“Photography contributes to the construction of history; it is not a passive bystander.”

In their essay “Seeing Beyond Belief: Cultural Studies as an Approach to Analysing the Visual,” Martin Lister and Liz Wells use the discipline of Cultural Studies as a framework within which the social, political, and historical impact of photography is examined. Photographs, they say, are not mere artifacts or even simple reflections of a particular culture. Instead, the production, consumption, and circulation of photographs makes them active participants in the development of the culture within which they exist.

How do photographs “contribute[s] to the construction of history"? Above is a photograph of the explosion of the shuttle Challenger in January of 1986. What elements of the photograph impart meaning? What is the impact of this photograph on American history?