Social Commentary on Photographic Images

Abstract

Social commentary is an alternative method to convey messages to the public with the hope to change their perceptions and attitudes toward certain social issues of ethnical, political, moral and even religious. Various methods are used either in the form electronic medium or printed medium. One of the methods is photographic images which are used by photography artists to convey their messages in social commentary. In the advanced countries, social commentaries images have long been accepted by the public hence become one of the powerful medium of communications in triggering toward society to change. In some developing countries including Malaysia however, the acceptance among public on the usage of photographic images in social commentary is argued still not fully accepted and understood which posted by photography artists. It is therefore, the photography artworks which are produced by these artists are become only as an ordinary exhibited materials that do not carry any message or impact to the public. As a consequence, there is communication gap between the artists and the public in the form of delivering, acceptance and understanding some of the issues which need be addressed and highlighted. This paper therefore, focuses to investigate the social commentary photography artists and to what extend their messages in the artworks are being understood by the public. This study involves by interviewing some Malaysian photography artists to probe details purposes and intention of why they produce their photographic works to be delivered to public. The observation and questionnaire are also employed. Finally, it is hoped that this study would benefit various levels of people such as artists, public, personnel in government and public sectors to bring a great impact and awareness that photographic images is become one of the powerful medium in conveying and delivering various messages to public.