Stanger in Me

Who I really am

After every picture someone takes has a meaning to it. It could be an adventure, story or an event. When I read “On Photography in Plato’s Cave “By Susan Sontag, she said "Photographs give people an imaginary possession f a past that is unreal, they also help people to take possession of space in which they are insecure. “That honestly caught my eye because that’s really true. Lots of people have different personality through their pictures. They just think they are in a different world. There are two types of a photo, there’s a selfie or a portrait. They can both look the same but totally have two different meanings. The definition of a portrait has a meaning and a story behind the picture. On the other hand a selfie does have a story behind it but not an adventure meaning towards it. A portrait can really show who you are in a way. It brings out the creatively out of you, could be used as a weapon in a way. As you see in the first picture you can see that I’m happy, ok am not smiling I rarely smile in my pictures, but trust me am very happy in that selfie I am a human being who has feelings. I am a very sensitive person who takes the little things to heart. Sometimes, actually not all the time. I really don’t know how to take a joke. Wish i should because not everything in life is serous. There some jokes I can laugh about but some I would get upset upon. I come from a very religious family. My parents grew up in the Middle East so they have a different mindset then Americans parents have. I’m fine with that because they went through a lot to make me happy, and live a wonderful life. My parents didn’t know any English when I was younger but they still managed to work and get some sort of income home. My first language that I learned was Arabic, I had to be in ELL classes to catch up on my english classes. As much as I hate english/ reading classes I learned a lot. First of all I am Muslim, some people may see that as a threat but we are the complete opposite of that. My culture is very beautiful in a way I love our parties, music and food. Everything in my culture is amazing in my eyes. Anyways you can see that my selfie is in color. Color symbolizes light joy and happiness. I’ve been definitely happy in my life. 2019 wasn’t the best year for me, been through a lot. I’m the type of person who loves taking pictures. I know lots of people who hate selfies. My dad for an example he hates taking pictures, every time we go out as a family, he sees me taking pictures he just gives me that look. I can never understand why hate taking pictures. But I can understand why people hate posting, because they like to move in silence in a way. I take lots of pictures for memories, so I can look back at the picture. Also in "On Photography in Plato’s Cave" by Susan Sontag she says, "A photograph that brings news of some unsuspected zone of misery cannot make a dent in public opinion unless there is an appropriate context of feeling and attitude. That ties in because you really cant tell who a person is through a picture. When people take selfies, it could be all-fake they can look innocent in their selfie but could be a monster in real life. Now days when people take selfies they look completely normal. When the whole school shooting occurred I looked at one of the guys pictures he looked normal like nothing was wrong with his posts or pictures that’s the type of crazy I mean. So you basically can't really judge a person based off their pictures because you don't really know who the person actually is deep down inside. When I’m bored I tend to look through my photo stream, it makes me relive the moment. I like to go out a lot and mostly travel well to New York often. I go there at least 3 times a year. It’s like my second home. All my family lives out there. I just recently came back two weeks ago. I tend to take lots of pictures with my family because I am really not with them that much but I can always look back at the pictures.

So who am I really? I feel like I’m an understanding person who really overthinks everything. I have too many questions, I like to be sure on what am doing or where am going. Also how it would work out. Sometimes I feel like am over the top when I over think. I feel that way because lots of stuff really doesn’t work out for me. Usually can say I have bad luck.

A self-portrait could be really meaning full. Usually when the person isn’t looking at the camera could have a story to tell. My self -portrait is me looking away from the camera at Oak Brook mall. This picture was edited in black in white because of how I felt about it. I edited the picture because I feel that people always take body picture to shoe off their body and I feel like by me editing it is shows how you cant see much of my body. When I was looking at the right I was looking at how everyone was shopping and having a good time. That made me happy because everyone should have that opportunity to buy something that they like. Unfortunately not everyone can afford what he or she wants to buy. Hopefully one day everyone can. I really dont take that much self portraits, moslty take selfies. Anyways my self-portrait could also mean how stressed I was at the time from all the negativity that’s happened the passed year. I’ve always been the shy type of girl in classrooms and everywhere I go to be honest. I use to miss classes because I was too nervous to present. I just felt like I was going to be judged on everything, how I look, what am wearing everything. I used to be so insecure and now I could care less what people have to say. I ask questions in classrooms, I do much more now then what I couldn’t do. I’m very happy on who I became. In the short story “On Photography in Plato’s Cave” by Susan Sontag she says, “Photographs cannot create a moral position, but they can reinforce one and can help build a nascent one.” I one hundred percent agree with that I feel like social media helped me boost my self-esteem. I say that because when I take pictures I feel better I feel like am in a different world that no one can see. No one can judge me, well they can but I wouldn’t care. The purpose of the picture wasn’t to show off my body it was to show the emotions I was going through.

Photographs could be very helpful. Lots of people don’t remember what they looked like when they were younger I know I don’t, but I have pictures to look back at. Also our loved ones who passed away and no longer with us we can also look back at those pictures. Santog covered that topic in her story. Selfies and self-portraits both have a full story behind the picture. The perspective of a selfie is to show your fellow followers and up close picture of themselves. Self portrait is really not taken as much as a selfie but its reality really show your followers who you truly are.

Work Cited

Sontag, Susan. “In Plato’s Cave.” On Photography, Dell Publishing, 1977, pp. 3-24. Composition Flipped, writing101.net/flip/wp-content/resources/documents/sontag-in-platos-cave.pdf.