Susan sontag's photography review

Susan Sontag's 1973 book, On Photography, is a true classic and should be read by all photographers. Not only is the book a great intellectual stimulant, but it is also a trove of practical information for photographers too. On Photography is a study of the subject endowed with wit and wisdom, intellect and intent - it is a brilliant and profound look at the very essence of photographyphotography . Every page of the book raises important questions that often challenge accepted knowledge and practice. On Photography is disruptive in the best way.

It is pointless to try and recapture Sontag's words here. The book cannot be done justice through second-hand description. Yet, at the same time, I am eager to bring some of Sontag's brilliance to you here in an attempt to encourage you to read the book for yourself. Your photography will improve, your mind will improve, and you will likely become a Sontag fan from page one.

The omnipresence of cameras persuasively suggests that time consists of interesting events, events worth photographing" 

"Just as the camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a sublimated murder - a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time"

All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt. 

Sontag insists photography is an aggressive act which makes reality atomic, manageable, denies interconnectedness and continuity, and confers on each moment the character of a mystery. Alienating us from direct experience, the photo provides a more intense second-hand experience, an illusion of knowledge.Sontag insists photography is an aggressive act which makes reality atomic, manageable, denies interconnectedness and continuity, and confers on each moment the character of a mystery. Alienating us from direct experience, the photo provides a more intense second-hand experience, an illusion of knowledge.

Sontag offers another theory in her final essay. She questions whether photographs and reality are one and the same. If they’re not, then photos must be intimately connected to reality because at some amount of reality is captured in a photo. This means that photography is an act of acquiring information, memories, emotions, and events—a way of dealing with the present moment by linking it to the past as seen through a photo.The book ends with a collection of quotes on photography. However, Sontag presents what may be the most definitive insight into the major themes of On Photography. She writes near the end of the book, “The final reason for needing to photograph everything is that it’s a truly capitalist art form.” Photography creates more supply and demand every time someone takes a picture. Is that enough to grant it equal status as other types of art.On Photography is a book with many ideas and theories. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1977, but it was also criticized for its arguments against war photography. Sontag later published Regarding the Pain of Others, where she refutes her earlier views on war photography.

According to Susan sontags the photography we don't have to worry about the clarity the way it is the edit will fix everything it's just dependa on the way we click the picture.

This analysis of photography was the funniest and most apt description I’ve run across. I know that this is something I’ve struggled with myself. When I started taking photographs, I brought my camera with me everywhere, and was trying to capture every moment of the trip.

After a while, I started wondering if the act of taking pictures was beginning to interfere with my enjoyment of actually being on the trip. I no longer take nearly as many pictures as I used to, and instead of bringing a camera bag full of equipment, I mostly stick to my cell phone camera. At times, I do miss the documentation that those photos provided of the trip though. There’s a trade-off somewhere in there.Sontag makes the argument that photography can be a way for many people to discover beauty, in a way very similar to what Plato is talking about. Sontag goes so far as to say that if we’re taking a picture of something ugly, it’s because we see something beautiful within what is normally perceived as ugly. In that way, photography is perhaps better than any other medium at helping us discover what is beautiful.great photograph has to be a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety.