On Photography

Sontag's essays are complex and thought provoking, eliciting a flow of ideas that one needs to think about deeply: what is a photograph and how does it convey its message? How much truth does a photograph contain, if any? The answer to that last question is much more difficult with the advent of digital photography and the wonderous (or evil, depending on your viewpoint) manipulations that can be done in the digital darkroom.

An issue that isn't discussed in great depth is the relationship between candid snapshots on one end of the spectrum, and fine art photography on the other; Photography as a medium for artistic expression vs. a medium for recording reality (or unreality or surreality).

The book is not trivially understood: references to philosophy and art history abound, and a dictionary of philosophy and art is almost a requisite. You should also expect to read this a couple of times to get the full impact: do not make your judgement based on a first reading.


Tedious   April 27, 2003
 12 out of 69 found this review helpful

As a high school student in an AP English class I was assigned to read a critics book. I happened to pick this book off of the list. As I began reading it, it did not interest me at all. I found the book incredibly redundant and pointless. She also constantly used huge words, which made it even harder to read. I thought the book could have been ten pages long and covered everything.


What more can be said?   July 1, 2002
 5 out of 15 found this review helpful

Sontag is amazing. She knows what she wants to say and develops her ideas so well. Refreshing to read an intelligent person who knows how to write too.

If you are at all interested in photography, art, modern culture, globalism, feminism, on and on, you should read this book. But be warned, it will change the way you look at and take pictures forever.


good, thought provoking, but ...   December 9, 2001
 16 out of 27 found this review helpful

Imagine, a book "on photography" without even a single photograph! Well written, thought provoking, but a too little rambling for my taste. The structure of some of these loosely organized essays just eluded me. Where is she going? When did she get there, if she did indeed get there?
Also, the author assumes that the reader can instantly recall all the photographs she mentions. If some of the more important ones (by this I mean the ones she refers to most often) had been reprinted in the book, it would have made following her arguments much easier. But then, there is a certain type of intellectually-minded author who doesn't really want the reader to understand his/her book ...