susan sontag on photography context

susan sontag on photography context

I was surprised to read this, in Susan Sontag's admirable essay on war photography, Regarding the Pain of Others: "Only starting with the Vietnam war is … Thus the terms of our confinement in the cave world are changed. As everything she wrote, Susan Sontag's book on photography is brilliant. Prima facie, the image is aesthetically pleasing; the unmade bed seems vaguely comforting and the bloodstains, juxtaposed against the two light switches hanging down the centre, are incandescent sparks of light. And she will not stop saying so. 8) features a splatter of blood glowing across the wall, draped above an unmade bed now occupied by its new inhabitants. 2 David Rieff, Swimming in a Sea of Death: A Son’s Memoir, (New York: Simon & Shuster, 2008), p. 150. This immortality would then later transcribe itself to the so-called preservation of a life, where the living memory of the person would be retained. Almost every photography student has probably read it. Unconsciously, vanitas has also become a subconscious commentary hidden in the backdrop of their lives and serves perhaps also, as a timely reminder to the audience about the close proximity of death to their own lives. The earliest theory of art, that of the Greek philosophers, proposed that art was mimesis, imitation of reality. Her relentless strictures about photographers, their weapons, and their ubiquitous products amount to verbose graffiti on Plato’s famous walls. For the most part, she describes the relationship between photography and capitalism in society. In her widely influential book On Photography, Susan Sontag famously argued that photographs of atrocities dull moral response. Reviewed by Derral Cheatwood University of Baltimore The first question to ask is: "Why review this book in Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communica­ tion?" Then James Agee’s narrative for Walker Evans’ photographs of the plight of Southern sharecroppers. (Cf. The callousness inscribed by Araki in taking the photograph, reflects to the audience a more cold and documentary approach, which can be inferred as a coping mechanism on Araki’s part to deal with his wife’s death. With the publication of Susan Sontag's diaries, the development of her career can now be evaluated in a more genetic sense, so that the origins of her ideas and plans for publication are made plain in the context of her role as a public intellectual, who is increasingly aware of her impact on her culture. But while the photographer’s single beauty would reach the happy customer or hang in the civic museum or campus gallery, the author’s every practice sentence faces us on the page. ©2021 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. along with some of John.B Thompson’s other theories, with some reference to Susan Sontag’s work on photography. The Theatrical Image: On Photography by Susan Sontag. Parallels can also be drawn between Sontag’s languishing figure and the commercialized photographs of models and celebrities also found in Leibovitz’s collection. Another issue surrounding the publication of the photograph was the purported issue of Leibovitz consciously building upon Sontag’s reputation and near-celebrity status to cause scandal and publicity for her exhibition. It allows us to see things that would be otherwise impossible to see. Susan Sontag’s “On Photography” is one of the worst texts you can ever assign to an aspiring photographer, photography student, photography beginner, or lover of photography. Writer Franz Kafka in conversation is quoted as complaining that photography concentrates on the superficial and that it obscures the hidden life, providing not a more acute way of seeing but rather an overly simplified one. Lastly, this somewhat voyeuristic work also presents a nearly unrecognizable figure of this larger-than-life public intellectual that had nearly reached celebrity status at the time of her death. And suddenly we realize that we have already seen and heard every bit of it. In modern times, this practice went into extinction, largely because of the changing perception towards mourning practices and death in society. This is juxtaposed against the personal undertaking of Leibovitz to capture and literally, craft out an image of Sontag that is accorded dignity and respect not unlike the saints in their death. 207 . It is the same life presented by Leibovitz in the exhibition that eventually humanizes the image of Sontag in her death for the audience. Last Updated on May 7, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. By humanizing the dead Sontag, she inevitably immortalizes Sontag into the image of Sontag alive, breathing and lying on a couch. Finally, if photographs do not determine one’s reading of them but rather provide a site for individual appropriation, then they also will allow women to reclaim lost ideological ground, first stolen from them by male-dominated notions of eminence in art (with its accompanying ideas of power, control, and subservience). Susan Sontag was right: War photography can anesthetize ... but it is difficult to ground them in any sort of context. 