Objectifying Expression
It is a nostalgic time right now, and photographs actively promote nostalgia. Photography is an elegiac art, a twilight art. Most subjects photographed are, just by virtue of being photographed, touched with pathos. An ugly or grotesque subject may be moving because it has been dignified by the attention of the photographer. A beautiful subject can
... See moreSusan Sontag • On Photography
The Fear of Being Seen / Creation & Sharing
youtu.beThere are certain aboriginal tribes who get disturbed if you take a photograph of them. They’d say something like, “don’t do that, our souls are trapped in there.” The fear is that the picture imprisons the essence of the subject. Once you look at a picture of yourself, you might slip into “looking at being,” instead of “living through
... See moreAn artist will have typically spent many months, years of their life witnessing life in the real world. Seeing not content but subjects, form, matter, situations, moments, movement. And in an effort to capture that, to bring that to life, to share that they will paint, they will create.
But what is the equivalent for someone who has been raised not
... See moreLetter 14: Susan Sontag on the Unbearability of Not Taking Photos (And Not Sharing Them)
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