I have always wondered whether Sontag would have written On Photography the same way after 1988 when she met Annie Leibovitz, and they began a fifteen-year relationship that only ended with Sontag's death.
Reading On Photography, as a photographer I guess I should refer to myself as "photo-worker" as in sex-worker. SO much shame. I think that photography was her chosen lightning rod for what was wrong with emerging modern culture. Nevertheless, 13 years after her passing Canon shipped it's 150 millionth lens. https://www.usa.canon.com/newsroom/2021/20210203-lens
Did I not read recently that if Susan Sontag had known more about photography when she wrote the book, she would have written it differently? I can't remember who told me this....
Hello! How ironic that you posted this. Just yesterday I was thinking a lot about that book and my reaction to it. You captured the essence of why it moved me and rubbed me the wrong way at the same time. I felt her essays treated the subject with a mild bit of disdain toward it and in some ways, toward society. Yet, I couldn't put down the book! She's a great example of how you can utterly respect someone even though you don't agree with all they have to say. It's a piece of art, that book. Thank you for sharing!
Yes! It is mentally stimulating when somebody expresses a well-researched and fleshed-out opinion, as Sontag did in her essays. Like you, I disagreed with her on many of her points, but she earned my respect for how she thoughtfully expressed them.
I bought that book, but as a non-native English speaker, I find it very difficult to read, so I gave up. I often wonder why photographers feel the need to use such highbrow language—is that the only way art can be adequately described, or does it have something to do with their vanity?
I agree that the highbrow language was detrimental. Susan Sontag wasn't a photographer. She was an "Intellectual Essayist." She wrote about things in a scholarly way.
Thanks Anthony. I've taken "On Photography" down from the shelf and will read it again. I'm sure it will have a different impact than it did on me many years ago.
I have always wondered whether Sontag would have written On Photography the same way after 1988 when she met Annie Leibovitz, and they began a fifteen-year relationship that only ended with Sontag's death.
Reading On Photography, as a photographer I guess I should refer to myself as "photo-worker" as in sex-worker. SO much shame. I think that photography was her chosen lightning rod for what was wrong with emerging modern culture. Nevertheless, 13 years after her passing Canon shipped it's 150 millionth lens. https://www.usa.canon.com/newsroom/2021/20210203-lens
~TEU
Did I not read recently that if Susan Sontag had known more about photography when she wrote the book, she would have written it differently? I can't remember who told me this....
Hello! How ironic that you posted this. Just yesterday I was thinking a lot about that book and my reaction to it. You captured the essence of why it moved me and rubbed me the wrong way at the same time. I felt her essays treated the subject with a mild bit of disdain toward it and in some ways, toward society. Yet, I couldn't put down the book! She's a great example of how you can utterly respect someone even though you don't agree with all they have to say. It's a piece of art, that book. Thank you for sharing!
Yes! It is mentally stimulating when somebody expresses a well-researched and fleshed-out opinion, as Sontag did in her essays. Like you, I disagreed with her on many of her points, but she earned my respect for how she thoughtfully expressed them.
I would love to hear Annie Leibovitz’s take on this book. I read it and found it so dismissive.
I bought that book, but as a non-native English speaker, I find it very difficult to read, so I gave up. I often wonder why photographers feel the need to use such highbrow language—is that the only way art can be adequately described, or does it have something to do with their vanity?
I agree that the highbrow language was detrimental. Susan Sontag wasn't a photographer. She was an "Intellectual Essayist." She wrote about things in a scholarly way.
Thanks Anthony. I've taken "On Photography" down from the shelf and will read it again. I'm sure it will have a different impact than it did on me many years ago.