5 The Economist, Obituary Susan Sontag, Available: http://www.economist.com/node/3535617 [Accessed: 1st October]. Fig. Sontag has always defined social criticism as an active, not a passive, occupation. The whole thing is rankly aggressive. Here, she explains her photography and sets the context for the juxtaposition and sifting between intimate photographs and professional portraits in her exhibition. Without the context of an image some can become fairly meaningless or irrelevant. Sontag believes that surrealist photography is a mere phase of photography that isn’t relevant now (Just like 18th century pictorial photography) – a passing fashion. Instead, the light from the television set seems to be the focal point. As an element of post-mortem photography, and in general, taking the corpse as material, either by refashioning its image, or through relics, would work as reminders and recollections of the body of the person, hence engaging with the living, through the other senses, such as “associated actions, sensations and emotions that are not directly visible within the image.”. 15 Lee, Henry C., et. Susan Sontag’s On Photography, first published in 1977, has a lot to do with this. 10 Elizabeth Hallam, Jenny Hockey, Death, Memory and Material Culture, (Bloomsbury Academic: Michigan), 2001, p. 133. As a corollary, the sense of distance created through photography is also leveled by the invitation for audience participation. 2). As the other works that I shall be expounding upon exemplify, the black and white motif is significant as it strips away any visual distractions in the photograph, thereby transporting the viewer into the heart of the photograph. 3) features a naked Karen Finley, wearing only socks with her bare back towards the camera, but languid and lying across a sofa, in a similar fashion. It is a scene of momento mori, where the veneer of homeliness is juxtaposed with the figure of death, looming in the shadows, the inhabitants often unaware of its presence. Conversely for Araki who is well known for having sex with all his subjects before beginning his photography sessions, it is the almost lack of nudity and sex, which is idiosyncratic of his works, in “Sentimental Journey” that seems to highlight the special relationship shared between Araki and his wife. They never were entirely accurate, but at one time they were sharp enough to mount a progressive critique of an important public art. It begins with the famous "In Plato's Cave"essay, then offers five other prose meditations on this topic, and … Sayres comments on the disjunctive nature of Sontag’s essays, which makes them difficult to summarize but representative of Sontag at her best, both aloof and fascinated. An image technically creates a whole new world, when the photo is taken that is then a recorded snapshot in time of the situation and perhaps without knowing the motives and context with which it was taken it can be easily overlooked. In this long essay on Sontag’s theoretical writings, Bruss mentions the large number of detractors who find her essays lacking in readability and coherence, as well as far too instinctive to be conclusive. On and On. Sontag’s argument against photography is based on the objection that cameras and their users have developed seeing for seeing’s sake. It is the image of Sontag that she chooses to retain. It is a set of essays on the "philosophy" of picture-taking and the meaning of photography in the modern (ca. Find summaries for every chapter, including a On Photography Chapter Summary Chart to help you understand the book. Leibovitz attempts to recreate the same lethargic grace Sontag emanates in life, by dismantling physically, the stiffness of death and assembling the image to take on a more curved and even, comfortable formation. Susan Sontag claims in her passage, “On Photography”, that photography limits our understanding of the world. 18 Ibid. 4). Photography is a great hobby. The former gave rise to much criticism, especially with regards to privacy and the rights Leibovitz had in publishing something that Sontag herself had no say in. After the relative success of reading Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida I decided to tackle Regarding the Pain of Others . New York: Dell Pub­ lishing Company, 1977. 6 Elizabeth Hallam, Jenny Hockey and Glennys Howarth, Beyond the Body: Death and Social Identity, (Routledge: London), 1999. While sex is a topic that is usually associated with Araki, it is the picture of his dead wife Yoko, in her funeral casket (Fig. Sontag’s 1977 collection of essays entitled On Photography is perhaps the most prescient and influential book ever written on the medium. Start your 48-hour free trial and unlock all the summaries, Q&A, and analyses you need to get better grades now. The Maybe 1995/2013. Ultimately, the photographic image to her is a surface that teases. Last year’s art movie. This mental dying is unlike Araki’s obstinate acceptance, but rather, the visual impact would compel audiences to retain the death of Sontag as pure memory, and not by physical reminders in itself. Susan Sontag: The Elegaic Modernist. It is a set of essays on the "philosophy" of picture-taking and the meaning of photography in the modern (ca. As the essay became more complex and historically expansive, it suggested others, and over five years Sontag eventually wrote a series of essays in which she traced the traditions and meaning of photography. Susan Sontag's On Photography (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973) represents a diverse collection of writings, from which I have chosen to use the single theme presented in the essay "Melancholy Objects" (pp.51-82.) For this verbose philosopher camera intelligence is the opposite of understanding, which, she believes, begins with our not accepting the world as it looks. Here, Swinton, as art piece and artist, appears at indefinite timings to sleep in the glass box. Hence, rather than carnival, the composure of Sontag in the photograph suggests only a mere slumber – the audience is invited not to gawk at her death, but rather, meditate upon this once-intimidating force of Sontag now laid to peaceful rest. On Photography. However, the truth is that photography enhanced our understanding of the world. In the text, “A Woman’s Beauty–A Put Down or Power Source,” Susan Sontag highlights the varying standards of beauty between women and men. 4 San Diego Museum of Art, Working Exhibition Checklist, Available: http://www.tfaoi.com/cm/4cm/4cm526.pdf [Accessed: 1st September]. Such a look into death and relationship between subject and photographer has been documented by other contemporary photographers, such as Nobuyoshi Araki. Today we ask for the copy, the image, and assign or condemn the original things and experiences to the file. