Response to Susan Sontag's photography essay

In her essay on photography Susan Sontag seems to contradict herself, or at the very least provide multiple sides of an argument with the tone that each is her personal belief. I had begun to jot down responses to individual points before I had read the whole essay, and ended up finding my own arguments later in her text. Whether this is purposeful or not, Sontag illustrates multiple conceptions of photography, it’s purpose, it’s abilities, and the connotation surrounding it in a short essay. The most important of these, to me at least, were two of the largest conceptions surrounding photography. It is used as evidence, as documentation, an appropriated piece of the world or a time as a (mostly) objective image, but is also always subject to the photographers intent, their own understanding, composition and crop. These contrasting ideas conflict even more today, in a technically advanced society, as photos can be easily taken by anyone, but also reproduced, edited, and pushed further out of context by the same people. Photographs are seen as indisputable evidence, but also tabloidial falsehoods that are as far removed from their true context as any colorfully dictated rumor.

Aside from their inherent validity or congruence to some absolute truth, photographs are probably more important as cultural artifacts that preserve a feeling of a time. Whether any individual photo strives to be as true to a moments reality is moot, as the collective photos from a time period   (obviously after the invention of photographer) give us a view into the subject matter and individuals of a time, as well as the periods photographic styles and trends. This window into time will only become clearer as children grow up as both the subject and users of social media. We have taken to documenting absolutely every aspect of our lives. Photography, whether objective or opinionated is the greatest tool of documentation we have ever created, and we have only just begun to see its effects on social interaction, privacy, and culture as a whole.