ABSTRACT
Every day photographers produce countless images, most of which will never be seen by a mass audience. However, those that are seen, in newspapers, magazines and on high-street hoardings, play an important part in our lives. With their messages-both explicit and hidden-they help to shape our concepts of what is real and what is normal. They give us information about the sort of sex roles we are expected to play in society, contribute to our image of ourselves, to our expectations and to our fantasies. Television, cinema and all visual media echo the same ideology. Continually repeated visual images, in time, become part of our stored experience. Images help us to believe that people are innately aggressive, intelligent, loving or lowly —according to their sex or race, or to the idea being sold to us….
