Black Paper: Writing in a Dark Time (Berlin Family Lectures)

the essence of a photograph is death. Because a photograph does not change whether its subject is living or dead, it is in a way an inherently posthumous

Things that would not have merited a second glance are now unquestioningly, almost automatically, recorded. The doors of our fridges, glimpses of cleavage, images of our birthday cakes, the setting sun: cheap photography makes visible the ways in which we are similar, and have for a long time been similar. Now we have proof, again, and again, and a

“To suffer is one thing; another thing is living with the photographed images of suffering, which does not necessarily strengthen conscience and the ability to be compassionate. It can also corrupt them. Once one has seen such images, one has started down the road of seeing more — and more. Images transfix. Images anesthetize.”

Susan Sontag - On Pho

deeply humanistic way of knowing, one that assigns value to time, history, and social or material circumstance-even trauma and wear-as part of our thinking about new media.