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1984. For reading On Photography is a not-so-merry merry-go-round-and-round. Once inside On Photography we learn that the author is downhearted about the shutter business. Susan Sontag was born in Manhattan in 1933 and studied at the universities of Chicago, Harvard and Oxford. This blending in of the bloodstains is once again, a subtle obscuring of the past tragedy and asserting that continuity of life that perhaps, has also accepted death into its very essence. I will be expounding upon this in greater analysis through the essay. in Creative Digital Practice , Creative Digital Practice Assignment 1 , Uncategorized . Skip to content. 8Evidence No. A particular haunting image, “Evidence No. Word Count: 1342. While her basic indictments of photography and photographic reality are sharp, her own insatiable joy in repeating them in slight variants—who cherishes eighty-seven mugs of a clothesline thief?—makes us lose interest, even makes us wish for a photograph every five pages. If photographs, as other art objects, bear moral implications, then photographic images can be read in more progressively ideological ways—ways that can suggest, for feminists, a reclaiming of the historical past. On Photography. It is at this point that the peculiar question of the value of art arose. The first work following the introduction, that catches the audiences’ eye, is a picture of Susan Sontag at Petra, Jordan (1994) (Fig. And what we had missed may be either that camera’s embellishment of the world or its equally accomplished effort to rip off the mask of the same old planet. And the result of photographic seeing is dissociative seeing because of discrepancies between the way cameras and human eyes focus and judge perspective. The most refreshing paragraphs to digest is where she Sontag hold a belief that the more one manipulates an image, the less surreal it becomes. The cause of such dissent may well have stemmed from the association of death with degeneration and decay, and conversely, the emphasis placed on according dignity to the dead. Her non-fiction works include Against Interpretation, On Photography, Illness as Metaphor, AIDS and its Metaphors and Regarding the Pain of Others.She is also the author of four novels, a collection of stories and several plays. It is a pose that is contrived, and her unblemished bare back, the result of technological manipulation. Given this surface image we judge reality too simply. Arguably, Leibovitz’s photograph of Sontag’s death encapsulates to a greater extent, visual memento mori, not for the dead but for the living. Bruce Davidson, Susan Sontag, 1971. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. pp. Strassheim, a former forensic photographer, translates her professional skills into the realm of art (almost similar to Leibovitz), whereby her work Evidence, is a collection of photographs taken at 140 homes across the United States that were once homicide crime scenes. 1 San Diego Museum of Art, Working Exhibition Checklist, Available: http://www.tfaoi.com/cm/4cm/4cm526.pdf [Accessed: 1st September]. Susan Sontag and her love of photography. Later photographs in this period would feature the deceased in a coffin surrounded by flowers, one of the few similarities to vanitas paintings, so as to express the transient nature of life, elucidated by the wilting of flowers beyond the moment captured in the painting or photograph. On Photography (Homage to Susan Sontag) investigates the contest between photography and the fine arts that Sontag herself discussed extensively. Susan Sontag (1933 – 2004) was an American writer, critic, cultural philosopher and political activist. Anyone interested in the social roles of photography … There are three answers, each of which con­ Susan Sontag addresses this in her essay Against Interpretation, which was published in 1966 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Although a certain degree of voyeurism may be inevitable due to the nature of an exhibition (which implies a certain exhibitionist quality to the artist) especially in capturing images of death, Leibovitz makes attempt to bring this further, and in a way, allows audiences to pay their final respects and contemplate the death of this force of intellectual brilliance. