It is easy to think of photographs as pictures of the "real" world, but this is only partly true. Photos do capture a real image, but the person who takes the picture decides what to show us (choice of subject), how it will look to us (framing lighting, and perspective), and possibly how we will react to it (with shock, sympathy, or anger). These aspects of any photograph, as with other visual materials, need to be "read" in order for the photograph to be properly understood. Such understanding is difficult because different people can read the same picture in different ways.