A photograph can mean so much to different people, but it’s ultimate purpose is to capture an important moment in someone’s life and be able to hold onto a physical copy of a memory. Photographs enact a certain nostalgia for the past, the good times or perhaps an important person or location; it’s a memory you want to last indefinitely. It’s a subject many people don’t touch on when they examine a film like Blade Runner (1982), but director Ridley Scott’s film does place an emphasis on the importance of photographs and what they can mean to people. The film depicts photos as a gateway to nostalgia, the immortalization of important figures and how photographs can deceive their owners.
When you hold onto a photography they are generally a preserved version of a past memory that is important or a time of happiness. Blade Runner shows this when Rachel (Sean Young) shows Deckard (Harrison Ford) a photograph of her as a child with her mother, she tells him fondly of a memory that confirms
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This dreamday that only Deckard knew of is flaunted at him by Gaff, in a gesture that leaves many audience members believing that Deckard himself is a replicant. The figure of the unicorn appeared when he was looking over photos of his past, which ties directly into the daydream and into the deception that photo’s can have on people. Perhaps the photo’s of Deckard’s family are implants of a past Blade Runner, if anything these photos betray Deckard, his memories of the past and his assurance that he is human. In the end photographs can mean a lot of different things to individuals, but the film Blade Runner depicts them as a gateway to the nostalgia of the past, a way to immortalize important figures and a tool of deception against their
Throughout history, photographs have been known to depict and represent culture, character, information, and ideology. Through specific elements of form, and close scrutiny, photographs give a representation of the “bigger picture” by providing content and invaluable information that text, on its own, does not produce. Dr. Carol Payne, a professor of art history at Carleton University, wrote an essay in 2012 for the Oxford University Press. This essay focused on the relationships between photographic images, Canadian culture and identity, and indigenous people. Her thesis was to discuss how an image can present a sense of national identity (Carol Payne 310).
For the duration of his essay “The Stranger in the Photo is Me”, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and professor Donald M. Murray depicts his train of thought while flipping through an old family photo album. While describing his experience, Murray carries the reader through the story of his childhood, describing snapshots of some of his favorite memories growing up. Throughout the piece, he shifts back and forth between a family oriented, humorous tone and a nostalgic, regretful one and by doing so, he parallels the true experience of looking through a family photo album. Murray expresses a more serious tone while reflecting on a certain photograph of him in uniform from the beginning of World War II and goes on to explain how in his opinion,
Over the past few years I have viewed Blade Runner, and it’s many different cuts, and each time I come away with new ideas and questions on my mind. Ridley Scott’s film explores many issues, but perhaps my favorite is what it means to be human. No matter the version you watch, I believe that Scott’s film comes to the conclusion that being human is more complex than the outcome of the Voigt-Kampff test. I’ve personally come to the conclusion that Scott and screenwriters Hampton Fancher and David Webb Peoples aim to make Roy and his other Nexus-6 followers tragic and sympathetic characters that are as human as Sebastian or Tyrell. The story opens up by making the characters seem like the villains of the film, with Leon murdering agent Holden and Roy’s threatening demeanor.
Alina Tugend’s article, “The Meaning in a Drawer Full of Old Family Snapshots”, provides a strong point about printed family photos holding sentimental value. It also states that digital photography might be taking the value of old photos away. As the generations change new forms of photography have been developed and there are ways to change photos now making every one unique. This, for some people, this is better than a printed picture. Tugend writes in the article that “Like Professor Saab, I enjoy the convenience of digital photography.
In war, there is no clarity, no sense of definite, everything swirls and mixes together. In Tim O’Brien’s novel named “The Things They Carried”, the author blurs the lines between the concepts like ugliness and beauty to show how the war has the potential to blend even the most contrary concepts into one another. “How to Tell a True War Story” is a chapter where the reader encounters one of the most horrible images and the beautiful descriptions of the nature at the same time. This juxtaposition helps to heighten the blurry lines between concepts during war. War photography has the power to imprint a strong image in the reader’s mind as it captures images from an unimaginable world full of violence, fear and sometimes beauty.
It meant that even if the people in the photos were dead, they would still be remembered and their stories would never be forgotten.
