‘To live is to be photographed’ (Sontag‚ 2004). Does photography have a special role in the mediation of our lives‚ and how‚ according to Sontag‚ is this role changing? INTRODUCTION Attempting to comprehend the role of photography in the mediation of our lives would have to account‚ apart from historical evidence‚ an understanding of the importance and the necessity of the photograph in every day life. In a society that is constantly bombarded by images from different mediums
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Susan Sontag an author Regarding The Pain of Others and of four novels‚ and seven non-fiction books. States that "Photographs tend to transform‚ whatever their subject; and as an image something may be beautiful - or terrifying‚ or unbearable‚ or quite bearable - as it is not real life." These words spoken by Susan Sontag explain almost every aspect that goes into evaluating a photograph. For instance a picture
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Susan Sontag‚ in "Against Interpretation‚" takes a very interesting critical standpoint on the idea of literary interpretation. Unlike most literary critics‚ Sontag believes that literary criticism is growing increasingly destructive towards the very works of art that they‚ supposedly‚ so greatly "appreciate" and "respect." Her standpoint could not be more accurate. Reading her work generates numerous questions‚ the most important of which is quite possibly‚ "How are we to take her final statement
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that beauty is a power that us women or men have naturally‚ we have the power to attract what we want and don’t want. “For the Greeks‚ beauty was a virtue: a kind of excellence. Person then were assumed to be what we now have to call--lamely‚ enviously--whole person…..beauty would be matched by beauty of the other kind” -here she explains how theirs two types of beauty the “inside” beauty and the “outside” beauty. In Susan Sontag informative piece entitled “Beauty” she discusses her logical
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When comparing the descriptive technique of Susan Sontag’s On Photography book between ALL MY LIFE FOR SALE by John D. Freyer and eBay‚ we will find that Mr. Freyer demonstrated a merely subjective description that was mentored solely by his own point of view. The assumption that “every photographer should read this book” in the beginning of his description‚ and asserting this assumption later by using an overstated sentence like: “Even the mom and pop photographers”‚ and further emphasizing by generalizing
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1.2 The major literary works of Susan Sontag In Sontag’s life‚ she totally wrote four novels‚ they are "The Benefactor” (1963)‚ “Death Tool"(1967)‚"The Volcano Lover"(1992) and "In the United States" (2000);besides‚ there is one short stories “I ‚ etcetera" and a few scripts. Then she also published eight other works‚ among these works ‚ the famous works are "Against Interpretation" (1966)‚ "The Radical Form of Will" (1969)‚ "On Photography" (1977)‚ "The Disease Metaphor" (1988)‚ "The point" (2001)
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Susan Sontag’s essay on the subject of beauty‚ particularly in relation to women‚ is a strong and moving piece that also greases the old gearbox and gets the brain going. It takes a strong hard look at how the concept of beauty has been shaped through the ages‚ from the time of the great Greek civilization to the modern era. The analysis that is put forth that women can never preen just for pleasure is exemplified in so many innumerable ways in modern culture that it is indeed something to despair
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the essence of memory and seals it into the history of those involved in the process. Susan Sontag’s didactic text “On Photography” digs deep into the meaning of photography and claims that it has unlimited power within modern society. Her exclamation that “cameras are fantasy-machines” exerts the idea that photography brings the world closer together‚ yet seems so distant as if it were all but an illusion. Sontag starts off her text by asserting that humans are still in Plato’s cave. She argues that
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Triumph of the Will‚ has been perceived as one of the most remarkable works of art in film history. It is a documentary produced by Leni Riefenstahl‚ a renowned film maker‚ who “has remained the focus of critical attention since the 1930’s” (Sontag‚ 1976p. 31). Triumph of the Will‚ is a documentary created to follow Hitler and his supporters through the Nazi Nuremberg Rally of the 1930’s. In the study of Holocaust and films‚ it is crucial to uncover hidden messages portrayed through films by analyzing
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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
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