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Taylor Kirk

Dr. Schuetze-Coburn

AP English Language, Period 1

5 December 2017

Sontag Prompt (2001)

Everyone perceives and experiences moments differently. There are details in a

photograph that might be seen differently or not at all depending on the audience. Susan Sontag

claims that photography limits our understanding of the world which is a debatable topic. Not

everyone will truly be able to decipher the focus of the photographs because photographs were

not meant to educate people on the entire world and how it works. Sontag makes a strong and

adamant argument. However, blaming photography for the dull and cliché themes the average

person gets out of a photo is not very deserved.

Someone may not understand what an artist is trying to say through a photograph at the

moment. It does not mean that they never can understand, though. Sontag claims, “…one never

understands anything from a photograph” (line 6-7). Sontag uses the word “anything” but it is

quite incorrect. For example, there is a picture of the Holocaust at one of the camps where there

were many deceased bodies lying side by side. Maybe one will not understand the events

happening in a whole or in depth but they can understand, from the photograph, where the scene

is taking place, the time period, emotions that are being conveyed, and even the gist of what is

happening. Therefore, claiming that the audience cannot understand “anything” from a

photograph is inaccurate.

Connectedly, photography was never meant to teach an audience rocket science. Hence,

one cannot exactly point-the-finger at photography for limiting understanding of the world unless

that was the artist’s intention. Susan Sontag begins “Photography implies that we know about the
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world if we accept it as the camera records it” (line 1-2). Not all photography wants the audience

to understand the world but, instead, use it as a visual aid to help learn about the world. For

example in an environmental science book, there is a North American tropical dry forest shown

where land is filled with trees of all sorts of colors. Now, the readers of the textbook do not know

if that forest still looks like it did in the picture today or if there is a historical background in

which why the photo was taken but they do know that the textbook is here to help them learn.

The photos are there to give visual aid to those who might be visual learners or so that the reader

will not become uninterested. If photographers were responsible for educating an audience on

how the world works, then all kinds of artists would be accused of such ideas as well.

In agreement with Sontag, photographs are guilty of feeding sentiment, as she states in

lines 24-31. Except, according to Sontag, photographs “can never be ethical or political

knowledge” (line 23). Taking a look at a poster of child, the picture is of malnourished child as

the poster is asking for people to donate. Yes, it is a cliché people use to get others to donate to

an organization but does it not appeal to morals of a human being? Politically, what the

photograph is based on needs a leader to be an organization. Propaganda is used all throughout

the flyer along with political and ethical appeals. “Never” is a bit exaggerative in the way Sontag

uses it for photography in which, undoubtedly, can be ethical, political, or both. Maybe the

average audience might not get the depth of the photo. The photo might also be guilty of

sentiment but by focusing on the right aspects of the picture, it could be concluded that it is from

a political campaign and appealing to the ethics of society.

Together, photography is comparably difficult to grasp the understanding. With the lack

of understanding, the audience might resolve the meaning to something banal, superficial, or off

track from the artist’s intention. Perhaps, no one, besides the artist, will be able to understand and

develop a picture’s full thousand words. On the other hand, photography cannot limit
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understanding, only the others shallow view of it can.

Conclusively, photography cannot simply limit understanding of the world and there is

not a way for someone to not understand “anything” about a photograph. Pictures add sentiment

but not take away ethical and political views and ideas of the artist. It also only simplifies the

ideas for the average person to be able to comprehend and recognize. Photographs are to indulge

in reminisce and change the understanding of the world not limit it. Sl d f s k w jef s sd sfn skfj

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