Reading Response Calvin Lim

In the reading, it talks about how one’s sight affects what he/she believes or knows. As it states in the essay, “We only see what we look at.” People simply block out what they want to see or what they don’t want see. From that, the essay is stating that from an image they are able to either situate themselves in the present or the past. Famous painter Frans Hals did an amazing job in portraying people through his artwork. Not only did Frans Hals paint an image to capture that moment, he did it in a way where one can feel the emotions and he certainly convinces one “that we can know the people portrayed.” As the invention of the camera came along it changed the way people viewed the world. For instance, a painting was unique in the sense that it was painted of a certain object or place; the camera, had the ability to reproduce those same images which ruined the uniqueness. The problem of reproduced artwork was the sense that it was no longer original and since the reproduction was unoriginal, people did’t appreciate it. People look at an image and from that image think what they want; however, if the image has some kind of data that is known, the viewer than see’s the image in a different perspective. For example, in the reading there is a painting of a cornfield with birds flying our of it. We flip the page and the same image is shown except, under the image says: This is the last picture that Van Gogh painted before he killed himself. After seeing this, the image changes; knowing this data completely changes the mood and also changes how the viewer portrays the image. Today, the way we see art is based on what we expect and what we’ve experienced.