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| Sadness |
Susan Sontag excerpt
from On Photography
Selected Quotes
"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."
"In the real world, something is happening, and no one
knows what is going to happen. In the image-world, it has happened, and it will
forever happen in that way."
Response
It could be seen from the book of Susan Sontag's excerpt
from On Photography that the idea of photography can be linked or compared to
Plato's cave, but with few differences. According to Plato, the word 'cave'
implies or symbolizes that human beings live in two worlds. Living inside the
world means human lives inside the cave, while living outside the world means
vice versa. This is similar to photography as it could be used to represent
another separate world but in a visual code. Although, the author believes
photography is not the same as Plato's representation of a cave because,
according to Susan, Photographs are experience captured. The use of the photograph
to represent another world is cheap to produce and easy to store, accumulate,
and carry about. This object (photograph) may be made immortal depending on how
it is handled because they are fragile objects and can be torn easily.
The
author also believes that Photographs can be used to furnish evidence. For
instance, in a situation where we doubt something that we were told, a
photograph can serve as evidence. It has become a useful tool in surveillance. Although
the author believes that taking people's pictures without their consent violates
because you see and have knowledge they never have.
Revisiting Carrie Mae Weems's Landmark "Kitchen
Table Series"
Selected Quotes
"This woman can stand in for me and for you; she can
stand in for the audience, she leads you into history. She's a witness and a
guide,"
"I can't tell you how many people I've met in the art
world—artists, curators, dealers—that point to 'The Kitchen Table Series' as
the one piece that made them know they wanted to be…in the arts,"
Response
The author extensively reflects on the activities and power
of women to turn the Kitchen table from mere cooking functions to a wide range
of roles. All these activities are done in front of the camera, where the
author plays a woman aware of the viewer. However,
the author explained that her motive or reason for using photograph was to
create her own voice. It explore or represent a succession of staged scene from
female experiences.
The author's second quote reflects the audience's
acceptance of the idea behind photography.
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