Susan Sontag On Photography

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Susan Sontag On Photography

• Chad Smith
• Hum 4
• 11-30-06

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On Photography

• A way of certifying experience, taking
  photographs is also a way of refusing itby
  limiting experience to a search for the
  photogenic, by converting experience into an
  image, a souvenir. (p. 9)

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Untitled by Chad Smith

• Untitled by Chad Smith was taken on March 18,
  2006 during a St. Patricks Day Celebration in San
  Francisco, CA. This picture was found on
  thefacebook.com.
• Sontag proposes that photographs are souvenirs of
  experiences, this photo illustrates this point by
  capturing the essence of the evening, a crowded
  mass of energy and people.

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Untitled by Lindsay Bro

• Untitled by Lindsay Bro was taken on July 27,
  2006 outside of Vancouver, British Columbia and
  was found on thefacebook.com.
• This photograph conveys Sontags idea of limiting
  experience by searching for the photogenic. This
  is a beautiful photograph, that makes a trip the
  two girls pictured were on seem very peaceful and
  tranquil, when in actuality it was rather chaotic
  and adventurous.

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Untitled by Helen Silver

• Untitled by Helen Silver was taken on 10-31-06
  in a BART Station in Berkeley, CA. It was found
  on thefacebook.com.
• This image serves a souveneir of Halloween
  evening in 2006 and of the Bay Area by capturing
  a little boy in a Bart Station. He made that
  Halloween memorable with his incredible
  personality and is a souvenir of the Bay Area
  because of his gold grill, a Bay Area trademark.

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Untitled by Jessica Cotton

• Untitled by Jessica Cotton was taken on
  November 8, 2006 in Berkeley, CA. It features
  All-American swimmer Emily Silver as she prepares
  for a race. This picture was found on
  thefacebook.com
• This photograph illustrates the idea of
  photography as a predatory act and allows people
  to see themselves as they never have before. This
  picture was taken by Cotton, with Silvers own
  camera, the intensity the Silver displays prior
  to her race would be unbeknownst to herself had
  this picture not been taken.

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Untitled by Helen Silver

• Untitled by Helen Silver was taken on November
  25, 2006 on a plane flight from Seattle,
  Washington to Oakland, California. This
  photograph was found on thefacebook.com
• Untitled both defies and upholds Sontags idea
  of photographs at photogenic souvenirs. The
  picture out of the planes window is a beautiful
  photogenic souvenir of Silvers plane flight but
  is also ugly and imperfect in a way because it is
  taken as a negative.

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Untitled by Paul Teinert

• Untitled by Paul Teinert was taken on March 18,
  2006 in San Francisco, CA. This picture was found
  on thefacebook.com
• This photograph serves as a souvenir of the
  evening by capturing an excellent band that
  played that evening. The fact the picture is
  blurry makes it an even more appropriate memory
  of the evening.

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Untitled by Kinzie Kramer

• Untitled by Kinzie Kramer was taken on July 26,
  2006 in Seattle, WA. This photograph was found on
  thefacebook.com.
• This photo captures an experience through the
  irreverence of the statue that is pictured and
  the pose by the subject.

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Untitled by Jessica Hardy

• Untitled by Jessica Hardy was taken on November
  15, 2006 in Beijing, China. This photograph was
  found on thefacebook.com.
• Hardys photograph captures an experience of
  training at the PacPac Training camp in Beijing
  China. It captures the duality of this
  experience, by showing the work of the stroke and
  the fun in the colors of the sun and flags.

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Untitled by Emily Silver

• Untitled by Emily Silver was taken on November
  19, 2006 in Berkeley, CA. It was found on
  thefacebook.com.
• This photograph defies Sontags idea of the
  photogenic capturing and experience. While this
  is an aesthetically pleasing picture, it is of a
  fish who has just died.

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Untitled by Chad Smith

• Untitled was taken by Chad Smith on October 31,
  2006 in Newport Beach, CA. It was found on
  thefacebook.com.
• This photo illustrates Sontags point of the
  capturing of an experience by encapsulating the
  fun of a Halloween evening experience.