From the perspective of someone who is an enthusiastic photographer, this book helped me to work through why I like to take pictures. Sontag discusses many of the purposes that photography has been identified with and used for, as a replacement for painting, for cataloguing the world around us, for attempting to replicate or copy the thing photographed.
She died before the real digital age of photography so many of her thoughts are only hints at the slightly strange reality that has unfolded, where billions of people now have an excellent camera in their pockets and can share their experiences and pictures instantly with each other. What would she have made of this I wonder? Photography is no longer attempting at being art for most people, it is simply
Sharing their lives with each other, frankly and unashamedly, even when often the things that are shared are not really worthy of attention.
Narcissism appears to be rife among younger people who pose and share images to each other and to the world as though to suggest that their value is related to their looks and not to their ideas. Sontag would have had a field day with Instagram, it’s a pity she isn’t here to see it. ( )

Duboka studija o fotografiji i uticaju fotografije. Na trenutke pomalo depresivna i pristrasna, ali postavlja prava pitanja, obrađuje prave teme. Svaka rečenica je vatrena misao, toliko dobro skrojena da prosto nisam u stanju da izdvojim neki odgovarajući citat. Moraću negde da kupim ovu knjigu, pošto već planiram ponovno pažljivo čitanje i analizu.


Izdanje koje sam čitao je neko prastaro iz Univerzitetske biblioteke, koje ne sadrži čak ni ISBN(⁉). Međutim, bilo je jako zanimljivo gledati šta su drugi čitaoci podvlačili i izdvajali (npr. potreba da se „prošli vek“ eksplicitno obeleži kao XIX… postajem mator…). ( )

The limit of photographic knowledge of the world is that, while it can goad conscience, it can, finally, never be ethical or political knowledge. The knowledge gained through still photographs will always be some kind of sentimentalism, whether cynical or humanist. It will be a knowledge at bargain prices—a semblance of knowledge, a semblance of wisdom; as the act of taking pictures is a semblance of appropriation, a semblance of rape. The very muteness of what is, hypothetically, comprehensible in photographs is what constitutes their attraction and provocativeness.

Just as the camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a sublimated murder—a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time.

¿Hasta qué punto puede mentir una cámara? «Aprendemos a vernos fotográficamente», nos dice Susan Sontag en la obra que le dio fama mundial. La cámara ha tenido una importancia trascendental en la relación del hombre contemporáneo con la realidad y consigo mismo. El vivaz acercamiento de la autora a este apasionante tema incluye perspectivas que nos llevan de Platón a Melville, de la historia de la pintura a la del cine, pasando por la literatura, la publicidad o la sociología. Sobre la fotografía es el libro más emblemático de una escritora que se ha caracterizado siempre por el compromiso con lo más candente de su tiempo. La prosa magnética, la riqueza de puntos de vista, y una inteligencia que brilla en cada párrafo y despierta interesantes preguntas, son sólo algunos de los alicientes que encontrará el lector de este libro.

quite dated in parts, esp. her writing on china, but otherwise strikingly relevant. certainly got me to think about how i look at & take photography. ( )