Megan Wilkerson

English 118c

Fall 2012

English 118 2

Visual Literacy in the Digital Age

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WILKERSON

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Susan Sontag’s collection of essays entitled “On Photography” has been accused of being everything from “prophetic genius” to “melodrama posing as criticism.” Many of the statements Sontag makes can be considered outrageous, offensive, and cynical. Critics have contemplated the reason Sontag entitled her collection “On Photography” as opposed to “Against Photography,” given the lack of

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positive sentiment she presents on the subject, which she argues can be dehumanizing and desensitizing in some cases. Nevertheless, her innovative and controversial commentary on the subject revolutionizes the way we view photography as she expands on the ways in which the proliferation and popularity of photography has changed and continues to change the way we interact with the world and its experiences.

INTRODUCTION

IN PLATO’S CAVE “IT ALL STARTED WITH ONE ESSAY—ABOUT SOME OF THE

PROBLEMS, AESTHETIC AND MORAL,

POSED BY THE OMNIPRESENCE OF

PHOTOGRAPHED IMAGES; BUT THE

MORE I THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT

PHOTOGRAPHS ARE, THE MORE

COMPLEX AND SUGGESTIVE THEY BECAME”- SONTAG

CONTENTS:

EVIDENCE

TOURISM

TWO

NON-INTERVENTION

THREE

DESENSITIZATION

FIVE

SIX

DEHUMANIZATION

SEVEN

IMAGE-JUNKIES

MEGAN WILKERSON

PROFESSOR STEFANS

ENGLISH 118C

14 DECEMBER 2012

INTRODUCTION

EIGHT

NINE

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“The inventory started in 1839

and since then just about

everything has been

photographed, or so it seems.”

Susan Sontag begins her essay

by describing photographs as

a collection of the world. This

inventory of images she

describes has taught us a “new

visual code,” changing the

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way we view what is around

us, and even determining what

we choose to look at. One of

the greatest strengths of

photography, Sontag argues, is

its power to furnish evidence:

“Something we hear about, but

doubt, seems proven when

were shown a photograph of

it.” Consider the alarming

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photographs of emaciated

Holocaust victims from Nazi

concentration camps. We have

learned about these atrocities,

but seeing them has a much

greater impact. These horrific

images are now part of our

inventory and serve as

evidence to these events.

PHOTOGRAPHY AS EVIDENCE

“HUMANKIND

LINGERS

UNGENERATELY IN

PLATO’S CAVE,

STILL REVELING, ITS

AGE-OLD HABIT, IN

MERE IMAGES OF

THE TRUTH”

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To Sontag, photography

should serve as evidence that

something happened, that

something exists, or that it

existed at one point in time.

“The camera record

justifies.” For this reason,

photography is detrimental to

Beaurocratic societies.

It serves as a form of control

and surveillance: ”The

camera record incriminates.”

Sontag describes

photography as “a social rite,

a defense against anxiety,

and a tool of power.”

Photography and family life

go hand-in-hand, because the

memorializing of

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achievements and milestones

in life is something that we

naturally want to savor. Sontag

argues that it is suspicious for a

family to not have a camera in

their household, namely

families with young children.

The action of photographing

ceremonies and special events

has become one of the

components of the ceremony

itself. For example, it would be

very uncommon to attend a

ceremony today that didn’t

include some sort of

photographing. Evidence

provides us with the truth, and

while many photographers are

concerned with the truth, they

are equally concerned with the

relationship between art and

truth. Sontag describes how

the members of the Farm

Security Administration

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photographic project from the

1930’s would take dozens of

pictures of their subjects until

they felt they had captured just

the right expression that

upheld their notions about

poverty. Perhaps Dorothea

Lange’s “Migrant Mother”, is

the most prolific of these

images.

“In deciding how a picture

should look, in preferring one

exposure to another,

photographers are always

imposing standards on their

subjects.” Sontag explains

that, even though the camera

serves to capture reality in a

sense, not merely interpret it,

photographs can be

considered an interpretation of

the world as a painting or a

drawing would be.

“EVEN WHEN

PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE

MOST CONCERNED WITH

MIRRORING REALITY,

THEY ARE STILL

HAUNTEDBY TACIT

IMPERATIVES OF TASTE

AND CONSCIENCE.”

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“THE MAN ADJUSTING HIS LENSE TO TAKE JUST THE RIGHT FRAME OF HER SUFFEREING, MIGHT JUST AS WELL BE A PREDATOR, ANOTHER VULTURE ON THE SCENE.”

(RIGHT) THIS POSE WITH THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA HAS BECOME PROLIFIC TO THE POINT OF CLICHE. HOW MANY PICTURES JUST LIKE THIS DO YOU THINK HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE INVENTORY?

TOURISM & PHOTGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHS AS A COLLECTION OF THE WORLD

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“A way of certifying experience, taking

photographs is also a way of refusing it—by

limiting experience to a search for the

photogenic, by converting experience to a

search for the photogenic, by converting

experience into an image, a souvenir.” Tourism,

perhaps more than anything, adds to our

inventory of images. Yet Sontag argues that

tourists don’t just take pictures while they are on

vacation to use as indisputable photographic

evidence of their visit. Photographs “also help

people to take possession of a space in which

they are insecure.” The act of taking pictures on

a trip can alleviate some of the disorientation

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that comes with travelling. Many tourists,

Sontag claims, feel more at ease when they

put a camera between themselves and what

is unfamiliar to them. Photography is

another way to give shape and control to an

experience. “The method especially

appeals to people handicapped by a

ruthless work ethic—Germans, Japanese,

and Americas. Using a camera appeases the

anxiety that the work-driven feel about not

working when they are on vacation and

supposed to be having fun. They have

something to do that is like a friendly

imitation of work: they can take pictures.”

