Response To Sontag's Essay Uses Of Photography

In “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger, an English art critic, argues that images are important for the present-day by saying, “No other kind of relic or text from the past can offer such direct testimony about the world which surrounded other people at other times. In this respect images are more precise and richer literature” (10). John Berger allowed others to see the true meaning behind certain art pieces in “Ways of Seeing”. Images and art show what people experienced in the past allowing others to see for themselves rather than be told how an event occurred. There are two images that represent the above claim, Arnold Eagle and David Robbins’ photo of a little boy in New York City, and Dorothea Lange’s image of a migratory family from Texas; both were taken during the Great Depression.

In Chapter 8 of After the Fact in the article, “The Mirror with a Memory” by James West Davidson and Mark Lytle, the authors tell the story of photography and of a man names Jacob Riis. Riis came from Scandinavia as a young man and moved to the United States. Riis firsthand experienced the bad conditions in the heart of the slums of New York. He worked from place to place, doing odd jobs until he found a job as a police reporter for the New York Tribune. Riis lived in a slum called “The Bend.” When he became a reporter, Riis aspired to make people see the awful conditions of “The Bend.” Riis was continuously disappointed because his articles did not receive much attention or sympathy he was looking for. He then vowed to write a book called

Originally published in 1975, Nora Ephron’s essay “The Boston Photographs” is both still relevant and controversial almost forty years later. It deals with the series of three photographs that were published in newspapers across the country. The most important one shows a mother and child falling off a collapsed fire escape. Both have their limbs outstretched. If both had survived, maybe the reaction would have been different. The child survived by landing miraculously on the mother, but the mother ended up dying. The question on everyone’s mind was why the photographer, Stanley Forman, decided to take the photographs instead of trying to help the falling

When I was very little, my dad would read “The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norton Juster to me. I was intrigued by the silly pictures and couldn’t care less what they meant. Later, when I was in middle school, I read the book again. I lived Milo’s adventure vicariously through the book, but I only saw the surface of the plot. It wasn’t until I became an adult that I read it again, and this time the satire, hidden meanings, and puns finally hit me. The book never changed; only the way I viewed the book changed. An image such as the one displayed on page 61 of the textbook can show how people’s interpretations of other people change over time. Painting the word “HERE” on all of the babies shows that racism is not inherent in people, but rather it is taught. The image of OJ Simpson on the cover of Newsweek is another example of using an image to change the perception of a person (Sturken & Cartwright, 23). Before looking at this image, people who do not follow sports-related news may not have heard of OJ Simpson; the first image they see is one with the words “Trail of Blood” plastered in front of Simpson’s mugshot. This will steer them to perceive Simpson as a threat and an example of violence. Before looking at this image, they just see a mugshot. After reading the article, when they look at the image again, they see the face of a man that has

Photographers often capture horrific events with a well-known background in order to convey messages that are not explicitly stated. As a student during the Kent College shooting, John Filo was able to capture the aftermath of the National Guard shootings. Officers shot at protesters who were voicing their opinions on the Vietnam War. Filo utilizes components such as the framing of the photo to draw the audience to a focal point as well as using the context surrounding the image in order to provoke strong emotions and demonstrate the unjust and problematic society.

There is a old saying that says your eyes are they key to your soul, that saying must have came to the mind of this photographer when he say the eyes of this young lady. Even if she wasn't holding a cigarette, seeing only this girls eyes would be enough to make the most prideful of men cry their eyes out. Here eyes haunt anyone who looks at them and will make you feel sorry for her even without knowing any context around this story. The reason photographs become so iconic in our society is because you are able to capture a hole seen from one event in time, even if that event was from one hundred years ago, and still be able to have people feel so contented to this event. This photo can mean something different for every eye that sees it but the main message the author was trying to convey by taking this photo is a loss of youth and innocence.

Susan Sontag argues that photography allows people to retain or carry on with them what may have occurred in the past. Many people are beginning to travel for short periods of time for touristic purposes and it is often commonplace for travellers to take photographs. By doing so, they are not only documenting their trip but providing irrefutable evidence that trip has actually occurred. These photographs also allow people to dabble in past pleasures. For brief moments, the viewer can return to the place where the photograph was taken, reliving an entire experience. She adds that this dependence on cameras does not fade away as one goes on more vacations but remains. Its appeal is universal for both the high class who are enjoying an extravagant

Perhaps the subway cannot ever be dubbed as glamorous. The mysterious stains, the sharp corners of the escalators, the newspaper scattered on a bench, and the man sleeping underneath the newspaper scattered on a bench can paint a scene not short of a horror movie. Occasionally empty cars would pass, the pale fluorescent lighting inside making them appear inauspicious and haunted. When the people stood still on the platform, the shadow of the tunnel made them seem gloomy, regardless of their appearance. This was the real

