On Photography (77 Edition)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

About the Author

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!

Average customer rating based on 1 comment:

Lindsay Waite, August 22, 2012 (view all comments by Lindsay Waite)
Many of us take a countless number of photos, and with Facebook and other websites, we also now view many more photos than in the past. Susan Sontag thoughtfully explores the meaning of photos and photography in a series of essays published over years in "The New York Review of Books" in the 1970s. The book opens with "Plato's Cave," one of my favorite topics and certainly relevant to photography. She posits: "Humankind lingers unregenerately in Plato's cave, still reveling, its age-old habit, in mere images of the truth." (p.3) Interesting, as she writes in these early years about the growing popularity of photography, she anticipates an "image-choked world." (p.15) This series of essays explores the value of photos in showing us places we will never see in person (creating a "substitute world" -p.162), its role in desensitizing viewers to horrors, and its essence of being an image of reality - not reality (Plato's cave). Sontag analyzes cultural and historical views of the nature of photography, and explores how certain filmmakers captured the art of image-making. This is a fascinating collection. Her thoughts resonate even more loudly today.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

Product Details

ISBN:

9780312420093

Author:

Sontag, Susan

Publisher:

Picador USA

Location:

New York

Subject:

Criticism

Subject:

Photography, Artistic

Subject:

General Photography

Subject:

Theory

Subject:

Photography-Theory and Criticism

Subject:

Criticism -- Theory.

Edition Description:

Trade Paper

Series Volume:

632

Publication Date:

20010831

Binding:

TRADE PAPER

Grade Level:

General/trade

Language:

English

Pages:

224

Dimensions:

8.27 x 5.67 x 0.65 in