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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I do feel like this book wasn't quite beginner friendly. More often than not I found myself wondering about figures like Cartier-Bresson, Atget, Agnes... this is ultimately a collection of essays, but it gets a tad difficult to visualize because despite it talking about photos there are none
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I really enjoyed the more general, philosophical aspects of this; the discussions of specific photographers and their work less so.
Sontag interestingly provides keen observations on the interplay between photography and reality. Photography simultaneously as a means of capturing life and altering it, immortalizing it and reckoning with mortality. Its aid in the proliferation of consumerism, conferment of importance on the seemingly banal, reality as its pale comparison, its anesthetizing effects on emotions, and as a tool of the maintainance of social, racial and class divides are just some of fascinating connections made with images in this extensive work.
like the most lucid profound writing ever but also so so conceptual/abstract. definitely some highlights and some low points.
favorites were 'In Plato's Cave,' 'Melancholy Objects,' & 'The Heroism of Vision.'
recommend!
favorites were 'In Plato's Cave,' 'Melancholy Objects,' & 'The Heroism of Vision.'
recommend!
Fantastic general essay. I can see myself going back to this for reference, and there were a lot of great statements that stuck out to me
That being said, these were in between some problematic generalisations about Chinese people and obsessions with little people, so readers should be warned.
That being said, these were in between some problematic generalisations about Chinese people and obsessions with little people, so readers should be warned.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Hard to follow the writing sometimes because it’s so dense and often feels like Sontag is using vocabulary just to prove her mastery of verbiage.
The salient points in her essay still hold true: photography has changed the way we relate to reality, image proliferation is paramount to capitalism and inherent in the way we consume images, there is always a push-pull dynamic of objective documentation versus subjective observation in the process of photography.
Sontag is repetitive and sometime contradictory in her essays. And she gets weirdly anti-Chinese in the last one. Making it seem as though the Chinese governments use photography as propaganda is the only way the Chinese people use photography. And that the “American” ideal of photography was somehow more artistic and indicative of “freedom”. As if Chinese artists didn’t exist or that Chinese people were all a monolithic reflection of their government.
Can you tell that the last essay pissed me off?
The salient points in her essay still hold true: photography has changed the way we relate to reality, image proliferation is paramount to capitalism and inherent in the way we consume images, there is always a push-pull dynamic of objective documentation versus subjective observation in the process of photography.
Sontag is repetitive and sometime contradictory in her essays. And she gets weirdly anti-Chinese in the last one. Making it seem as though the Chinese governments use photography as propaganda is the only way the Chinese people use photography. And that the “American” ideal of photography was somehow more artistic and indicative of “freedom”. As if Chinese artists didn’t exist or that Chinese people were all a monolithic reflection of their government.
Can you tell that the last essay pissed me off?
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Really quite incredible to view the photograph in relation to social theory. Wonderful to pair with terrorist assemblages—quite the overlap
Great re-reading, but the bit about "the Chinese" and their use of photography is a condescending vaguely Orientalist hell of a read in 2024