Could Ramses have created the image stones for today?

      Ramses II a man of his time, can also be looked at as a Political portrait hand guide writer. Ramses took a new and radical approach in his time to change how important figures should be viewed. Ramses commissioned many images, just like this one to portray his power and associate to that of a higher power. These portraits commissioned by Ramses show him in a strong rigid pose, giving him a great sense of power. His complexion will never change, his subjects will always see him as a face of perfection, that of which was associated with deities, they can now relate to him as being of higher power. The wardrobe that he portrays in his many commissioned images is also a  symbol that Ramses subjects would come to recognize and look for in future Pharaohs portraits.The Pharaohs headdress, the elongated goatee and the wrap over fabric that covered him from his waist to his knees, these articles of clothing soon became the face of other Pharaohs to come. The rigid look that Ramses gives to his subjects to look upon will eventually become a way throughout governing powers to come to show that they are powerful and on a level close to that of the deities. Not only is the portrait showing the power of which Ramses held but the background of the image, or back then the placement of the portrait in front of a temple was very significant. Ramses places his portraits in front of temples that are dedicated to deities in order to associate himself with such power and to make a statement to his people that he himself is a pawn in which the gods speak through.

        If we skip ahead to the now we see that even Obama still uses this ancient method of having official portraits made of himself. Obama still presents the same rigid look that Ramses presented in his commissioned portrait, although Obama presents us with more of a smile than that of what was used, it is still obvious to us that he is a man of high power within a society. Obama is dressed in what we all recognize as typical Political attire, a nice crisp, clean suit. The suit is not the only indicator given to us that Obama is an authority figure, the background of which he has chosen to take this photo also shows us well known symbols of our government and freedom. The pose in which Obama has chosen in this photograph gives a very strong and bold statement. Just by looking at this image of Obama you get a sense that he is a good man trying to do good for his country, that he is someone that you would want to be the president of your country. This photograph is very clear about it's argument that it is trying to make about Obama seem like a good leader.

       Of course we have external knowledge from beyond this photograph that we could imply here in this situation to argue the very point of him being a good leader. Just because we have a wealth of knowledge about Obama at our disposal we tend to read our political views into this photograph as well, what happens when we come to think about this photograph in a light of which we pretend to have no prior knowledge of Obama and his actions? How does this change what we think of Obama? Even in trying to look at this photograph for what is it, an official photograph of Obama, we still have our own bias opinions, no image can read exactly the same for two different people. The power of images can be clearly viewed, but what they imply to one person can be endless. Next time you view an image that you know many people have viewed, stop and think about what other possible interpretations there can be, you might just be surprised.