Image that has lost it’s intended power:
We are so desensitized to images like this. We’ve seen images of atomic bombs sampled in so many other contexts (films, music videos, etc) that it no longer horrifies us in the way that it should.
Guilty Pleasure Images:
Natural disasters
We can’t help but consume images like this with a kind of disgusting pleasure. These sorts of images are so striking and awe inspiring that we can’t help but love to look at them. We hide our joy when we look at them because we know it’s wrong to enjoy them so much considering the lives that were lost in there making.
Unflattering photos of celebrities at the beach
Pick up basically any magazine and you’ll discover that as a culture we really want to know what celebrities look like at the beach, and that we really hope it’s bad. We take great pleasure in consuming images that show flaws in the people that are typically considered flawless. Is picking apart someone’s image in search of flaws a distasteful thing to do? Absolutely. But we can’t help ourselves. So we consume these images in the privacy of bathrooms or waiting rooms, and never speak of them again.
