Chapter Analysis
This chapter begins with interior monologue/meditation of one Walt Whitman, who tries to distinguish between beauty and ugliness, valuable concepts and useless ones; from the annals of cultural heritage. Then, he finds it unnecessary to try to establish the differences highlighted above unless they are necessary. He then resorts to accept the actual reality of the American experience.
There was a purported cultural revolution, which was to happen in 1855, archived in the book leaves of grass first edition. However, the much-anticipated revolution did not take place because it is virtually impossible for anyone single poet to change the culture of the society with a poem. Whitman discerned that art was being over-crowded by reality. However, this line of thought by Whitman was not given consideration by peers at that time. In the early days of photography, photographs were supposed to represent a person or object’s image. Thus, a beautiful photograph was that of a beautiful woman or sunset. Edward Steichen presented a different beauty of a good image, a milk bottle on a tenement fire escape. Since that time, professional photographers have in the recent times drifted from the classical definition of a beautiful photograph to other aesthetic material or objects.
Conclusion
Photography is, therefore, the art of conferring beauty and not an idealized representation of an image. It is important to note that all objects can be beautified, and there is no single way that can be used to suppress the ability of photography to exhibit the beauty. Over the years and in the recent past, what is modest and safe is no longer popular and obscene photographs are liked more. People go for high commercial value rather than sincerity. A practical example is Weegee whose photographs of accident victims were sincere, but are rendered upsettingly.
