Custom Essay- History of Photography

Introduction

Sontag begins with the statement that men make war, but immediately shifts to how the collective “we” looks at other people's pain. She concludes that grisly photographs confirm people's previously held opinions. For instance, in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, what matters is who kills whom, and that identity determines one's response to killings. (Susan Sontag Pp. 4)

Sontag deduces "that painful photographs supply no evidence, none at all, for renouncing war-except to those for whom the notions of valor and of sacrifice have been emptied of meaning and credibility." (Susan Sontag Pp. 5)The result is that photographs of atrocities can produce opposing responses ranging from a call to peace, a cry for revenge, or the absentminded perception that photography reports on endless terrible happenings.

Applause and criticism

According to Sontag, no work of art, especially literature, can escape the surgical eye of the modern critic, therefore, nothing would stop her own work from coming under this blade of criticism, so it might have been Sontag's preparation for this criticism in the inclusion of her final statement. Sontag's writings about distressing images remind us that we are suspended in a tragic stage, but also encourage the contemplation of that gray area between the affirmation and negation of life. Sontag states that remembering is an ethical act, yet the only way to make peace is to let go (forget). She speculates that it is not the quantity of catastrophic images that is problematic, but that our capacity to think about the suffering of others has not progressed so we turn away from images of pin because they make us feel powerless. Photography is the world's number one hobby. So when Susan Sontag's On Photography hit the bestseller list recently, it caused an uproar among photo professionals and hobbyists alike. (Susan Sontag Pp. 5)

It turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed." In an attempt to further explore the values of photography today, Media&Values asked two professional photographers to read the book and share their responses. Sontag does not think that images we continually see inevitably lose their power to shock. She perceives that certain images, such as representations of the crucifixion, never become banal to believers and serve as an emotional release for grief that allows us to cry over pathos and feel better for having acknowledged it. Although Sontag has faith in the power of photographs to haunt, like the Nazi concentration camp photographs that she saw as a child, she states that photographs do not provide us much assistance in comprehending a situation. Sontag sees this struggle for meaning as the domain of writers like her to create narratives that help us understand what is taking place. Sontag firmly believes that photographs of death camps or lynching can awaken us to a situation and may produce strong emotional reactions, and give ruse to numerous questions and calls to action, but their meaning is free-bloating and can only be anchored down by words. She also cautions against solely relying on ...