Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Regarding the Pain of Others- chapter 5&6

" Photographs tend to transform, whatever their subject; and as an image something may be beautiful- or terrifying, or unbearable, or quite bearable- as it is not in real life" (page 76)

        Sontag is trying to say that even a gruesome war photograph can be beautiful in its own way. She says, "There is beauty in ruins".  She mentions it is probably very hard for people to acknowledge the beauty in images of war. But sometimes you have to look past the devastating part and look through the image.
    Then she goes on to talk about how photographs objectify. She mentions that people or objects tend to look or feel "better" in a photograph. She says one of photography's function is to improve the normal appearance of things.


       Chapter six explains how everyone has an inner torment. For example, when people drive past a bad accident, every car all a sudden slows down, not because  they have to but they are interested in the pain of others. No matter how much people say they don;t want to see that kind of stuff, we do. We are naturally interested in the pain of others.


Goya- The Disasters of War
Goya- The disasters of War

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