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
To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as a camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a subliminal murder - a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote discusses the ethical implications of photography, suggesting it objectifies subjects and deprives them of their own perception.
Susan Sontag's quote reflects on the complex relationship between photography and the subjects it captures. By claiming that to photograph people is to essentially violate their privacy, Sontag highlights how photographs can immortalize a moment while simultaneously stripping individuals of their own self-perception and agency. She emphasizes a darker analogy by comparing photography to a violent act, warning of the potential consequences of seeing and depicting others in ways that reduce their humanity to mere objects of art.
Themes
PhotographyObjectificationArtPerceptionEthics
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on the ethics of journalism, one might say, 'As Sontag noted, to photograph people is to violate them, underscoring the responsibility we have as storytellers.'
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.
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Gide and I have attained such perfect intellectual communion that I experience the appropriate labor pains for every thought he gives birth to!
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Volume depends precisely on the writer's having been able to sit in a room every day, year after year, alone.
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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.
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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
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