Ch. 4 Reading Response

Chapter four outlines the first instances of "signifiers" in photography that was in used in the criminal justice system - "photography as a means to train police in the classification and recognition of different facial features" p. 175. I believe this categorization of people using signifiers further propagated negative stereotypes and prejudice. For example, tattoos are thought and are still thought to be a signifier of criminality. These signifiers become too associated with one thing and thus are generalized into stereotypes.

I find it so amazing how conditioning works on the human psyche. In many of my psychology classes, we've talked about conditioning animals or even humans to associate one thing to another. This process is so powerful and easy, and it doesn't even matter that the conditioned item or feeling are unrelated or completely arbitrary. It just signifies how powerfully dangerous media can be in shaping our attitudes and feelings towards matters.

Do you think there should be a guide for ethics when dealing with people as photographic subjects?