This document provides a summary of Edward Said's discussion of different conceptions of power and their relationship to visual representations. It discusses two basic pictures of power that Foucault offers - power exerted over things, and power certain persons exercise over others. These models underlie two traditions of thinking about the power of pictures: illusionism and realism. Illusionism involves the power of pictures to deceive or amaze beholders, while realism involves the power of pictures to show truth and act as a transparent window onto reality. The document examines these conceptions and their intersections with theories of visual culture, spectacle, and surveillance.