Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a sense of the past.
Susan SontagRead
In contrast to the written account-which, depending on its complexity of thought, reference, and vocabulary, is pitched at a larger or smaller readership-a photograph has only one language and is destined potentially for all.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A photograph communicates universally, unlike written text that can vary in complexity and audience.
Susan Sontag emphasizes the universal nature of photography as a form of communication. Unlike written texts, which can be complex and tailored to specific audiences, photographs transcend language barriers and cultural differences, enabling a broader reach and understanding. This highlights the power of visual art to connect individuals across diverse backgrounds through a shared visual language.
Themes
PhotographyCommunicationArtUniversalLanguage
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation about the impact of photography in social movements.
More from Susan Sontag
All quotes →Science fiction films are not about science. They are about disaster, which is one of the oldest subjects of art.
Susan SontagRead
Gide and I have attained such perfect intellectual communion that I experience the appropriate labor pains for every thought he gives birth to!
Susan SontagRead
Volume depends precisely on the writer's having been able to sit in a room every day, year after year, alone.
Susan SontagRead
In NY sensuality completely turns into sexuality - no objects for the senses to respond to, no beautiful river, houses, people. Awful smells of the street, and dirt... Nothing except eating, if that, and the frenzy of the bed.
Susan SontagRead
It hurts to love. It's like giving yourself to be flayed and knowing that at any moment the other person may just walk off with your skin.
Susan SontagRead
Similar quotes
And so when studying faces, we do indeed measure them, but as painters, not as surveyors.
Marcel ProustRead
Writers are in control of editing processes - making a sentence better, cutting out a paragraph. But the initial outpouring has very little to do with conscious control or manipulation.
Siri HustvedtRead
Movies become living organisms that graduate from a filmmaker's sphere of influence and pretty much look back and tell you how they need to be said goodbye to. A movie often turns around and looks at you and says, "Here is who I am, and that's maybe now how you see me, but that's who I've become." And you've got to be open enough to go with that.
Steven SpielbergRead
We all know that a good person can be a bad artist.But no one will ever be a genuine artist unless he is a great human being and thus also a good one.
Marc ChagallRead
Watch out for music. It should come with a health warning. It can be dangerous. It can make you feel so alive, so connected to the people around you, and connected to what you really are inside. And it can make you think that the world should, and could, be a much better place. And just occasionally, it can make you very, very happy.
Peter GabrielRead
Music is an intrinsic part of life; therefore, it is important to transport different forms of artistic expression, science, and mathematics into compositions.
Ludovico EinaudiRead