Susan Sontag's Regarding The Pain Of Others

These include the images that are released to the news, newspapers, and even textbooks. There is a certain photographer, Christoph Bangert, mentioned in Source D who takes photos of war scenes, calling these pictures “war porn”. He uses that term not because he believes it is war porn, but to undermine the argument. “You can always say that this… is dehumanizing, but I think it’s too easy to call these pictures pornographic or voyeuristic. If you say it is morally wrong to look at them, you avoid being confronted with these events.” He says that we must be confronted with the events that occur in wars, so that we may be able to accurately remember history. Bangert offers us a scenario when saying, “Just imagine if nobody had published pictures of the Holocaust or of the liberation of the Nazi camps. That would mean that it would be very difficult for us to remember these events.” This is true, and very significant to our society and history. These images show us knowledge, and allow us to prevent future cruelties, all following Sontag’s

In Notes on “Camp,” Susan Sontag cites fifty-eight characteristics of “camp sensibility.” She says the ultimate statement Camp statement is, “it’s good because it’s awful …Of course one can’t always say that. Only under certain conditions, those which I’ve tried to sketch in these notes-” the sensibility of an era is not only its most decisive, but also its most perishable, aspect. One may capture the ideas (intellectual history) and the behavior (social history) of an epoch without ever touching upon the sensibility of taste which informed those ideas, that behavior. Rare are those historical studies – which do tell us something about the sensibility of the period (Sontag, 11).

He argues that this desire to see the stories of war comes from the same place as the desire to watch an apocalyptic movie. The description of these war pictures very much resembles one of a movie: “as if a struggle for good against evil might be being played out before the camera, with elements of heroism, bravery, betrayal, and cowardice, and with winners and losers” (Ritchen, 2). To see war is to see the closest thing to a movie in real life. This is supplemented by the desire to share the photos that resides in the photographer. Ritchen argues that there is a promise made when a photograph of such atrocities is taken: that it will be shared and given its best chance of reaching the eyes of someone who can change this, or someone who can prevent it. This gives evidence to the point that the author is not arguing, on the surface, a surprising choice; but this does, in its own way, give the author a greater credibility. By acknowledging the ‘other’ side, he humanizes them and changes the essay from simply arguing a point to an article that explores the idea of this debate and culminates to a decision. When we are being told to believe something, those that give a healthy dose of skepticism see red flags go up; but when we are led through the author’s ideas and how he comes to that stand, we can come to the same conclusion naturally. This also gives the idea that

In the essay “Award-Winning Photo Puts Subjects on Defensive” by freelance journalist Gert Van Langendonck discusses a photograph that was initially misinterpreted by the photographer, and the world. The photo, taken by war photographer Spencer Platt, won the 2006 World Press Photo of the Year award, after the photo was published by Parris Match in September of 2006. The photo was taken on August 15th, only two days after the ceasefire of what is known as the 2006 Lebanon War. Van Langendonck discusses Platt’s thoughts leading up to the photo, as he was attempting to photograph the southern suburbs of Beirut, which had endured the brunt of Israel’s bombing, and document the various relief efforts along with the diverse refugee populations.

In the article “A Life Revealed”, a photographer endlessly searches for the subject of one of his most famous photographs. His shot was one of a young girl in Afghanistan and through her eyes one could sense the anger, confusion, hurt, and devastation of the ongoing war. This photograph changed the world.

Photography captured the truth and the truth is a powerful thing. Photographers like Jacob August Riis and August Sander used photography to tell stories that words couldn’t. With photographs like “Poverty Gappers Playing Coney Island” and “Turkish Mousetrap Salesman”, Riis and Sander’s was able to show stories that surpass anything else. They both worked to give their subjects an identity and using it to show how they and the world around them was suffering. Jacob Riis was a photographer during the Progressive era.

Susan Sontag tells a terrible tale of unimaginable events that happen during the time periods of war. In her novel “Regarding the Pain of Others” she talks about how it is not likely for someone to be able to empathize or have sympathy for those who died during war and combat. It is extremely hard to understand what soldiers really endure during their experience. During many wars, the return of soldiers brings a lot of frustration and criticism. They fail to get the respect they deserve and many try to make it seem like they understand the pain when in reality, no one truly understands till they really partake in combat. This is what Sontag was mainly trying to relay to her audience and it is something that should be agreed with.

