Summary Of On Photography By Susan Sontag
Photography is a medium that has been documenting everything over years throughout history. A practice that is often debated and discussed about the relationship of the action and photograph itself. In the chapter entitled In Plato’s Cave from her book On Photography, photo theorist Susan Sontag refers to various photographs and photographers and analyzes the wider questions that individuals should be discussing in regards to the medium. Exploring her thesis as she states that “a photograph is not just the result of an encounter between an event and a photographer; a picture-taking is an event itself” and is a reflection of social conditioning and ideology; her text is laced with challenging statements as she carefully reviews what photographs
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Connecting with her audience is important, trying to keep them on their toes and understanding her views as the reader is trying to review and analyze her case. Her comparison on how photography is “as widely practice as an amusement as sex and dancing,” especially in today’s society, as an art form it is “not practice by most people as in art” (Sontag 8). A social manner that everyone participates sometime in their life, whether that is to connect with someone, an outlet to relieve the mind, or a skill set to influence others. As an art form, unlike sex and dancing, photography is something that artists do not particularly put as much effort in their daily practice. As an artist myself, I can connect with statement because I tend to spend my day more towards designing whether that is on paper or on the computer, but photography is usually not on my mind or last minute. Another tool I can utilize, but do not take it the next step further to grow as much as I would like to as a young artist. Photography is a process that involves many elements when you are in the moment, however Sontag states that photography is “an act of non-intervention” (Sontag 11). I would have to disagree with her statement because non-intervention is not being a part or involved in participating in photographing. Although, the photographer should not intervene with certain things to keep the authenticity of the image, they are still part of the taking the photo, deciding what parts they want to capture, and how they will achieve to document
Connecting with her audience is important, trying to keep them on their toes and understanding her views as the reader is trying to review and analyze her case. Her comparison on how photography is “as widely practice as an amusement as sex and dancing,” especially in today’s society, as an art form it is “not practice by most people as in art” (Sontag 8). A social manner that everyone participates sometime in their life, whether that is to connect with someone, an outlet to relieve the mind, or a skill set to influence others. As an art form, unlike sex and dancing, photography is something that artists do not particularly put as much effort in their daily practice. As an artist myself, I can connect with statement because I tend to spend my day more towards designing whether that is on paper or on the computer, but photography is usually not on my mind or last minute. Another tool I can utilize, but do not take it the next step further to grow as much as I would like to as a young artist. Photography is a process that involves many elements when you are in the moment, however Sontag states that photography is “an act of non-intervention” (Sontag 11). I would have to disagree with her statement because non-intervention is not being a part or involved in participating in photographing. Although, the photographer should not intervene with certain things to keep the authenticity of the image, they are still part of the taking the photo, deciding what parts they want to capture, and how they will achieve to document