Susan Sontag

 Susan Sontag

"Images which idealize (like most fashion and animal photography) are no less aggressive than work which makes a virtue of plainness (like class pictures, still lifes of the bleaker sort, and mug shots)"    (page 4).

All types of images are beautiful in their own way. Some images are plain while some are full of excitement and creativity. Although, images vary in all sorts of types when it comes to still life, portraits, or action shots. The statement above is making me reverence two different styles of photography. They are comparing fashion and animal photography to class pictures and still life. I don't think there's any competition with the two styles but more so what people are drawn to more. Some people might be animal lovers and love seeing photos of animals. They might get a warm feeling in their stomach and want to smile on how cute that animal is pictured in the image. On the other hand, someone might like seeing a beautiful still life of fruits and flowers laid across the table. Both styles are no less aggressive to each other but it comes down to what the viewer's emotions and feelings are towards that certain photograph.

 "The subsequent industrialization of camera technology only carried out a promise inherent in photography from its very beginning: to democratize all experiences by translating them into images" (page 5).

This sentence seemed important to me since it talks more about what photography has brought to everyone. The statement above spoke to me about that anyone can finally experience photography and capturing images. Photography back in the 1800s were not advanced or simple yet for everyone. Usually people had to go and get their picture taken by a professional. However, since the technology age has advanced, people started to experience taking their own pictures. They don't have to pay a professional to take their picture or to wonder what taking photographs seems like. Photography's growth in technology has finally let people of all experiences to understand and capture their own images.

"It seems positively unnatural to travel for pleasure without taking a camera along" (page 6).

This statement is the one that stands out to me the most out of the others. Travel has become a big part of our lives since we can now travel almost anywhere in the world. Technology today has let us have the advantage of documenting the experience of going on a vacation. Camera/phones have made it beneficial for us to save our memories of our travels. It would be unnatural to not go to a trip without a camera. Today's technology is so advanced, it would be wrong for us not to take our camera with us. By having accessibility to this technology, we need to take advantage. By having new cameras and cellphones, we get to explore places and take beautiful images of places we might not ever get to go again. Documenting our travels is important. We can reflect and look back on our travels on what places we got to see and how much fun we had. Photography lets us go back in time and relive our dream vacation or trip we went on. It's unnatural to not take our camera with us wherever we go since we don't know what we could find or see next.

Work Cited

Joinson, Clive. “On Photography by Susan Sontag.” The Art Book, vol. 17, no. 1, 2010