Photography...Effective? I Think So.

The two galleries I liked best from tonight's class assignment were:

- The Gallery on the Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

- The Gallery on the worldwide Days of the Dead

I liked the Fall of the Berlin Wall gallery for a number of reasons. Particularly, I appreciated how there were pictures from November 9, 1989, as well as photographs of the remains of the wall and the surrounding areas of Berlin from present-day. The fade effect was striking as well; there were quite a few photos from 1989 that prompted you to click, which then faded into photos of what that same area looks like today. It really made a statement and reiterated the significance of the 20-year anniversary of such a momentous historical event. I also appreciated how there weren’t only before and after photos of the Berlin Wall itself, but snapshots from 1989 of the actual people who helped take the wall down, and the shots of the crowd. It really added a human element to something read about in textbooks that I think makes this decades-old event shockingly real to those of us who were not alive when it occurred, and thus more relatable. The photos make tangible and relevant what the written word cannot. The paragraph describing what the photos are of and why they are important become secondary when juxtaposed against the reality of the situation that the gallery depicts.

The Days of the Dead gallery was fascinating not only because of the subject matter, especially so soon after Halloween, but because it showed such a wide array of cultures celebrating one of the more mysterious and intriguing times of the year. It illustrated beautifully the fact that people all over the world are connected through this tradition of celebrating and acknowledging death, and it did so in a wide variety of ways. From the eerie to the delightful, the gallery took us around the world and made a reality out of an abstract acknowledgement of worldwide cultural similarities. Yet again, the visual element of this feature article is what made it interesting. Photos like these, as I said before, add an intensely personal facet to what otherwise would have been words on a page. The photos draw the reader in; professionally and beautifully executed, the gallery shows instead of tells, and holds the reader there until the end.