On Photography Susan Sontag Summary

Consequences of Photography with the Rise of Camera Phones

Susan Sontag argues in her piece On Photography written in 1977 that photography brought about a new era of mentality that “looks at the world as a set of potential photographs” (7). The advances in technology like the camera-phone, that made cameras both easily portable and easily affordable had unexpected consequences, and with even further technological developments such as camera phones, these consequences are heightened. Not only does the increase in camera accessibility cause an alienation or isolation from a photographer’s subjects, but this alienation is considerably more prevalent and damaging in situations like vacations where the photographer is supposed to be having fun.

Karl Marx describes alienation in his chapter “Estranged Labor” in The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 as a loss of self which was heightened with capitalism. In capitalism, people started getting paid for their time and stopped making complete products. Work is sectioned off; each person has a task to make a certain part of the product and rarely sees the product as a whole. People lost a perception of both the work

These subjects are often remarkable in their minds, something they deem worth the effort and time of a photograph. A camera makes what someone experiences real, tangible, and permanent. While the outcome is simple – permanent proof of a moment – the “stop, take a photograph, and move on” process may be a handicap (10). Sontag believes putting a physical barrier between a subject and a person causes a mental and emotional barrier between that person and the subject as well. The Grand Canyon, for example, is a landmark said to have changed lives with its beauty and immensity. With that kind of emotion power over a person, it makes sense that some might use photography as a way of