Megan Wilkerson

English 118 2

Visual Literacy in the Digital Age

+

+

SUSAN SONTAG WILKERSON

1

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

2

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:

PHOTOGRAPHY & EVIDENCE

ONE

TOURISM & PHOTOGRAPHY

TWO

PHOTOGRAPHY AS A FORM OF NON-INTERVENTION

THREE

THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF DIANE ARBUS

PHOTOGRAPHY & DEHUMANIZATION

FIVE

SIX

THE DESENSITIZING POWER OF PHOTOGRAPHY

SEVEN

THE NEW GENERATION OF IMAGE-JUNKIES

MEGAN WILKERSON

PROFESSOR STEFANS

ENGLISH 118C

14 DECEMBER 2012

“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

INTRODUCTION

English 118 3

Visual Literacy in the Digital Age

1

“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

2

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

3

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”

English 118 4

Visual Literacy in the Digital Age

1

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

2

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

3

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.”

English 118 5

Visual Literacy in the Digital Age

“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

1

“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

2

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 which 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.”

2

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.

1

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