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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
Being a spectator of calamites taking place in another country is a quintessential modern experience.
How else to make a dent when there is incessant exposure to images, and overexposure to a handful of images seen again and again? The image as shock and the image as cliché are two aspects of the same presence.
The memory of war, however, like all memory, is mostly local….But for a war to break out of its immediate constituency and become a subject of international attention, it must be regarded as something of an exception, as wars go, and represent more than the clashing interests of the belligerents themselves.(invested with the meaning of larger struggles). A Most wars do not acquire the requisite fuller meaning.
the gruesome invites us to be either spectators or cowards, unable to look. Those with the stomach to look are playing a role authorized by many glorious depictions of suffering. Torment, a canonical subject in art, is often represented in painting as a spectacle, something being watched (or ignored) by other people. The implication is: no, it cannot be stopped——and the mingling of inattentive with attentive onlookers underscores this.
artists "make" drawings and paintings while photographers "take" photographs. But the photographic image, even to the extent that it is a trace (not a construction made out of disparate photographic traces), cannot be simply a transparency of something that happened. It is always the image that someone chose; to photograph is to frame, and to frame is to exclude.
The more remote or exotic the place, the more likely we are to have full frontal views of the dead and dying. These sights carry a double message. They show a suffering that is outrageous, unjust, and should be repaired. They confirm that this is the sort of thing which happens in that place. The ubiquity of those photographs, and those horrors, cannot help but nourish belief in the inevitability of tragedy in the benighted or backward that is, poor parts of the world.
The exhibition in photographs of cruelties inflicted on those with darker complexions in exotic countries continues this offering, oblivious to the considerations that deter such displays of our own victims of violence; for the other, even when not an enemy, is regarded only as someone to be seen, not someone (like us) who also sees.
in their focus on the powerless, reduced to their powerlessness. It is significant that the powerless are not named in the captions. A portrait that declines to name its subject becomes complicit, if inadvertently, in the cult of celebrity that has fueled an insatiable appetite for the opposite sort of photograph: to grant only the famous their names demotes the rest to representative instances of their occupations, their ethnicities, their plights.
Photographs that everyone recognizes are now a constituent part of what a society chooses to think about, or declares that it has chosen to think about. It calls these ideas "memories," and that is, over the long run, a fiction. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as collective memory — part of the same family of spurious notions as collective guilt. But there is collective instruction.
Which atrocities from the incurable past do we think we are obliged to revisit?
Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question is what to do with the feelings that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicated. If one feels that there is nothing "we" can do but who is that "we"? and nothing "they" can do either- and who are "they"? then one starts to get bored, cynical, apathetic.
A museum or gallery visit is a social situation, riddled with distractions, in the course of which art is seen and commented on.*
*The evolution of the museum itself has gone far toward expanding this ambience of distraction. Once a repository for conserving and displaying the fine arts of the past, the museum has become a vast educational institution-cum-emporium, one of whose functions is the exhibition of art. The primary function is entertainment and education in various mixes, and the marketing of experiences, tastes, and simulacra.
How else to make a dent when there is incessant exposure to images, and overexposure to a handful of images seen again and again? The image as shock and the image as cliché are two aspects of the same presence.
The memory of war, however, like all memory, is mostly local….But for a war to break out of its immediate constituency and become a subject of international attention, it must be regarded as something of an exception, as wars go, and represent more than the clashing interests of the belligerents themselves.(invested with the meaning of larger struggles). A Most wars do not acquire the requisite fuller meaning.
the gruesome invites us to be either spectators or cowards, unable to look. Those with the stomach to look are playing a role authorized by many glorious depictions of suffering. Torment, a canonical subject in art, is often represented in painting as a spectacle, something being watched (or ignored) by other people. The implication is: no, it cannot be stopped——and the mingling of inattentive with attentive onlookers underscores this.
artists "make" drawings and paintings while photographers "take" photographs. But the photographic image, even to the extent that it is a trace (not a construction made out of disparate photographic traces), cannot be simply a transparency of something that happened. It is always the image that someone chose; to photograph is to frame, and to frame is to exclude.
The more remote or exotic the place, the more likely we are to have full frontal views of the dead and dying. These sights carry a double message. They show a suffering that is outrageous, unjust, and should be repaired. They confirm that this is the sort of thing which happens in that place. The ubiquity of those photographs, and those horrors, cannot help but nourish belief in the inevitability of tragedy in the benighted or backward that is, poor parts of the world.
