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Sontag, Susan. On Photography. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Griroux, 1977. Print.

“Photographs furnish evidence. Something we hear about, but doubt, seems proven when we’re shown a photograph of it…A photograph passes for incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened. The picture may distort; but there is always a presumption that something exists, or did exist, which is like what’s in the picture. Whatever the limitations (through amateurism) or pretensions (through artistry) or the individual photographer, a photograph-any photograph- seems to have a more innocent, and therefore more accurate, relation to visible reality than do other mimetic objects” (6).

The photograph has long been used as a tool for recording and providing evidence of an action by capturing information during an event or photographing the residue of an activity or individual. The photograph operates as a record-keeping device believed to preserve the integrity of a first hand account long after the event or witnesses have ceased to exist. Despite this role the photograph has come to play in our sense of accurate recording, the photograph is a records nothing more than the light that is in front of it. The photograph holds no truth as it is a simply a reflecting device, only able to refer to what is put before the lens. In this way, “evidence” as it is conceived of in our society can be easily fabricated or altered. I use this power the photograph holds to my advantage, utilizing our trusting relationship with photographic proof. I create scenes to be photographed, which someone could consider to be false representations or constructed scenarios, and they are indeed. But I aim to question the validity of any photograph through the tension of fantasy and believability I present.