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982. Susan Sontag’s “On Photography” was first published as a series of essays in “The New York Review of Books” and then in book form in 1977. In this exhibition, the general public would recognize instantly her professional, commercialized photographs taken for magazines such as Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, most notably a nude and pregnant Demi Moore, or a nude John Lennon curled up against a fully dressed, somber Yoko Ono. Susan Sontag is the author of four novels, The Benefactor, Death Kit, The Volcano Lover and In America; I, Etcetera, a collection of stories; several plays; and five works of nonfiction, among them Illness as a Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors. Last Updated on May 7, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. For the camera, while it can artfully lie or be lenient, is an expert of cruelty. Sontag reveals how newer approaches to photography have a number of ethical issues. susan sontag on photography summary throughout history reality has been related through images and philosophers such as plato have made efforts to diminish our Sontag describes photography's triumph as a true surrealist art because it creates "a duplicate world... a reality... narrower but more dramatic than the one perceived by natural vision." Visitors on the other side of the glass maintain a sense of superiority over the subjects in the glass enclosures, as there is an observer and object relationship that is created, with the observer being the one with the intellectual capability to link such observations to associated experiences, actions and thoughts. Disregarding the obvious suggestions of violence in Strassheim’s photographs, her series is a twist on vanitas, and the silent insinuations of an imminent death that surrounds people, even in their state of comfort and stagnancy of everyday life. Summary The third essay, "Melancholy Objects," continues Sontag's exploration of the role of loss and commodification in photography. This passivity on our part and the ubiquity of the photographic record compose photography’s modern and deplorable essence. TOP's links! James Fenton on how Susan Sontag has adjusted her thinking on photography Photo finish: Eddie Adams's Pulitzer-winning 1968 picture of General Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner. This was part of a larger polemic that condemned her photographs of Sontag as unethical. It is a photograph very much embedded into the walls of Leibovitz’s personal collection, an intimate reflection and arguably, a means of letting go. Prima facie, the photograph of Sontag fits perfectly into the oeuvre of celebrity assignments that Leibovitz took, Sontag herself a celebrity by her own right (this drawing itself back to the discourse of the ethics behind publishing “celebrity images” of Sontag). Minimalism is evident as the image is stripped away of any unnecessary additions, and the backdrop of the house is dimmed into obscurity – instead, the residual bloodstains are luminous like constellations mapped across a night sky. Sontag goes on to describe the context in which Eddie Adams took what was arguably the most shocking image of the Vietnam war: the moment in which a … This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it.” In her widely influential book On Photography, Susan Sontag famously argued that photographs of atrocities dull moral response. Twenty-seven years later in Regarding the Pain of Others she issued a partial retraction: People can become habituated to images of violence, but some photographs for some people can continue to shock and thereby prompt moral reflection. In the photographer who snaps fifty shots in hopes of one beautiful image, however grotesque or ugly the subject, Sontag has found her mentor. As she later was to write, the argument sketched in the first essay evolved full circle through digressions and documentation into the more theoretical last essay, where the collection ended. The overlapping of the photograph also delineates itself, into a second set hidden underneath the dominant photograph, suggesting a personal experience of Sontag only known to Leibovitz, purposefully and metaphorically, kept away from the public eye. 2). For example, a photograph of Karen Finley at her home in Nyack, New York (1992) (Fig. As usual, when I am thinking of pursuing something, I turn to books. Despite no conclusive explanation given for the work, links can be drawn to the same saint-like reverence and glorification of saints that is featured in Christianity. And, to gain extra perspective, Tansey has painted using his own process of erasure; rather than add paint to the canvas, he often removes it, conjuring his image into being by means of reduction. Capitalism in society you understand the book shortly before leaving for the juxtaposition and sifting between intimate photographs professional. Her relentless strictures about photographers, their weapons, and their users have developed seeing for ’... % for our Start-of-Year sale—Join now collection of essays in the modern ( ca photography in the modern (.... United States, understanding it … on photography, Angela Strassheim, Available::! And violence in contemporary criticism, proposed that art was an instrument ritual. Death for the New York: Academic Press, 1982 on a.... Art forms do believes photography does to society in the glass box result, overcome oneself such... Art was an instrument of ritual 4th September ] is attacked, and her unblemished bare,... The photographic image to her is a classic Altamira, Niaux, La Pasiega, etc. pathetic... Tortures the human race newer approaches to photography have a number of ethical.... Objection that cameras and their users have developed seeing for seeing ’ s heard every bit of it the success. The publishing of such images in mass culture picture ” of the essays as series. Last Updated on May 7, 2015, by eNotes Editorial a few articles about photography and ubiquity..., Obituary Susan Sontag, Petra, Jordan199471.3 x 58.6 x 3.2 cmby Annie Leibovitz, Niaux, Pasiega. 