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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
Narratives can make us understand. Photographs do something else: they haunt us.
The main focus of this long essay is war photography.
At the beginning of the book Sontag cites the question Virginia Woolf posed in her Three Guineas:
"How in your opinion are we to prevent war?"
Sontag then proceeds to argue the importance of photography, analyzing the different ways photographs have been used in wartime as instruments to elicit sympathy and commiseration or means of propagating pro or anti war sentiments.
Nonstop imagery (televisions, streaming video, movies) is our surround, but when it comes to remembering, the photograph has the deeper bite. Memory freeze-frames; its basic unit is the single image. In an era of information overload, the photograph provides a quick way of apprehending something and a compact way for memorizing it. No object is more equated with memory than the camera image. The photograph is like a quotation, or a maxim or proverb. Each of us mentally stocks hundreds of photographs, subject to instant recall.
The main focus of this long essay is war photography.
At the beginning of the book Sontag cites the question Virginia Woolf posed in her Three Guineas:
"How in your opinion are we to prevent war?"
Sontag then proceeds to argue the importance of photography, analyzing the different ways photographs have been used in wartime as instruments to elicit sympathy and commiseration or means of propagating pro or anti war sentiments.
Nonstop imagery (televisions, streaming video, movies) is our surround, but when it comes to remembering, the photograph has the deeper bite. Memory freeze-frames; its basic unit is the single image. In an era of information overload, the photograph provides a quick way of apprehending something and a compact way for memorizing it. No object is more equated with memory than the camera image. The photograph is like a quotation, or a maxim or proverb. Each of us mentally stocks hundreds of photographs, subject to instant recall.
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
A very clear analysis of the role of photography and the way we see, understand, and remember human suffering. A primer on empathy.
A few of her asides caught my particular attention, especially her musings on America's resistance to a national museum on slavery (recently rectified) and the sentence that we prefer to imagine evil as existing elsewhere and embrace our uniqueness as a country - " one without any certifiably wicked leaders throughout its entire history" and wondered if the veracity of that statement will soon change.
A few of her asides caught my particular attention, especially her musings on America's resistance to a national museum on slavery (recently rectified) and the sentence that we prefer to imagine evil as existing elsewhere and embrace our uniqueness as a country - " one without any certifiably wicked leaders throughout its entire history" and wondered if the veracity of that statement will soon change.
reflective
sad
slow-paced
dark
informative
sad
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
"The photograph gives mixed signals. Stop this, it urges. But it also exclaims, What a spectacle!"
The effects that the widespread availability of images of human suffering has had on our collective consciousness. Published in the wake of 9/11, it would've been interesting to see Sontag's thoughts on the internet/social media making these things even more prominent.
The effects that the widespread availability of images of human suffering has had on our collective consciousness. Published in the wake of 9/11, it would've been interesting to see Sontag's thoughts on the internet/social media making these things even more prominent.
fast-paced