Sontag Summary

In her essay, Susan Sontag On Photography, Ms. Sontag states that photographs are evidence that a thing did happen – something we hear about, but doubt.  She also believes that photographs are interpretive because of the photographers decision of how the picture should look and which image to share with the world.  According to the author, photographs have leveled the meaning of all events.  She uses the examples of Prague, Woodstock, Vietnam, Sapporo, Londonderry which are occurrences that are equalized by the camera that levels the meanings of all events.  Ms. Sontag opines that one photo has more impact than moving images because it is a precise segment of time, not a flood.  For this she gives the example of the 1972 picture of “a naked South Vietnam child just sprayed by American napalm, running down a highway toward the camera, her arms open, screaming in pain.” She says this photo probably did more to increase the public revulsion against the war than a hundred hours of televised barbarity.  The writer also says that the shock of photographed atrocities wears off with repeated viewings, just as the surprise and bemusement felt during the first time one sees a pornographic movie and wears off after one sees it a few more times.  Finally, Ms. Sontag position is that industrial societies turn their citizens into image-junkies.  We do not want to probe beneath the surface.  She concludes that “Today, everything exists to end in a photograph.”