—Newsweek "Not many photographs are worth a thousand of (Susan Sontag's) words." "Essentially the camera makes everyone a tourist in other people's reality, and eventually in one's own." Susan Sontag’s “ On photography” is a philosophical reasoning about the “still images” that change our world. Each essay - of which there are five - was originally circulated periodically in the New York Review of Books between 1973-1977. Reviewing Susan Sontag's book is analogous to printing in the darkroom. Susan Sontag explains photography in comparison with Platos Cave where reality is limited to only what is inside the cave where shadows of the outside world reflect only pieces of … For example, in her discussion of The Family of Man exhibition she quotes almost word-for-word Roland Barthes' critique in his book Mythologies, without acknowledgement; "By purporting to show that individuals are born, work, laugh, and die everywhere in the same way, "The Family of Man" denies the determining weight of history - of genuine and historically embedded differences, injustices, and conflicts." Earlier versions of these essays appeared in The New York Review of Books: "Focus on Photography. In 2003, Sontag published a partial refutation of the opinions she espoused in On Photography in her book Regarding the Pain of Others. 13 likes. I applaud the fact that they 'take a view', rather than sitting on the sidelines. Find summaries for every chapter, including a On Photography Chapter Summary Chart to help you understand the book. In the book, Sontag expresses her views on the history and present-day role of photography in capitalist societies as of the 1970s. In "The Heroism of Vision," Sontag takes further interest in beauty. I find her work lacking in academic rigour, and very prone to deeply personal judgment - in fact, she and Roland Barthes have much in common on these two counts. On Photography by Susan Sontag is a treatise on photography; what meaning it holds, both in Western civilisation, as well as other cultures and how such meaning has changed through the relatively short history of the medium. Photo graphy changes are condi ons of impr isonment and create a kind o f "ethics. Susan Sontag is using Plato’s allegory of the cave to explain the impact photography has had on society. Among these, she contrasts Diane Arbus's work with that of Depression-era documentary photography commissioned by the Farm Security Administration. The practice of photography gives us assurance by its accurate relation to reality than any other devices. In this context, she discusses in some depth the relationship of photography to politics. It includes no bibliography, and few notes. On Photography Summary. In the essay “On Photography” written in the 1970’s, author Susan Sontag states that “photographs really are experience captured” and the camera helps us put ourselves into the relation of the photographs. Susan Sontag was a renowned Jewish-American writer, who was also a prolific filmmaker, teacher and political activist. Susan Sontag's 1977 monograph On Photography is composed of six named chapters, or essays, which form a weakly related progression from conceptualization through history and implementation, to the then-current understanding of photography as a process and an art … Sontag's work is literary and polemical rather than academic. Born in 1933, Sontag wrote plays, essays, and fiction until her death in 2004. Her book is a collection of six essays that explore photography in the deepest of manners. Haar vaders zaken noopten haar ouders tot veelvuldige afwezigheid, en zij groeide op bij haar grootouders in Tucson ().Haar vader stierf op zakenreis in China in 1939 aan tuberculose. She claims that people erroneously think of photography as representing reality and connecting them with it more directly than other art forms do. [4]. Of course, this modern day was the 1970's, but many of the key elements described in the collection of essays still remain relevant. She started off her career by writing essays for some renowned newspapers and soon published the most notable essay of her career titled “Notes on Camp” which brought her many accolades. Susan Sontag was born in New York City on January 16, 1933. Susan Sontag's On Photography is a text that every photography theory student grapples with at one point or another. —Robert Hughes, Time Magazine Sontag discusses many examples of modern photography. of vision" and the feeling t hat we can contain the whole world in our heads. Humankind lingers unregenerately in Plato's Cave, still ... photography came along to memorialize, to restate syrnlY)li- cally, the imperiled continuity and vanishing extendedness of family life. When you photograph something, it becomes a part of certain knowledge system, adapted to schemas of classification and storage starting from family photographs up to police, political and scientific usage. Quite frankly, I am not a fan of Susan Sontag. 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