Comments on: The Image World – Susan Sontag (1977)

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 02 May 2011 04:33:31 +0000

Also, can’t it be said that the deadening of reality (as described by Sontag) will occur less readily if images are displayed in the Chinese approach? I recently viewed S-21 (a film by Rithy Panh about the Khmer Rouge) and I feel that the film tries hard not to be artistic. The director doesn’t want the audience to enjoy the images, but only learn from them. I’m not sure it’s the best tactic, as many people complain that the documentary is unwatchable. But, it does make it so that the viewer experiences a reality without that reality being “deadened.”

By: James May

James May — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:59:00 +0000

Belaboring the obvious hidden behind a scrum of semantics seems to be a trait you have picked up from Miss Sontag. Congratulations.

By: Lars

Lars — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:09:21 +0000

Thanks a bunch. You helped me with my essay. You have no idea how much this helped. Great article.

By: ;D

;D — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 03:58:00 +0000

Her point about China is not an insult to the Chinese but a comparison employed to illustrate that (despite the photograph having an intrinsic realism due to its mode of production) our definition of ‘the realistic’ (often articulated as ‘authenticity’) and our appreciation of images on that basis is culturally specific. In the West, she claims, the manner in which we value photography is rooted in capitalism, which privileges innovation and individualism (as well as a related consumerist ethic); in China, on the other hand, a dichotomous moral framework is (or was) socially dominant, with the result that ‘realistic’ images are those that depict the right subjects in the right way – and not in an ‘interesting’ fashion, as in the decadent West! How ‘interesting’ that we now have a category termed ‘interestingness’, the ultimate accolade for a Flickr photo!

(Great site by the way!)

By: Robert

Robert — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:35:22 +0000

Thanks for this – helped in my comprehension of her writing and in the finishing of an essay.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:40:57 +0000

Thanks for the comment Russell (my first one!). Berger’s book is also sitting on my self waiting to be read – will get around to it soon enough.

By: Russell

Russell — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:08:46 +0000

I recently replaced my long-lost copies of this and John Berger’s “Way of Seeing” (much more accessible!). Sontag looks cool on my shelf (lol) whilst Berger reminds me about some truths all to easily forgotten these days.

Thanks for the post!