The exhibition in photographs of cruelties inflicted on those with darker complexions in exotic countries continues this offering, oblivious to the considerations that deter such displays of our own victims of violence; for the other, even when not an enemy, is regarded only as someone to be seen, not someone (like us) who also sees.
in their focus on the powerless, reduced to their powerlessness. It is significant that the powerless are not named in the captions. A portrait that declines to name its subject becomes complicit, if inadvertently, in the cult of celebrity that has fueled an insatiable appetite for the opposite sort of photograph: to grant only the famous their names demotes the rest to representative instances of their occupations, their ethnicities, their plights.
Photographs that everyone recognizes are now a constituent part of what a society chooses to think about, or declares that it has chosen to think about. It calls these ideas "memories," and that is, over the long run, a fiction. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as collective memory — part of the same family of spurious notions as collective guilt. But there is collective instruction.
Which atrocities from the incurable past do we think we are obliged to revisit?
Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question is what to do with the feelings that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicated. If one feels that there is nothing "we" can do but who is that "we"? and nothing "they" can do either- and who are "they"? then one starts to get bored, cynical, apathetic.
A museum or gallery visit is a social situation, riddled with distractions, in the course of which art is seen and commented on.*
*The evolution of the museum itself has gone far toward expanding this ambience of distraction. Once a repository for conserving and displaying the fine arts of the past, the museum has become a vast educational institution-cum-emporium, one of whose functions is the exhibition of art. The primary function is entertainment and education in various mixes, and the marketing of experiences, tastes, and simulacra.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
زمان عجیبی بود برای خوندن این کتاب.
جنگ اکراین حتی لحظهای از جلوی چشمم کنار نرفت موقع خوندنش.
جنگ اکراین حتی لحظهای از جلوی چشمم کنار نرفت موقع خوندنش.
Finally got round to reading this influential text on images of atrocities. It was as thought-provoking and powerful as I expected.
The downside was no references (or I'm just overly conditioned to academic expression).
Still, definitely worth the time.
"To set aside the sympathy we extend to others beset by war and murderous politics for a reflection on how our privileges are located on the same map as their suffering, and may – in ways we might prefer not to imagine – be linked to their suffering, as the wealth of some may imply the destitution of others, is a task for which the painful, stirring images supply only an initial spark."
The downside was no references (or I'm just overly conditioned to academic expression).
Still, definitely worth the time.
"To set aside the sympathy we extend to others beset by war and murderous politics for a reflection on how our privileges are located on the same map as their suffering, and may – in ways we might prefer not to imagine – be linked to their suffering, as the wealth of some may imply the destitution of others, is a task for which the painful, stirring images supply only an initial spark."
Sontag said sympathy is not enough! And let’s really think about why we are choosing to look or not to look at the traumatic images of war/genocide/historical events. Who’s bodies are those we are most likely to see dehumanized after such events? Why does america go to great lengths to limit transparency/image circulation on the horrors that take place within our borders under the guise of “respect” for families? Hmmm lots to think about in a great short read
challenging
informative
reflective
A hard book to read as Sontag reviews the images of war over the years. And the various opinions about war and how the images of war influence us. Also the processes, strategies and techniques some photographers used and (un)surprisingly the way many war photographers altered their subjects: move a corpse here, scatter some bones there and drop some extra cannon balls over there..."perfect". That was really grotesque to me even though I cannot be surprised. Some of the most famous war photographs were set ups.
Sontag also talks about how we as humans are drawn towards the horrors of wars, as long as it is not happening directly to us. She wonders about compassion and if seeing these images can have influence over people in a way that changes them.
"Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question is what to do with the feeling that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicate. If one feels that there is nothing "we" can do-but who is that "we"?-and nothing "they" can do either-and who are "they"-then one starts to get bored, cynical, apathetic."
I see this happening with Puerto Rico, Syria, Yemen all these places were many people are suffering and we, myself included, only watch from the sidelines wondering what can we do for them? I don't have the answer but I am thinking on this.
Sontag also talks about how we as humans are drawn towards the horrors of wars, as long as it is not happening directly to us. She wonders about compassion and if seeing these images can have influence over people in a way that changes them.
"Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question is what to do with the feeling that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicate. If one feels that there is nothing "we" can do-but who is that "we"?-and nothing "they" can do either-and who are "they"-then one starts to get bored, cynical, apathetic."
I see this happening with Puerto Rico, Syria, Yemen all these places were many people are suffering and we, myself included, only watch from the sidelines wondering what can we do for them? I don't have the answer but I am thinking on this.
Sontag develops sharp reflections about photographies that depict suffering, specially those preventable and occasioned by humans, such as war. She points out at the complexity of their effect and their link to political conflicts, ethics, media, compassion, emotional numbness, etc.
informative
medium-paced
i think On Photography should be read first, especially in refrence to the first few essays, but the last few are really impactful.