Then they point out the lack of description could confuse the readers/ viewers, because they don’t know whether to read the images from left to right or vice versa. This analysis is a strong argument, because it is very important when doing a photo essay to be concise and clear as possible so that the readers/ viewers would not be confused as to what the writer is trying to convey or show them. It is also important to show a chronological order. Another strong argument is when they make note that Hoffman doesn’t explicitly mention about race. However, a photo essay as a mode of Ethnography require gaze. Which implies that physical appearance need to be describe since the gaze revolved around the bodies. Moreover, the comments on the body scar and how to differentiate between the body of a workplace and from war. There is no way to differentiate them; unless they are accompanied by an audio interview. It is true just simply gazing at the body, the scar cannot convey the information to the gazers. Therefore, a communication needs to occur between the gazers and participants to get the full story of the person. Overall, they seem to pose questions a lot, each time they formulate an argument. This is remarkable, because it makes their arguments stronger. They also compare between the photo essay with other works done by Hoffman or by different authors. This indicate that he done his literature review and strengthened their

Imagine a life without photographs, do you think we would appreciate life more or less? Photographs help us relive the moments we wanted to capture in life that we enjoyed. We are able to reminisce in those events, every single time we look at those picture. Especially since photographs give us a full on visual description on what everyone in the photo wore and the background. In the book, On Photography, by Susan Sontag, she explains how photograph is both an object and a tool and how its utility changes depending on context and intentions of oneself. Not only are photographs a physical object, it gives us a way to visualize a captured moment. Before social media added the opportunity to upload photographs, the only way we can see a photograph is after we printed out the film. Social media is a great way to connect or reconnect with other users; and now that there is an option to upload a photograph, it gives people to be more admirable or hateful.

When we switch on the TV and see a news clip about the latest Syrian beheadings, we instantly experience feelings of anguish and unease, as we witness something so disgusting and morally wrong, yet at the same time we see so much of this kind of thing every day that it begins to lose its shock factor, and we can’t help but think ‘here’s yet another story of devastation or horror in the world.’ Media images of traumatic events have become “living room sights and sounds” (Sontag 18), where the media’s motto seems to be that ‘If it bleeds, it leads.’ We also have to consider the fact that our lives are so busy and constantly moving at such a fast pace, that we may see these images and display shock and outrage at the time, yet as soon as we finish viewing our attention is caught with something else, and we have already moved on. Sontag elaborates on the idea of repeated exposure to traumatic images, by using a quote by Mort Rosenblum of the Associated Press to strengthen her point. He says “A basic problem is that no human drama stops the moving eye any longer unless correspondents find some new angle that tugs heartstrings in a new way. And each tug stretches them

Violence and tragedy are staples of journalism because readers are attracted to gruesome stories and photographs. “If it bleeds, it leads” is an undesirable rule of thumb. Ethical problems arise for photographers and editors because readers are also repulsed by such events. It is as if readers want to know that tragic circumstances take place, but do not want to face the uncomfortable details. After publication of a controversial picture that shows, for example, dead or grieving victims of violence, readers often attack the photographer as being tasteless and adding to suffering of those involved. Photographs such as Fig. 3 for example, which was published by the New York Times in 1993, received a vast amount of hate against the

In Roger Scruton's Photography and Representation the author establishes the idea that ideal photography is not art. In the same breath he says that ideal photography is not necessarily an idea which photographers should strive, nor does it necessarily exist. Yet, he bases his argument upon the ideal. In reviewing his paper, I’ll take a look at why he painstakingly tries to make this distinction between ideal painting and ideal photography. His argument is based upon the proposition that photographs can only represent in a causal fashion, whereas painters create representational artwork via intentional relations. Scruton manages to create a solid argument, but in the end I’ll decide it is not a fair assumption to say that photographs

The terrorist attacks in London Thursday served as a jarring reminder that in today's world, you never know what you might see when you pick up the newspaper or turn on the TV. Disturbing images of terror can trigger a visceral response no matter how close or far away from home the event happened.

Throughout the Great Depression, and through the creation of the New Deal, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was created to give men jobs and improve the economy. This paper will be analyzing three photographs with reference to Susan Sontag’s theories about photography. According to her theories, photographs were taken to document and represent the occurrences of the past, represent the objective views, memorialize the achievements, show the events that occurred, view the mortality of the individuals photographed, and show that photographs become art over time. These photographs picture members of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the first being a picture of a posed portrait of a crew, a second of them at work, and the third of them eating lunch at the worksite.