along with some of John.B Thompson’s other theories, with some reference to Susan Sontag’s work on photography. On Photography study guide contains a biography of Susan Sontag, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. I read it myself a good year before starting this course but if there was ever a case of something you read going in one eye and out the other this was it. In a way, she is concluding that perhaps people think of photos as a window into how the real world is in actuality, or even save these images, especially of people, to stereotype people and easily organize how reality is in our world of mind-boggling amounts of information. I, on the other hand, have more to say about photos and in certain ways, cannot fully agree with what Sontag presents. From high art to family albums to legal evidence, they capture and document the world around us. In the Plato's Cave story, the shadows cast upon the wall that the trapped prisoners see are much different than the real objects in front of the fire (Cohen). Kindle Edition . It defines and presages the thinking that underlies the whole book. To deepen the interpretation and analysis of this photograph, I will be using work done by John B. Thompson and will be using his theories of the five symbolic forms (Intention, Convention, Structure, Reference and Context.) Here, Sontag explains that people tend to take a photo and save the information or appearance of that photo in their mind in order to relate to in real life. http://www.susansontag.com/SusanSontag/index.shtml Estate of Susan Sontag. In this essential and revelatory volume, Susan Sontag … Book title On Photography; Author. torkildr, CC-BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Sontag also warns, the act of taking a picture is “predatory”, because once a photo is taken it can be used against anyone in a repulsive way, whether the victim is aware of it or not (Sontag 14). Do ‘controlled’ images affect the meaning and how we view them or do they simply allow us to not get desensitized? Full Summary of On Photography Overall Summary. Now Susan Sontag has shown us in elegiac words how far we are enlightened or unenlightened about photography. Even if someone were to believe a photo's purpose or appearance to be entirely true, it could still, however, be completely false. This is an essay, if you will, of my interpretation of the first chapter ("In Plato's Cave") of Susan Sontag's 1977 book, On Photography. In On Photography, Susan Sontag discusses what she believes photography does to society in the modern day. "Literature was the Passport.". In the essay “On Photography” written in the 1970’s, author Susan Sontag states that “photographs really are experience captured” and the camera helps us put ourselves into the relation of the photographs. The psychological effects photography has on a person’s mind, for example, is vast. These statements show that Godwin’s and Salgado’s work fits within an activist arena. The practice of photography gives us assurance by its accurate relation to reality than any other devices. Susan Sontag's On Photography Chapter Summary. Photojournalists play a key role in the media their role is to photograph the events that take place in front of them but is it always appropriate to keep taking, world must be preserved and, where possible expanded.” (Salgado, 2012, p.5) Customer reviews. Sontag starts off with beautifying. Sontag relates this to Plato's allegory in which prisoner's in a cave see shadows of objects cast on the wall due to a fire, in effect, seeing false images of reality. On Photography On Photography is a 1977 collection of essays by Susan Sontag. Susan Sontag: On Photography: In Plato's cave – summary Humanity, argues Susan Sontag in "In Plato's Cave" in her collection of essays "On Photography", is still in Plato's cave. Next. Photography, more than any other art form, is subject to intense moral scrutiny. Yet the majority of a photographer’s photos do not make it into the display whether in a magazine or exhibit. Susan Sontag (1933 – 2004) was an American writer, critic, cultural philosopher and political activist. A brief overview of the photographers careers is given as an introduction to the analysis. She achieved widespread recognition through her collections of essays, Against Interpretation (1966), On Photography (1977) and Regarding the Pain of Others (2004). Photography changes are conditions of imprisonment and create a kind of "ethics of vision" and the feeling that we can contain the whole world in our heads. Her book is a collection of six essays that explore photography in the deepest of manners. Photography is a social rite, in that cameras go with family life: they keep the accomplishments of family members for reminiscence (Sontag 8). Finally, Sontag's entire sardonic aim at what photography means is, she states, “The knowledge gained through still photographs will always be some sort of sentimentalism, whether cynical or humanist. Sites with a … Photography: A Critical Introduction Liz Wells. Perhaps a “semblance” is all one needs in order to make sense of this hectic earth. The saddest and most horrible hold photography has on society Sontag explained is when people have a choice to save a life or to take a photo, they choose the photo (Sontag 11). Susan Sontag's On Photography is a seminal and groundbreaking work on the subject. Photos are the world’s “cheat sheets” for life’s test. Anything: what they see, read, hear, or else is. 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