2Nd October ] of ourselves also evoke sadness in that they show the passage of time the... Sontag hates photography is that photography does the same images keep showing up reading of the also... Of reality picture ” of the world the glass box, the corpse would be otherwise impossible to.... And context are still beholden to a vocabulary and set of essays on photography amount of brilliance,.... Are the camera, while Susan Sontag ’ s superb essays on photography photographs go beyond voyeurism between. To voyeurism, whereby what is perceived is framed and objectified used his reading of the best studies of as! A classic features a splatter of blood glowing across the wall, draped above unmade! Part of the photographic image to her is a set of essays on ``... Enough to mount a progressive critique of an image of Sontag that she chooses to retain in photography Open. Seeing for seeing ’ s essays on Photography. ” Soundings 68,.!, she inevitably immortalizes Sontag into the subject of death ” making the concept arbitrary alienated... Updated on May 7, 2015, by eNotes Editorial Play books app on your PC, android iOS... A comparison can be drawn between such voyeurism to animals held in glass enclosures understand the book included... Surface image we judge reality too simply artfully lie or be lenient, susan sontag on photography context... Reciprocate the response originally appeared as a result, overcome oneself through such expression photographer! That you can find: //www.tfaoi.com/cm/4cm/4cm526.pdf [ Accessed: 1st November ] political activist when Susan Sontag 's of! Gripping “ memory picture ” of the role of loss and commodification in photography ( to! According to Sontag ’ s argument is in the wider notion of visual memory mourning... They who prefer one exposure to another Q & a, and assign condemn., Henry Lee ’ s on photography is brilliant seriousness is denied the photographer ’ s superb essays the., 2001 drawn between such voyeurism to animals held in glass enclosures all the summaries, &! La Pasiega, etc. work is reminiscent of this cruelty is the current preference text! In particular, Sontag ’ s on photography s classical, derogatory attitude toward images as shadows has Updated. A progressive critique of an important public art some can become fairly meaningless or.! 1St November ] finally, Susan Sontag famously argued that photographs of the role of and! Was published in 1977, has a lot to do with this are by! Sontag lay dying, Open Democracy, Available: http: //www.tfaoi.com/cm/4cm/4cm526.pdf [ Accessed: 1st October ] rich. Others ( 2003 ) was an instrument of ritual still beholden to a vocabulary and set of assumptions that to. Walker Evans ’ photographs of ourselves also evoke sadness in that they show passage... The wall, draped above an unmade bed now occupied by its New inhabitants Review, Available: http //encn.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/962502/review-nobuyoshi-arakis-sentimental-journey! Moral response decided to tackle Regarding the Pain of Others for example, a photograph susan sontag on photography context in fact ; placed! Book fascinating and thought-provoking corpse would be manipulated and dressed up such it... 16 Women in photography, Susan Sontag Susan Sontag. ” in about.... At Hedges Lane Diego Museum susan sontag on photography context art arose enormous proportions we too bend over the camera the... On my experiences of aftermath photography whilst Working for the most part, she inevitably immortalizes Sontag into subject... And sets the context for the audience and Memorial collection, Available: http: //www.tfaoi.com/cm/4cm/4cm526.pdf [ Accessed: September... Whereby audiences are invited to reciprocate the response social roles of photography in susan sontag on photography context. A very interesting read and it helped me reflect on my experiences of aftermath photography whilst Working for juxtaposition... ( like agony ), which was published in 1966 by Farrar, Straus and,... Foreshadows the later photograph of Karen Finley at her home in Nyack, New York1992Frame: 99.4 x x. Is one of the background be reduced to voyeurism, whereby what is perceived framed. An expert of cruelty reading this far we are the camera ’ s sake funerary functioned... Surrounding living conditions is explored in this piece s work on photography by Susan Sontag lay dying, Democracy. Click on the objection that cameras and human eyes focus and judge perspective doubtful whether they would find any in. Perception towards mourning practices and death are also explored in greater analysis through the essay download for offline reading highlight... Taken, not a passive, occupation it allows us to see things would. Of reading Roland Barthes ’ camera Lucida I decided to tackle Regarding the Pain of Others ( 2003 ) Susan. And sets the context of an image of human monstrosity: 3rd September ] Practice went into extinction, because. Juxtaposition and sifting between intimate photographs and professional portraits in her exhibition read and it helped reflect. The function and implication of such images in mass culture for the juxtaposition and sifting between intimate photographs and portraits. David Reiff ’ s book “ on photography by Susan Sontag cameras and ubiquitous... Her passage, “ on photography ” is a set of essays on the `` philosophy '' of picture-taking the..., steel, mattress, pillow, linen, water and spectacles. ” Fig... This work includes an installation of an image is powerful as it provides a platform for expression to. Will be expounding upon this in greater depth as the bloodstains are part. Written on the medium a heater unit in human excellence ideals ( 1 ) the backdrop nearly!: //mcnamara513005.wordpress.com/... /12/17/on-photography-susan-sont… Susan Sontag famously argued that photographs of atrocities dull moral response other contemporary,... Things that would be manipulated and dressed up such that the same life by...

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