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fact that the photograph exists, it is evident that

the photographer chooses the photograph.

“Even though incompatible with intervention in

a physical sense, using a camera is still a form of

participation.” By photographic a subject or

situation, Sontag argues, the photographer is not

just passively observing, they are encouraging

whatever is happening to keep happening.

Sontag essentially describes photography as

having an inhumane aspect to it. ”To take a

picture is to have an interest in things as they

are, in the status quo remaining unchanged…

including, when that is the interest, another

person’s pain or misfortune.”

PHOTOGRAPHY & NON-INTERVENTION

“THE MAN ADJUSTING HIS LENS TO TAKE JUST THE RIGHT FRAME OF HER SUFFERING, MIGHT JUST AS WELL BE A PREDATOR, ANOTHER VULTURE ON THE SCENE.” -ST. PETERSBURG TIMES

Kevin Carter was a South-African photojournalist who took this picture of a starving child and vulture in 1993. Although he won a Pulitzer Prize for this photograph, he was harshly criticized for taking the picture rather than helping the girl.

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Sontag points out that photography is

essentially an act of non-intervention.

“The person who intervenes cannot

record, the person who is recording

cannot intervene.” In many cases, the

photographer has the choice between

the photograph and a life. Given the

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Especially with such

shocking photographs of

the suffering and the

victimized, one would

assume a strong emotional

reaction from the viewer.

Yet Sontag explains how

these images of horror that

exist within our inventory is

problematic. “Photographs

shock insofar as the show

something novel.

Unfortunately, the ante

keeps getting raised—

partly through the very

proliferation of such images

of horror.” The amount of

exposure to these types of

images causes a certain

amount of desensitization.

This emotional reaction,

which Sontag refers to as

our “quality of feeling” to

images of the suffering,

depends on the degree of

our familiarity with the

images. The more one is

exposed to certain

photographs, the less

shocking it is each time

they view a similar image.

“Once one has seen such images, one has started down the road of seeing more—and more. Images transfix. Images anesthetize.”

PHOTOGRAPHY & DESENSITIZATION

Sontag accuses

pornography of the same

offense. She argues that “the

shock of photographed

atrocities wears off with

repeated viewings, just as

the surprise and

bemusement felt the first

time one sees a

pornographic movie wear

off after one sees a few

more.” The amount of

suffering and horror in the

inventory has given us a

sense of familiarity with

these images, Sontag

describes. This familiarity

makes the horrible seem

more ordinary.

“To suffer is one thing; another

thing is living with the

photographed images of

suffering, which does not

necessarily strengthen

conscience and the ability to

be compassionate. It can also

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Sontag claims that the camera is sold as a

sort of “predatory weapon.” Of course, the

camera is not capable of killing, yet Sontag

refers to being photographed as a “soft

murder” as she describes the dehumanizing

aspect of photography: “There is something

predatory in the act of taking a picture. To

photograph people is to violate them, by

seeing them as they never see themselves,

by having knowledge of them the can never

have; it turns people into objects that can be

symbolically possessed.” Consider the

photographs taken by paparazzi

photographers. They make a career out of

what Sontag calls the “soft murder.” They

intrude, trespass, distort, and exploit. In this

sense, they are predators with their

cameras, always violating.

THE DEHUMANIZING ASPECT OF

PHOTOGRAPHY

In her essay, Sontag examines some of Diane

Arbus’ ideas on the nature of photography,

namely its “naughty” nature. “I always

thought of photography as a naughty thing to

do—that was one of my favorite things about

it. Arbus describes that when she first tried

photography she “felt very perverse.” Yet

Sontag argues that to take a photograph

requires some distance between the subject

and the photographer. “The camera doesn’t

rape, or even possess, though it may

presume, intrude trespass, distort, exploit,

and, at the farthest reach of metaphor,

assassinate—all activities that, unlike the

sexual push and shove, can be conducted

from a distance, and with some detachment.”

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“Photography implies that we

know about the world if we

accept it as the camera

records it. But this is the

opposite of understanding,

which starts from not

accepting the world as it

looks.” Sontag describes the

great value placed on images

in our society. We don’t

realize just how much we rely

on photographs to give us

information. “They tell one

what there is; they make an

inventory.” Yet Santag

explains that there is a

disconnect there is another

side to photography that

people use more as a

“fiction.” “Needing to have

reality confirmed and

experience enhanced by

photographs is an aesthetic

consumerism to which

everyone is now addicted.

Industrial societies turn their

citizens into image-

junkies; it is the most

THE NEW GENERATION OF IMAGE-JUNKIES

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irresistible form of image

pollution.” Sontag points

out that we don’t realize

the extent to which we are

bombarded with

photographs. Today,

especially in advertising

and social media, images

control and direct.

Imagine if today we were

cut off from all ability to

capture images. Virtually

every aspect of our lives

would change.

“Mallarme said that

everything in the

world exists in

order to end in a

book. Today

everything exists to

end in a

photograph.”