With war photography a photo isn’t just a image it is a trace of reality, an experience that was captured ,or even a moment. War photography is like an art that gives importance to real life events and also makes them worth remembering after you take them. When you take a photo it 's about telling the reality of that photo, about showing what others may not see, to make them aware of it though the images come from the media. However, when the photo serves as informing the world we find ourselves facing the world to see if it 's true or if it 's not true. If people could be there to see it for themselves, the fear and grief for just one time in their life, they would understand that nothing is worth letting things get to the point to where people get hurt but everyone can’t be there, so that 's why photographers go there to show them, to reach out, or to grab them and make them realize what 's happening to the world or to even pay attention to what is going on, to create a powerful picture to overcome the effects of the mass media and to shake people out of their indifferences that they have against each other.
While some differences between Blade Runner and Frankenstein are evident the similarities are quite clear. In both works the common theme is the hubris of man and how we try to play god and change nature. One of the main differences between these works is the time in which they take place. Frankenstein is the story of Victor Frankenstein who in his youth and arrogance believes he can play god and reanimate the dead. To this end he builds a giant monstrous cadaver of different parts that he recovered from other bodies, he assembles this and uses lightning to try to reanimate it.
Throughout the film, we see old family photos and videos of William Ford Jr. and his family. These images provide a glimpse into the family’s life before the tragedy and show the love and joy that existed in their lives. The photos and videos are juxtaposed with images of the aftermath of the killing, such as crime scene photos and footage from the trial. This contrast highlights the senselessness of the killing and the devastating impact it had on the family. The use of personal imagery helps to make the story more relatable and personal, and also adds an extra layer of emotion and depth to the
Blade Runner is a movie that shows the true nature of the technology from a cyberpunk perseptive. It shows that inherently technology has no good or evil but rather that the byproduct of our advancements are unforeseen and possibly harmful consequences. It also shows that it 's really the user of technology that determines if the effects will be positive or negative. Blade Runner also appitimises the idea that at our current rate technological innovations we will not only overwhelmed by it but it could attempt to take control over humans if not looked after carefully. Blade Runner is unique in that it doesn’t just look at the benefits or side effects of technology but runs into the question at what point does a technological advancement stop being a machine and start being a living creature.
A photograph is more than just a simple image; it tells a story. A story beyond a particular moment in time, it holds secrets and memories. The eagerness to comprise a moment in the perfect shot seems to become an obsession for many. In Kim Edwards ' novel The Memory Keeper 's Daughter, Edwards uses photography as a motif which coincides with the novel 's idea of secrets. David Henry, the antagonist of the novel, becomes fascinated with photography after choosing to give away his daughter and compresses his guilt with photography.
Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner is known for its incredible use of very low key lighting, the dark appearance of the film not only exemplifies the futuristic L.A city but also ties the film in with a modernized film noir style. The low key lighting in combination with the neon lights and signs creates a correlation between the light and the dark, this represents the conflict throughout the film between humanity and the replicants. Investigating the lighting throughout the scene when Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, retires the replicant Pris, Played by Daryl Hannah; this scene incorporates a well placed combination of blue, white, pink, and green light to develop a dark but colorful environment. This mix between high key and low key lighting is vital to the visual development of the films central conflict and dangerous mood of the city. The scene opens with Deckard slowly moving through the doorway with his gun drawn as a light blue light rotates past in the background.
"The photographic image is the object itself, the object freed from the conditions of time and space that govern it. No matter how fuzzy, distorted, or discolored, no matter how lacking, in documentary value the image may be, it shares, by virtue of the very process of its be- coming, the being of the model of which it is the reproduction; it is the model." "Photography does not create eternity, as art does, it embalms time, rescuing it simply from its proper corruption. The aesthetic qualities of photography are to be sought in its power to lay bare the realities."
Just as Sontag emphasises in her essay, photography is useful tool that captures the memories, defenses against anxiety, and brings familiarity. In additional, personally I also believe that photos can empower the world by sharing
Who owns the eyes showed in the opening scene? After the introductory sequence that explains the overall scenario where the reality of Blade Runner takes place, the viewers are introduced to the 2019 Los Angeles. This introduction is made by an aerial shot of the city, which is dominated by large industrial buildings, burning towers and flying vehicles. This broad view of Los Angeles and its futuristic (and even post-apocalyptic) features is interspersed with a very opposite shot – an extreme close-up in someone’s eye reflecting the city.