Book 86 - Susan Sontag "On Photography"
Oct. 7th, 2019 10:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzy_daveSusan Sontag "On Photography" (Penguin Books)
Six meditations on the nature and implications of photography. Each essay pivots engagingly around a provocative theme: the “aesthetic consumerism” exemplified by taking and collecting photographs, the inherent surrealism of photographs, the incurable defensiveness of those who claim photography an art form, photography’s project of beautifying the world, the West as a “culture based on images.” My favorite is the second essay: “America, Seen Through Photographs, Darkly,” which traces the metamorphosis of Walt Whitman’s delirious vision of democratic vistas where beauty and ugliness are superseded, through the bland humanism of Edward Steichen and his “Family of Man” exhibit, to Diane Arbus’ clinical freakshow of “assorted monsters and borderline cases.” Being a longtime fan of historic photographs, I greatly enjoy Sontag’s thumbnail assessments of the cavalcade of photographic innovators.
An enlightening and memorable reading experience. No one writes an essay like Sontag. This book should really have the photographs that Sontag discusses included in the book - a big mistake in my mind. Also, another regret is that the book, written in the '70s, does not cover the current state of photography (how we all take pictures and share them on the internet and how that affects our memories and values). However, a very enjoyable read.
Six meditations on the nature and implications of photography. Each essay pivots engagingly around a provocative theme: the “aesthetic consumerism” exemplified by taking and collecting photographs, the inherent surrealism of photographs, the incurable defensiveness of those who claim photography an art form, photography’s project of beautifying the world, the West as a “culture based on images.” My favorite is the second essay: “America, Seen Through Photographs, Darkly,” which traces the metamorphosis of Walt Whitman’s delirious vision of democratic vistas where beauty and ugliness are superseded, through the bland humanism of Edward Steichen and his “Family of Man” exhibit, to Diane Arbus’ clinical freakshow of “assorted monsters and borderline cases.” Being a longtime fan of historic photographs, I greatly enjoy Sontag’s thumbnail assessments of the cavalcade of photographic innovators.
An enlightening and memorable reading experience. No one writes an essay like Sontag. This book should really have the photographs that Sontag discusses included in the book - a big mistake in my mind. Also, another regret is that the book, written in the '70s, does not cover the current state of photography (how we all take pictures and share them on the internet and how that affects our memories and values). However, a very enjoyable read.
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