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Loading... On Photography (original 1977; edition 2001)by Susan Sontag
Work InformationOn Photography by Susan Sontag (Author) (1977)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. 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. This is the worst book I've read about photography. It isn't even about photography, it is about Susan Sontag consistently misunderstanding photographs. It isn't intellectual, either. It is her emotional responses to the shallowest possible reading of photographs. The defining moment is in the appendix of quotations, the only good part of the book. The first quote is from the notebooks of William Henry Fox Talbot, one of the earliest photographers. He wrote, "Make picture of kaleidoscope." This idea of photography as painting with light is utterly outside the simplistic readings of photography in Sontag's book. Don't waste your time. Instead, find a copy of [b:READING PHOTOGRAPHS|8248602|READING PHOTOGRAPHS|Jonathan Bayer|/assets/nocover/60x80.png|13096229] or [b:Diana & Nikon: Essays on Photography|63136|Diana & Nikon Essays on Photography|Janet Malcolm|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312053000s/63136.jpg|2903402] or read the essays on photographers in Janet Malcom's latest, [b:Forty-one False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers|16059462|Forty-one False Starts Essays on Artists and Writers|Janet Malcolm|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1352781376s/16059462.jpg|21858277]. no reviews | add a review
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Winner of the National Book Critics' Circle Award for Criticism. One of the most highly regarded books of its kind, "On Photography" first appeared in 1977 and is described by its author as " a progress of essays about the meaning and career of photographs." It begins with the famous " In Plato' s Cave" essay, then offers five other prose meditations on this topic, and concludes with a fascinating and far-reaching " Brief Anthology of Quotations." No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)770.1The arts Photography, computer art, cinematography, videography PhotographyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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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…). ( )