Photography captures and preserves the significant and insignificant moments in life enabling mankind to broaden its understanding in a world where man regularly interacts with one another thousands of miles across an ocean. Nothing, however, can replicate the unfiltered, first-hand experience one undergoes, yet many forms of art, including photography, are conduits through which man may attempt to share such an experience. Each medium of art, consequently, is subject to the natural biases with which its creator endows, and though photography minimizes such biases through its rather objective capture, the photographer ultimately selects which experiences are significant and how to illustrate that in a photograph. A picture is, indeed, worth
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Yet such a fear envelops Sontag’s close-minded understanding of photography leading her to make gross generalizations that “one never understands anything from a photograph.” Yet can one not understand immediately the consequences of the Boston Marathon Bombings when seeing the photo of a 73 year old runner collapsed on the ground and police rushing at him? Sontag also claims that “only that which narrates can make us understand.” Such a one-sided claim clearly demonstrates the author’s bias against photographs, and perhaps explains why many photos do not speak to her. For like any medium or art, one must first learn to read the masterpiece in order to interpret it. In literature, for instance, if one doesn’t understand how to read, how can the narration make us understand? Likewise, when interpreting photographs, one should not dismiss photography as an invalid art form, rather, one should learn how to interpret photographs before making such gross generalizations about the artform as a whole. Furthermore, like with all art forms, photography serves as a means by which the photographer can express his point of view. While some photos may be edited or omit ‘important’ parts of a photograph, photographs convey the photographer's point of view in the same manner in …show more content…
Perhaps it is because the Tank Man, bravely standing in front of the Chinese government’s tanks, halting their advance, shifting to consistently block the tanks might have invoked rebellious feelings in a manner through which the written word could not
Yet such a fear envelops Sontag’s close-minded understanding of photography leading her to make gross generalizations that “one never understands anything from a photograph.” Yet can one not understand immediately the consequences of the Boston Marathon Bombings when seeing the photo of a 73 year old runner collapsed on the ground and police rushing at him? Sontag also claims that “only that which narrates can make us understand.” Such a one-sided claim clearly demonstrates the author’s bias against photographs, and perhaps explains why many photos do not speak to her. For like any medium or art, one must first learn to read the masterpiece in order to interpret it. In literature, for instance, if one doesn’t understand how to read, how can the narration make us understand? Likewise, when interpreting photographs, one should not dismiss photography as an invalid art form, rather, one should learn how to interpret photographs before making such gross generalizations about the artform as a whole. Furthermore, like with all art forms, photography serves as a means by which the photographer can express his point of view. While some photos may be edited or omit ‘important’ parts of a photograph, photographs convey the photographer's point of view in the same manner in …show more content…
Perhaps it is because the Tank Man, bravely standing in front of the Chinese government’s tanks, halting their advance, shifting to consistently block the tanks might have invoked rebellious feelings in a manner through which the written word could not