Photography: The Allegory of the Cave
I tell them that I’m doing fine, Watching shadows on the wall. — John Lennon
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is a story that has been around for hundreds of years and can still be related to every day life. In the story, the great philosopher named Plato depicts people living in a cave, chained down forced to stare at the cave wall for the duration of their life. There is a fire lit behind, where a puppeteeris casting shadows on the walls. This is their reality, the only thing they know is from these shadows. Real life (true ideal forms) exist outside the cave
In photography, the true ideal forms exist outside the photograph in the actual event taking place in time and space. The photograph itself is like the shadows on the walls. It isn’t the real thing, but a glimpse of it. Ultimately, photographs are an interpretation of the world around us. Photographs are not exact images of the world, but pieces of it.
There are a few reasons why photographs are only ‘shadows’ of reality. Photographs can be manipulated, and many variables can change it over time; becoming a skewed image of what it once was. Although photographs can provide proof and interpret reality, photographers can manipulate this reality imposing different or their own standards.
Photography plays an important role in society and the way we view things. Almost everything is viewed through a lens. People document their past, extended families, tourist take pictures while travelling, and journalist’s and wildlife photographers observe events with their camera. Almost everything is documented with a camera. Photographs make all experiences accessible to everyone by translating them into images. The viewer never really experiences these events themselves and therefore the image becomes ‘symbolically possessed’. Photography makes us feel that the world is more available than it really is.
The easier access to photography and its everyday use is becoming closer to our true reality. Soon it will be all we know; a glimpse or shadow of the world that exists outside the cave. Overall, what we know from photographs are mere shadows of the real world.
