"Evidence, Truth and Order: A Means of Surveillance"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses John Tagg's essay, in which Tagg expresses his concern about the danger that results from the impression that photography gives a realistic glimpse of life in an unvarnished and objective manner, when, in actuality, it merely transmits the vision and the limited perspective of the photographer. The paper then explains Tagg's point that this impression is particularly dangerous when a photograph of a crime is used as evidence in a court of law because of the extra forensic weight the visual impression may carry with the jury.

From the Paper:

"Thus, the photographer is only a sensible human being. The nature of photography is at its essence just as mysterious as that of a painter's inspiration in terms of personal selection of subject and moment. (Tagg 1988, p.111) The photograph's reality may be taken for granted, taken as objective truth. But it is anything but a photograph is a selection of an intensely subjective nature. It creates evidence not of happenstance or arbitrary gaze, but a focused and artistic choice. Even if the photograph takes pictures somewhat at random, or to show "objectively" some truth or evidence for a legal as opposed to an artistic reason, the photographer is still making a conscious or an unconscious choice to focus on a particular aspect of human existence to the exclusion of other aspects of human existence."

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