Susan Sontag ~ Charise J

 

Susan Sontag

• " Beautifying is one classic operation of the camera, and it tends to bleach out a moral response to what is shown. " (64)
• " It is a view of suffering, of the pain of others, that is rooted in religious thinking, which links pain to sacrifice, sacrifice to exaltation— a view that could not be more alien to a modern sensibility, which regards suffering as something that is a mistake or an accident or a crime. " (77-78)
• "  Such images cannot be more than an invitation to pay attention, to reflect, to learn, to examine the rationalizations for mass suffering offered by established powers. " (91)

She wanted to express her point on how you can catch a true moment with a camera instead of finding something that was staged. The photos are either banned, restricted, or censored by the government because they don't want people to have a say on the photos that isn't staged. When war photos that isn't staged comes out, there are people who can feel attached, detached, or immune to the photos. 

People post cruel things online and think that they could get away from because they think that once you post without a name or address to it, you won't be known. But the little details in the photos can tell that you are the culprit or the hackers that work for the government can find out where it came from with having to search for the media of where it came from because everything always seems to have an IP address to it. In the 2013 case in Ohio about two star football players raping a girl came out, they should just go to girl because the girl did not give her consent on whether they could touch her like that because she was drugged up. It looked like they weren't and decided to take advantage of the girl. When the video of the guy admitting to what had happened because he was kind of drunk with his friends, that gave the court more evidence on to why they should be put in jail. Just because two of the football team star players did that doesn't mean they shouldn't go to jail. That is like saying allow the murder of someone child keep murdering people eve though they have been caught. 

The soldiers that took them photos of the Iraqi prisoners to have fun, just didn't seem like the right thing to do. Especially when the soldiers are being tortured. Those photos are more humanity and power because even if them people didn't do wrong or not, they shouldn't be treated like that. They should be in prison like how American prisons be since it is held by Americans in control. They are already living a rough life since they are in prison, why make it worse? 

Taking photos of war and cruelty should be taken to show people because everyone would have an opinion. Taking them types of photos help people understand the meaning of what is going on at that moment. I don't think that anybody, along with Sebastiao Salgado, doesn't need to forgo their style like this because it helps people understand that in that section of the world there are people struggling and there are things that are happening in that area that the world needs to help out with even if they help out with other things like this.  

~Charise Johnson