Pain can take up a person 's life, whether it be mental or physical. Each person is burdened with some sort of pain, some more than others. “Whereas one of the foremost repercussions of experiencing a traumatic event is a crisis of subjectivity, trauma can paradoxically also become the site on which identity is founded” (Wiel). One of the most influential female artists of the 20th Century was one who was burdened more than many others. Frida Kahlo was famous not only for her self portraits, but how she documented her trauma and pain through them.

Name – Rakshanda Amit Student Id- 43997333 Word Count - 866 Usually, when you think about the term drug, you may assume that it is an unpleasant substance that poses an undesired experience. As the individual grows, he is warned by parents at home, relatives in society, and teachers in school about the most dangerous and destructive consequences of drug use. Nowadays, these messages have been conveyed through the media and film industry. But years back, these entertainment platforms were showing drugs to be a pleasurable substance.

The one thing that unifies all humans, regardless of age, class, or ethnic origin, is the perpetual quest for the true meaning of beauty within the world. No matter what background a person may have, they are born with an innate appreciation for beauty in life; furthermore, this appreciation is enhanced by the experience of pain throughout one’s existence. Through pain and loss humans learn to seek the comfort and universal connection provided by art and beauty. These things are all the result of humans exposing their souls and the pain they carry to both society and the rest of the world and leaving their mark upon them. Muriel Barbery’s novel

Society is forever adapting to the different values held at the time. However, there are various values that even now, are present in today’s society. Suffering is an everyday occurrence, either on a great or minor scale, yet suffering is all around us and because of this, society has developed the skill of ignoring it. Even though created in distant time periods, Ovid’s ‘Icarus’, Breughel’s ‘Fall Of Icarus’ and Auden’s ‘Musee des Beaux Arts’, all present their societies principle of human indifference towards suffering and the continuance of the human life, as suffering occurs.

The following photograph title Dessau, Germany 1945, shows a woman laying in pain and sadness in what seems the remaining of her house after a bombing attack in the outbreak of World War II. Once again, a harsh black and white image of a candid moment of pain. Unfortunately, something she worked so hard for, her sacred place, her home all gone in the blink of an eye, everything she ever knew now all rubbles, it must be awful to leave your house for a few hours and come back to chaos. Not only the pain of seen her house destroyed, but also the loss of love ones in a war she is not participating. Her facial expression of unbearable pain says it all, her posture as she lays in the rubbles, it seems like her soul just left her body, such an

In Angie Lovelace’s (2010) article on Vietnam War era photography, she researches the meanings, messages, and context of some of the more recognised photographs during the midst of the war. Her paper describes the use of symbolism, the emotional setting of the subjects involved, the political meaning of the images and how the messages derived from these combine to present the viewer with a very specific and moulded view of the events being portrayed. Through her semiotic review of these images, she shows the viewer how “historical conditions are also important to the understanding of a photograph.” (Lovelace, 2010, p. 105). Lovelace explores others’ positions on the emotional connections and personal interpretations that are perceived through

This braking of the otherwise ambling tempo shows the relationship being strained, for the readers “do not care”. Thus the photographer withdraws again into himself after realising the limited impact his work has, and “impassively” returns to the war zone “to do what someone must”.

As previously stated, this photograph does more than just capture a surface level portrait of a twelve-year-old Afghan refugee. It provides crucial insight into the substandard conditions these people endure. Roland Barthes views images in this way by analyzing beyond surface observations, and seeing the message beneath the picture, or in this case, the girl’s facial expression. “Camera Lucida” is about examining photographs as an expression of something beyond the image that describes an event or happening, viewing the story within. A great photograph recreates a moment that can never appear exactly the same again, evoking adventure and question as to what has happened (Barthes, 19). If the image can tell its own story through the depictions present in the image without any words, then it is one worth remembering. The Afghan Girl tells its own story, a story of hardship and pain. The viewer of the image initially sees a Muslim girl with incredibly beautiful eyes, but upon further inspection the image begins to