photography has been a widely used since the 1800s to capture moments that paintings could not and has greatly evolved into a beautiful art form, but do these meaningless pictures support the messages that photography is trying to spread? Photography is used to express a deeper meaning of the world and to look at things from a different perspective, more  specifically the view of the photographer.

This view can greatly vary based on who the photographer is and what they wish to convey through their images. Traditionally, photographers do not post “selfies” to convey their view but rather portraits of others because it is what they see of the person through their own eyes, and you cannot necessarily adapt how you look to yourself in a “selfie”.

Many pictures we see on our screens are not all they seem to be. We live in a world full of artificial items that can affect our overall image of what we want to the world to be or what we hope it can be. Not only does this effect our point of view of the world but also just people in general. If the wrong image of someone becomes public, it can potentially ruin how they are seen by others and make others believe that they are someone they aren’t. In older days, may people would use photography for exploitation purposes (of political figures for example) but can’t we rise above that as a society and become better than those in the past?

There are many people in today’s day and age that use social medias such as Visco and Instagram to show the beauty they see in the world as well as express their feelings through the art of photography. Will LaFoe, a senior at Dubuque Senior High School, has an Instagram account called “@will_laphoto” that he uses to do just that. LaFoe creates beautiful images of various friends and allows for his followers to see things in a different perspective as he becomes the puppeteer of lighting and angles to capture that moment of perfection. He hopes of a possible future in photography someday and even has started his own mini-business on the side where he takes senior photos or simply pictures just for fun.

Photography is truly an artform that can get lost in the mess of our social lives and simply swept under the rug. If everyone were to take a step back and take that extra second to look at the picture they stumble across, they may see something truly beautiful of the world in a new light. Just like a camera, one’s perspective can be adjusted to capture the perfect shot.

“See Impossible” – Canon

From time to time, the Rampage publishes work from students in Journalism class. While these writers are not part of the regular staff, their work meets many (or all) of the same requirements of those on the Rampage staff. We congratulate these writers on their work!